By Teri Dreher, RN.
Whether your client is back in the office, still working from home or doing a little of both, if they employee people, they should care about their physical and mental health. Overwork impacts physical and mental health with stress and burnout. It does no favors, either financially or personally for either the client or the company.
These days, it’s a smart company that cares about its employees’ well-being. And what can you, as a CPA, do to help change things?
Let’s start with what constitutes a company’s health advocacy. There are five things to look for. Does your client’s company
- Provide practical and accessible programs?
- Have a health-conscious work environment?
- Integrate wellness into the company structure?
- Link wellness to existing support programs?
- Offer health screenings and education?
Not surprisingly, more than half of large employers offer such services to their employees, in addition to generous vacation policies and days off.
The human resources department is usually in charge of employee wellness. But HR people are not experienced in health, wellness or health care. And they are limited in what they can do without violating HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
When HR can be effective, say in offering support for smoking cessation or providing free flu shots, it is helping to create a culture of health and wellness. It’s also working to hold down insurance costs for the company, which affect the bottom line. The question is: Which is the priority?
There’s also the matter of trust. I don’t blame people who are reluctant to share health information with their employers.
One solution is for a company to contract with a health advocacy consultant, such as a private patient advocate. They don’t have to put someone on staff to help employees with their health concerns, and the employees get to deal with someone whose concern is their well-being, not the bottom line.
Because most patient advocates have a background in health care (most are registered nurses), they are knowledgeable about the health care system, resources and treatments. They can also bring employees’ concerns to HR and management while protecting employees’ identity. That goes a long way toward establishing trust.
A health advocate can help research an illness or condition; make the best use of insurance; and advise what questions to ask a doctor. Employees can confidentially discuss sensitive issues, whether it’s substance abuse or mental illness. If the source of stress is managing care for a loved one, the health advocate can help arrange for the help needed.
When a company spends money on a consultant, it’s paying for advice. The health advocate can make recommendations for creating a workplace that is mindful of employees’ health and wellness. They might, for example, recommend healthier choices in the vending machines and cafeterias.
Some recommendations cost nothing, such as encouraging outdoor walk-and-talk meetings to provide a bit of exercise or letting employees know it’s OK to disconnect from chat channels and email when they’re on their own time.
You probably can’t get a company to contract with a health advocacy consultant on their own (well, unless you own the company), but it’s worth making the suggestion to your clients via whatever channels you have available to you.
Meanwhile, if you supervise a team yourself, here are some things you can do with them and for them to promote health and wellness:
- Move. Stand and stretch at the desk. Take the stairs. Go for a walk.
- Make sure everyone is following safety protocols (shoes, eye protection, etc.).
- Have a healthy pot-luck lunch and swap recipes.
- Reward results, not effort.
- Recognize people who use their work time wisely and get assignments in on time.
- Let team members disconnect from email and chat when they’re not working.
- Encourage everyone to use their paid time off.
- Set aside 15 minutes in the afternoon, turn out the lights and relax or meditate.
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with performance and productivity if you put practices like these into action. And you might feel better yourself!
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Teri Dreher, RN, is a patient advocate in Chicago. Her company is NShore Patient Advocates, www.northshorern.com, and she would be happy to consult with your or your clients about instituting a wellness program for employees.
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