4 lessons from 20 years of health care consumerism
CDHPs control health care inflation with no deleterious effects on members health or financial position, maintains contributing editor Andrew Sykes.
By
Andrew Sykes
Andrew Sykes
Chairman
Design with health in mind
Contributing Editor Andrew Sykes outlines how office space is shrinking and what can be done to encourage healthier work spaces.
By
Andrew Sykes
Choose your friends, choose your health
Think about the simple act of driving to work in the morning. It involves perhaps 500 separate decisions, yet when we arrive we are hardly aware that we made a single one.
By
Andrew Sykes
Motivation counts for nothing if employees feel powerless
Almost all efforts to drive participation in wellness programs focus on motivation. Initiatives like inspiring messages, rewards and incentives, attempts to "make it fun," readiness-to-change surveys and activity tracking often try to address what common sense tells us is missing: People simply lack the motivation to change.
By
Andrew Sykes
5 cycles of behavior change and how they affect individuals’ health habits
We all say we want to live a healthy life. So why is it so hard to do what we say? It's the central question that every wellness program tries to address.
By
Andrew Sykes
With wellness, ignorance is bliss
Most wellness programs assume that the first step to changing habits is education. Whether in the form of a wellness website, nurse line, wellness fair, lunch and learn, newsletter or paycheck stuffer, the assumption is always the same: If people only knew what good health habits were and why they should practice them, they would surely make the right choices. If you, too, think that education is an effective behavior change tool, think again.
By
Andrew Sykes
If your incentive is broke, fix it
Forgetting the golden rule and rewarding wrong people are among the top four reasons Sykes lists for why employee wellness incentives fail.
By
Andrew Sykes
If your wellness strategy is a vehicle, pay close attention to the dashboard to assess key gauges on program outcomes
Over the last three months, I've questioned the validity of health risk assessments and the ability of biometric-screening data to powerfully track wellness program performance. This has prompted many readers to ask, "So what do you suggest instead?" If you think that tracking wellness program performance, return-on-investment and cause-and-effect is impossible, think again.
By
Andrew Sykes
The million-dollar question employers have to answer: How healthy are your employees, really?
Have you ever wondered, "Can we really measure the improvement in health that comes from wellness programs?" Most companies are using biometric screenings as their key tool for measuring health, on the assumption that it accurately measures the kind of health that matters most. Think again.
By
Andrew Sykes
When white lies become the new truth: How HRAs can be dangerous
Last month, I made the case that health risk assessments are a poor tool for measuring the health of a population or a single individual, and the data they produce are not necessary for the design of good wellness programs. ("No more master key: Health risk assessments unnecessary for wellness plan design," EBN March)
By
Andrew Sykes
No more master key: Health risk assessments unnecessary for wellness plan design
Health risk assessments are used by most wellness program providers and employers as the key to opening the door to employee health improvement.
By
Andrew Sykes