INTEGRATED | WELLNESS SOLUTIONS

FAQ

Do we need IWS if our employees are generally healthy?
Even healthy populations need to be marketed to continuously. Like everyone else nowadays, your employees are bombarded with “unhealthy” messages from food marketers, live in a sedentary friendly environment, and have peers who are typically unsupportive of making healthy changes, The good news is that it’s much easier to promote better health among a population of already-healthy workers than it is to promote better health among a population that is struggling to achieve even the most basic of healthy habits. Improving employee health, even in an existing healthy population, will lower employer costs and increase company efficiency.

Wouldn’t we be better off with a "one-stop-shop” offering a fitness center, smoking cessation, stress reduction and weight loss and health promotion?
There is a world of difference between, for example, managing a gym and a workplace health promotion program. In fact, the problem with a design that covers too many areas is that it misses the one spot where the most dramatic and sophisticated attention is required. The key to truly making a difference in employee health is not to rack up as many titles as you can in one program – it’s to understand and target different stages of employee readiness. A company that tries to build a fitness center, assess health risk, and create and implement a smoking cessation program is going to miss a key element of comprehensive and ecological change: a vast employee population will inevitably involve individual who are not ready to make change. This means that even if you give them gym memberships, risk assessments, and pamphlets about lung cancer, you will not see significant changes in the number of obese employees, heart attacks, or smokers. Most fitness centers are populated with people who are already healthy. How do you get a person who has never even considered increasing physical activity to walk into a fitness center?  That requires expertise in behavioral marketing and health promotion. Instead of targeting various areas of employee health, a program needs to focus on specific health aspects and then target a vast range of actual employees. That’s the way to save the most money.

We have something in place but haven't seen any "real" results—why is that?
This is a problem that plagues wellness initiatives – putting programs in place without a way to measure outcome.
At IWS, we are highly conscious of the necessity of gauging and monitoring outcomes. IWS programs are relentlessly result-oriented. Our philosophy is designed to increase compliance and cover issues that our competitors fail to address. IWS exit surveys have been incredibly positive – 90% of participants using our website reported positive changes in their eating habits and nearly 100% reported increased self-confidence in their ability to change their health status. Activity levels go up across the board and efforts to reduce high-calorie foods increase.

Experience shows that employers who use IWS programs start to see results almost immediately. Our programs are designed to encourage small, manageable changes that can be put into effect immediately. That means employees can start to implement changes – and see and feel the results – as soon as the program begins. It cements the amazing record of success IWS has had of maintaining user interest and user compliance. 

Why do we need IWS if our website includes health content?
Most companies have very low website usage when it comes to health information– regardless of how much good information they offer. Our information is based on studies and research and time-tested behavioral change models, but we have a very unique package that involves a special philosophy focused around fixing the problem of user compliance.

No matter how solid the product, it isn’t going to make a difference if it isn’t marketed correctly. That’s why the IWS campaigns are attractive and effective; they are designed to inundate people with information without making them feel overwhelmed. IWS offers a comprehensive suite of online tools with a engaging design and scientifically- based behavioral program. The print campaign, although designed for outcome, is also a marketing device to increase participant compliance to the online programs.  This campaign works in a way similar to that of any marketing campaign – by making the product (in this case, personal health) appear sexy and attractive. The objective is to create an environment where employees want to “buy” better health, rather than it being sold to them. IWS programs inspire a demand for the health – which is the only way to motivate people to reach long-term, life-long goals.

Wouldn't it make more sense to give away discounted gym memberships than to spend that money on a poster?
Probably not, because the problem isn’t just that people aren’t working out, eating healthy, quitting smoking or managing stress – it’s that they don’t want to do any of those things. People always find a reason not to do something they don’t really want to do. So you need a company that can do more than make health improvement programs affordable and available – you need someone who can make them attractive, appealing, and exciting. This is where IWS excels, and exceeds, expectations. We encourage employees to really want better health in the same way any company gets people to really want their product –  dress it up, make it look good, make it catchy, and get the word out. Our print material forms a marketing campaign that can be effective in the same way that Coke and McDonald’s have effective marketing campaigns. We have sophisticated designs with concise and memorable messages. The print campaign and the online program reinforce each other. By changing the very environment – populating the landscape with health-promoting material -- IWS gets employees emotionally caught up in the campaign. In turn, you will have a lot more success drawing them into the more involved aspects of the program, such as the website and food and activity diaries.

What's the point of setting up a website that people aren't going to use?
Our program addresses the issues of how to get people to the website, and how to get them involved, voluntarily, in the program. Our unique offline campaign – which is most of what we do – is actually the key to our online success. It’s a massive, multi-faceted offline program designed to stand completely on its own. We can target out-of-office employees as well as office employees. We have all the exercises and articles available in newsletters. We have the posters and postcards available so that very basic information – easy changes, interesting facts, very memorable, easy information – is available at a glance for anyone. The threefold guides are particularly unique because they really combine the best of the postcards and the newsletters. They’re small and eye-catching, but they are also packed with information. Embracing a philosophy of compromise, not conformation, the guides are filled with suggestions such as “order a grilled chicken sandwich at McDonalds and skip the hamburger, or even easier – just skip the mayo." These decisions – which will in the end produce extraordinary results – are infinitely more manageable than people tend to suspect.

This means that someone who barely glances at the material can still pick up a few easy tips. Someone who is already more interested can slip it in a pocket and carry it around. This material can be sitting around the office, and postcards and guides can be dropped off in mailboxes.  Employees don’t have to do a thing to learn a little bit about how they can make changes.

How do you maintain participant interest and compliance in the program?
At IWS, we constantly market with both on- and off-line material. The design aspect of our print campaign is crucial. Just as fast foods restaurants rely on visually appealing advertising to make their products look good without letting the constant marketing campaign become an irritant, we’ve created a program that can be integrated into the employee’s daily life without becoming a nuisance. When information is so readily available, the impact it has isn’t always conscious – an employee may not really consider the poster he passes every day saying he can lose 5 pounds in a year just by taking the stairs every day, but it’s very likely that he’ll internalize the message – and start skipping the elevator.

What do you mean by customization?
Because our design is so flexible and precise in its messaging, we can craft the program we’ve built into the best design for your population. That means if you have a population that’s 80% male or 75% Hispanic, or if your employees are primarily in an office or constantly traveling, we will develop a program that targets the most relevant issues. When we send you your program, your demographic information is going to be reflected in the final product. We are culturally sensitive, and we tailor the design to the needs and habits as per your instructions. Because we have such a breadth of information currently available, it’s very easy for us to make the changes that will help us achieve the most targeted and significant response rate possible.

What are typical participation rates in your programs?
Participation depends in large part on the type of program used. Ideally, the IWS program should involve both on and offline material to emphasize at each level the importance of the program.

However, research has shown that the most successful incentive programs include a benefits-integrated financial incentive, whereby incentives are incorporated into the medical benefit premium (bi-weekly or monthly payroll deduction) and discounts to the premiums are provided for individuals willing to participate in the program. Average participation/utilization rates for incentive-based programs average 50-60%.

What is the minimum size employee group?
Integrated Wellness Solutions provides comprehensive programs for employee groups consisting of 1,000 or more. However, you can purchase various levels of our program through out corporate store which includes IWS innovative behavior marketing collateral (e.g. posters, postcards, pocket guides, newsletters, RD counseling, or a license for IWS online lifestyle management program).