Organizations in today’s business world are obliged to be actively involved in the development of employee wellness programs to enhance the motivation and satisfaction levels of human assets. The wellness programs are also beneficial to the organizations because they result in an increase in the performance of the employees, and a reduction of the financial liabilities to the organizations, especially if the wellness programs focus on promoting the health of the employees (Plump & Ketchen, 2013). Pitney-Bowes and Johnson and Johnson (J&J) are some of the companies that have traditionally focused on the development of employee wellness programs that primarily focus on health. The two companies have demonstrated various similarities and differences in their approaches to enhancing the wellness status of their human resources. This paper focuses on the differences and similarities of the wellness programs in the two companies, with a close focus on their strategic perspectives, factors driving the wellness initiatives, their vertical and horizontal alignment, key program features, and future considerations for the respective companies.
Strategic Perspectives
J&J has traditionally focused on the development of a health and wellness program as part of its employee benefits program. The company first developed a wellness program in 1979, and it has maintained the program ever since. The program’s main perspective is the development of a healthy workforce. The company emphasizes three major areas of wellness, which include healthy eating, physical activities, and the elimination of obesity. Basically, the company ensures that the employees are mobilized to adopt a lifestyle that is associated with the embracement of preventive approaches for various health issues. The current program also provides support to people with various disabilities to help them cope with the changing demands of the workplace (Porter & Baron, 2009). It is also apparent that the company has looked into ensuring that the employees reduce their spending on health care services by providing health risk management programs. These services include mental health and disease management.
Pitney Bowes also developed a similar wellness program in 1993, which focused on the health risks associated with different occupations. The company established clinics to provide a health risk assessment for the employees on a voluntary basis. The data collected from the clinics would be used to develop preventive campaigns for various illnesses, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. The company also had a drug benefit program for the employees with various health claims against the company. Just like J&J, Pitney Bowes has also focused on improving the health outcomes of its human assets through the provision of programs that highlight their health care needs.
Factors Driving the Wellness Initiative
One of the factors driving the wellness initiative at J&J is the need for the company to align its business processes with its mission and vision. The company is on a mission to provide quality health care with a close focus on sustainability, especially by reducing the cost of the services (Porter & Baron, 2009). According to the company, one of the most feasible approaches toward reducing the cost of health care is assuming a healthy lifestyle to prevent various diseases, and it has purposed to promote the health and wellness of the employees to serve as an example of the ultimate goal of the organization (Goetzel et al., 2002). The need to provide a long-term solution to the health issues faced by people in the contemporary world is also a major driving force for the wellness initiative adopted at J&J.
Pitney Bowes’s wellness initiative has always been driven by its need to maintain a high-performance human resource base. According to the company, when the employees get ill, it affects the organizational bottom line, which has dire implications for its financial performance (Quelch & Knoop, 2014). It is, therefore, necessary for Pitney Bowes to ensure that the employees are always healthy and fit to portray the highest level of competence while handling various tasks in the workflow. This implies that the main driving force for the wellness initiative is to maintain a productive human asset base.
Vertical Alignment
The business strategy at J&J is inclined toward providing value-added health care services and products. The wellness program adopted by the company is, therefore, an approach aimed at providing a clear picture of the company’s commitment to providing high-quality health care services, and its desire to enhance the health and wellness outcomes of every individual in the society. Being an international company with various acquisitions in different markets, J&J has developed a culture of health improvement among its human resources, which is bound to have a positive impact on their health and the wellness of their families. This implies that the wellness program is an integral part of the business strategy of the company, especially when focusing on the long-term goals of the company (Porter & Baron, 2009). J&J allocates a huge budget to the enhancement of the wellness status of its employees, and this translates to a healthy workforce that is committed to attaining the organizational goals.
Unlike J&J, Pitney Bowes’s main focus is the development of a healthy and productive workforce. The company looks to ensure that its competitive power is not jeopardized by the health issues associated with various working environments. As seen in the past, the company has gradually shifted from a program that covered the entire health insurance coverage for the employees to a copayment program that compels the employees to look into adopting preventive health care services (Quelch & Knoop, 2014). Pitney Bowes has traditionally focused on ensuring that its employees have health insurance coverage, and it is currently looking to further reduce the number of claims reported by the employees.
Horizontal Alignment
When J&J established its health and wellness program, the initiative was only meant to act as a demonstration of its willingness to add value to its health care services for the employees. However, over the years, the initiative has been incorporated into the employee benefits program. The company has particularly looked into ensuring that its employees are satisfied with the workplace by enhancing safety and eliminating all the identifiable risk factors to health issues in the working environment (Porter & Baron, 2009). Pitney Bowes, on the other hand, integrated its wellness program with the employee benefits program from the beginning. However, the company used to cover every financial requirement for health insurance for its employees, but it has since developed other programs that involve the employees having to pay part of the coverage fees (Choudhry et al., 2010).
Key Program Features
The key features of the wellness program at J&J include health profiling, energy for performance in life, fitness and healthy eating, mental wellbeing, and modeling wellness. Health profiling entails the development of a database with information about the health requirements of the employees. Energy for performance in life is a program that helps the employees to align their physical, mental, and emotional energy with the requirements of their jobs and personal life (Porter & Baron, 2009). The fitness and health lifestyle element focuses on promoting a healthy lifestyle, whereas the modeling wellness element is an initiative aimed at using the leaders of the company to motivate the employees to embrace the wellness program. Unlike J&J, Pitney Bowes has leveraged technological growth by creating a system based on algorithms that predict the health outcomes of the employees. The system collects data on the claims reported by the employees, and it determines the health risks that need to be addressed in different regions. The resultant wellness programs are associated with the presence of health risk assessment, disease management, disability management, and health care university, which is an educational program in the company, focusing on health education.
Future Considerations
The main concern of the J&J Company in the future is to ensure that it has a smoother application of the wellness program in its various acquisitions. It is apparent that attaining the required value through the program has been a difficult quest for the company, but the development of a more comprehensive modeling wellness program should see the leaders in the various entities developing the required influence on the employees to embrace the wellness program. Pitney Bowes needs to develop a new system that enhances the eligibility for health insurance for the dispersed employees, who are in dire need of the wellness programs. The company should particularly focus on enhancing value-based insurance to casual workers (Quelch & Knoop, 2014). The company should also continue targeting the promotion of the behavioral health benefits programs within the primary care packages.
References
Choudhry, N. K., Fischer, M. A., Avorn, J., Schneeweiss, S., Solomon, D. H., Berman, C., & Mahoney, J. J. (2010). At Pitney Bowes, value-based insurance design cut copayments and increased drug adherence. Health Affairs, 29(11), 1995-2001.
Goetzel, R. Z., Ozminkowski, R. J., Bruno, J. A., Rutter, K. R., Isaac, F., & Wang, S. (2002). The long-term impact of Johnson & Johnson’s Health & Wellness Program on employee health risks. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 44(5), 417-424.
Plump, C. M., & Ketchen, D. J. (2013). Paving a road to well? How the legal pitfalls of wellness programs can harm organizational performance. Business Horizons, 56(3), 261-269.
Porter, M. E., & Baron, J. F. (2009).Pitney Bowes: Employer health strategy. Harvard Business School Case 709-458. Web.
Quelch, J. A., & Knoop, C. (2014). Johnson and Johnson: The promotion of wellness. Harvard Business School Case 514-112. Web.