earlier this week there was some heated discussion on this blog about “going radical” on employee wellness. yesterday, the wall street journal shared this from a new research brief offered by the national institute for health care reform:

“Programs to help workers stop smoking or lose weight aren’t likely to produce lasting results unless there are broader changes to the work environment—such as an end to the plate of muffins at meetings and remodeled, more appealing stairwells.”

music to my ears.

dig into what looks to be a rich, reasoned report on what can make or break employee wellness programs here.

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[hat tip to @jessiegruman for the WSJ link.]

hollie delaney has worked at zappos.com, inc. for more than four years. she’s married with one child, so she knows first-hand the struggle of enjoying a full-throttle career while giving all to oneself and one’s family. as the senior HR manager at zappos.com, inc. in charge of their wellness effort, that knowledge comes in handy. i caught up with hollie by email and by phone to find out how zappos.com, inc. is approaching wellness. hint: it has something to do with delivering happiness.

fm: let’s start with the basics. how do you define wellness?

hd: right now, it’s a little different here than elsewhere. we don’t have a huge initiative. we’re focusing on how we get people excited about getting up and moving, eating right. i look at myself. i’m a person who used to be very healthy. but then i got married, had a family…something gives. from my standpoint, i think about what’s it going to take to get me to move and eat well? we’re focusing on this first, and as we get more established we can look at the tougher challenges, like focusing on the different health issues common in our population.

fm: why is it important to zappos.com, inc. to get people up and moving or eating well?

hd: well, we have a conflict with the mainstream about “why.” most are looking to help with rising health care costs. of course, that’s important to us as well, but our main focus is when you’re well, you’re happier. when you’re happier, you do your job better. we want to give people the knowledge and opportunity to see how much better they feel and how much happier they are when they’re healthy. that’s our main focus.

fm: given that, what does “wellness” look like at zappos.com, inc.?

hd: we look for things that work for everyone and that will bring a little more happiness into people’s lives. we want to show people that wellness is important but can be fun. we also want to cover everyone from the person just starting on the wellness track to the person who’s already on the track and looking to sustain their lifestyle.

we provide educational classes on nutrition, finances, parenting. we have weight watchers on-site and offer smoking cessation classes to employees, and we subsidize a portion of these classes if employees complete their commitment. our on-site exercise classes cover everything from hip hop dance classes to how to sit and be fit to laugh yoga to wii competitions. our insurance carriers come in to give employees a better idea of how their benefits work and what things are available that they may not be taking advantage of. we also provide different discounts to gyms and encourage people to walk, hike, bike, and play sports together.

our wellness council is made up of employees from all the different departments within our company who want to be part of what we’re doing. they help us find those vendors who’d work for us culturally and figure out how to take information we all know and make it memorable.

fm: make it memorable. exactly! i’m a big fan of your off-the-cuff youtube videos. how are you communicating with employees about wellness?

hd: video is a good way for us to reach people. we’ve been thinking more about how we can use it. we could do a video about something as fun and silly as parking farther away from an entrance. for our wellness fair, we created this “rock wild” wellness video.

our wellness program’s really just starting down this road. any campaign to date has been through video or email, and we do have a twitter account employees can follow to see what we’re doing. we’re not addressing family yet but are looking to in the future.

fm: your wellness fair video reminds me of healthymagination’s howcast videos. they’re campy fun, just like you’re talking about. your culture’s known as a really driving culture. fun but intense. and obviously, some units, like your call center, have unique stresses. how do you align these competing forces? and do you carve out units like your call center in any way?

hd: everything we do is dictated by our core values. then, as managers, we’re allowed to run our units like our own business. managers are given so much flexibility, it trickles down to everyone else.

one of the things we want to do is build relationships with each business so we can tailor our wellness services to their environment. this is a new road for us, and we’re just starting down it.  we’re looking to tailor programs that work best for different departments, so some may need help with work-life balance, some of the departments may want to focus more on stress management and so on. we haven’t started this process yet but are looking to start in the near future.

as far as the hours go, the way our culture’s set up, we hang out outside of work. so that piece, working tons of hours, fixes itself. i don’t mind; i’m having fun. i’m with my friends. when i first started working here four years ago, working was hanging with friends. now that i have a family and so do lots of others, we’re hanging as families. we’re building these relationships together. for me, this is the healthiest place i’ve ever worked. you can be who you are. you don’t have to fit into a certain mold.

fm: how are you measuring what you’re doing?

hd: we’re not a largely metrics-driven company. we are metrics-driven in certain areas, such as inventory, growth, etc. when it comes to the more subjective things that we do, we’re not as heavily metrics-driven. we know that wellness programs will have returns, but there are facets of the things that we want to do that are difficult to measure. we’re currently working on how to quantify the programs that we’re proposing.

fm: what will you be looking at to see if you’re moving things in the right direction?

hd: that’s a good question. we’re still working it out and trying to find what best works for us.  we’re looking at standard programs but also looking to break new ground, so…it’s a learning process!

check out other free-ranging interviews with health innovators.

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refresh yourself, restore our world.

the placard beside my westin heavenly dual-showerhead informed me that one shower head was turned off to lessen my shower’s environmental impact but could be turned back on with the push of a little button.

at 6 a.m., it was too early to deal with saving the world. two seconds and the decision was made. dual shower heads, baby! bring on that steamy hot water to coddle me into a more alert state.

their messaging and choice architecture should’ve driven me to do the right thing. they appealed to my sense of identity, or who i’d like to believe i am: an environmentally-conscious consumer. and by setting the shower head to the optimal default position for the world (and themselves), i needed to actively choose to change course, considering all the while how better people than i were sacrificing their dual massage to sustain our planet.

if westin truly wants to be green, or to just save bucks, the other option is to replace their luxury dual shower heads with ordinary single heads. and to go with low-flow toilets. those are big-ticket items and potentially controversial with those devoted to their heavenly items. likely, they backed away from the tough decision and decided to start with influencing through other means. the hazard is that they may not reap the rewards they want, or as quickly. a quick survey of my four fellow travelers found that only one didn’t press the button. the rest joined me in going eco-rogue.

sometimes, you need to be radical. despite good messaging and sound design, we still crave what we crave. and if the choice is there, we opt for it. the same is true with employee wellness efforts. if you’re serving up hostess sno balls in the vending machine, featuring a KFC double-down equivalent in your cafeteria, and offering a spot for tobacco breaks, you’re also backing away from the tough decision. shift the playing field enough that the only choice you offer is the one you stand behind.

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new research shows that sitting for prolonged periods of time can’t be undone by an active lifestyle and exercise. in fact, “women and men who both sat more and were less physically active were 94% and 48% more likely, respectively, to die compared with those who reported sitting the least and being most active.”

that’s bad news for most of us. because sitting is what we do. we sit at work, sit in the car, sit at dinner, sit and gab on the phone, and sit on the couch. as prudence did on her potty, we sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit (with a far less applauded outcome).

that’s also bad news for employee wellness. it means companies need to change their culture so that bursts of movement become the norm.

since toting the philips directlife monitor in my pocket and participating in get up and move (more on both later), i’ve been hyperconscious of my activity level. wearing the monitor and completing friendly challenges gets me up and doing jumping jacks, pacing during phone calls, and creating reasons to run up and down the stairs.

knowing that sitting can literally be the death of you, i want to hear from you:

• how will you get up and move?
• how will you bring movement into your employees’ daily work?

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afterthought: other research finds that we can be bored to death. can we kill two birds with one stone?

this video will never fly in my household. not because of the subject or the spokesperson, but because of the team. sorry, we’re a boston red sox family.

the video’s part of the let’s move campaign’s partnership with major league baseball and its players’ association. they’re setting their sights on future partnerships with the NFL and women’s national basketball association. (what about the NBA?)

honestly, it’s not my favorite ad. i’d like to see the players have more air time to capitalize on their influence. even so, i have to applaud the concept. sports figures haven’t been the most impressive role models lately. it’s terrific to see them stand up for something positive and for one of our more pressing problems: childhood obesity.

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which would you rather eat? make it as tasty and irresistible as a donut.

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companies interested in getting their employees up and moving for its knock-on effects (lowered health care costs, improved productivity and decreased absenteeism, to name a few) now have another compelling reason:

“Almost every dimension of cognition improves from 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, and creativity is no exception. The type of exercise doesn’t matter, and the boost lasts for at least two hours afterward. However, there’s a catch: this is the case only for the physically fit. For those who rarely exercise, the fatigue from aerobic activity counteracts the short-term benefits.”

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read more in forget brainstorming, part of newsweek’s look into the creativity crisis.

if you’re interested in health apps, check out these articles. they barely scratch the surface, but they tell you a lot about our interest in tools that simplify our lives and make being healthy easier.

healthcare apps for your smart phone

a weight-loss revolution that’s light on your pocket

losing weight the smartphone way, with a nutritionist in your pocket

how your iphone can snap you into shape

iphone app gives parents a pediatrician in their pocket (hat tip @shapingyouth)

here’s an old photo of me (article about the fatbooth app)

what’s your favorite health app? if you could create one, what would it do?

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i admit to being slightly befuddled by the national business group on health’s finding that employees are not yet on the social media bandwagon for health care benefit communication. granted, they only asked about facebook, twitter, and text messaging. and they asked specifically about interest in using the tool, not in how it’d be used.

still.

their findings don’t quite match up with the latest trends in mhealth and from pew internet on mobile use and social health:

“health is social. health is mobile…if your organization’s information isn’t accessible and readable on a small screen, it’s not available at all to some groups. Now is the time to make changes to online services to account for both the popularity of mobile access and the way it is changing us as internet users.”

—susannah fox

i plan to poke further into the NBGH study. for now, you can read more from susannah and pew internet.

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in march, michelle obama issued a challenge to developers, students, and just about anyone interested in getting kids moving and eating better. now the entries are in. and the fun begins.

check them out. kick the tires. share the info with your employees and their families. get your own kids online to have their say.

voting continues until august 14. vote early. vote often.

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