Video: Employee Wellness Conference: Why ROI may not be the right measure for wellbeing strategies
Watch the Coopervision UK Manufacturing case study in full.
Andrew Brown, HR director for the UK division, explained more at the REBA Employee Wellness Conference 2016. “Ruby was the vice president of HR for the Cooper Companies and also looked after the benefits programme for the US so had an interest in getting the cost of medical insurance down. That was the initial driver,” he explained.
After her own experience of developing diabetes in her early 70s she began a drive to lose weight, get healthier and managed to get off her diabetes medication. “She said if I can do this maybe I can help other people in the company do it. She had a good relationship with the CEO as she had been with the company for somewhere over 40 years and had his ear. She started talking about wellness and got buy-in from our CEO,” said Brown.
In the UK the programme was adapted to a more holistic approach suitable for the UK. It focussed on a number of pillars -- environment, health, activities, benefits and support which, with the help of the marketing team, were encompassed under the MyWellness brand and launched globally in February 2015.
Brown took delegates on a honest journey through the implementation however when it comes to measuring effectiveness Brown questions whether ROI was the right measure in the UK. “It’s fine in the States where you have a nice easy measure –ie is the cost of health insurance going down. In the UK we don’t have that so I don’t think that type of measure works very well for us,” he said.
He said to ask the board what they thought wellness would do for the business instead. “It could be about lower absences, could be about turnover or attraction. I’m not sure what the right answer is, it depends on the business –I don’t think there is a cookie cutter approach,” he said. Instead he urged delegates to look at VOI – value of investment.
This video was filmed at the REBA Employee Wellness Conference 2016.
