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Slide Notes

ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 166,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists, speech-language pathologists, speech, language, and hearing scientists, audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel, and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems, including swallowing disorders.

Vision
Making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all.

Learn more at www.asha.org

ASHA #benefitsconf 2014

Published on Nov 22, 2015

Health and Benefits Leadership Conference 2014 -- Competing for Talent: Unique Programs and Competitive Strategies for Small and Mid-Size Employers

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

ASHA

Health & Benefits Leadership Conference, March 2014
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 166,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists, speech-language pathologists, speech, language, and hearing scientists, audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel, and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems, including swallowing disorders.

Vision
Making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all.

Learn more at www.asha.org

We are:

  • 262 mission driven staff in Rockville, MD
  • Mostly women (76%) in our forties (46)
  • Who are well educated
  • We speak 28 different languages
  • We plan to stay at ASHA awhile (8+ years)
All but five of us are in our headquarters in Rockville, MD. We have a small satellite office on Capitol Hill.

Leveraging our strengths

To Improve Health & Engagement
The following are four examples of health and wellness initiatives that have worked well for us. I've steered away from incentives other than fun things and remained a bit skeptical of some of the ROI data out there. We focus instead on making it easier for our staff to make healthy choices and creating a culture of wellness.

I. Advisory Teams

Advisory teams excel at:
- promoting initiatives
- helping you fine tune your plans
- creating a sense of joint ownership
- changing your culture

Examples of teams that are advisory to HR:

- Salary Planning Advisory Team
- Wellness Advisory Team
- Learning Advisory Team

How We do it

  • Assists in prioritizing initiatives
  • Assists in the promotion of programs
  • Assists in communicating the impact 
  • Approximately 7 staff 
  • Serve 3 year staggered terms
We write charters for our advisory teams and ask staff to nominate individuals to participate. We then select the team members from the nominations making sure we will have people with diverse perspectives on the team.

II. Onsite FItness classes

Our 2013 staff survey included an indicator of wellness program participation. Overall job satisfaction was not significantly different for those who attended fitness classes vs. those who did not. However, it did increase the likelihood that staff state:

- I have close friends on ASHA staff
- People care about each other here

How we do it

  • Make the most of the space we have
  • Staff register every 12 weeks (partners welcome)
  • Offer 3 classses each day -- 1 early 2 late
  • Share the cost 75%/25%
  • 20% participation -- 2.4 avg classes/wk
We've recruited a diverse group of instructors. They actually work for one of our wellness program vendors and the vendor consolidates the billing.

Our attention span can be kind of short. We do best when we switch up the classes as interest wanes. Right now we have:

- Functional Training
- Yoga
- Core Values
- Zumba
- Dance Ballet Barre
- Body Sculpt
- Cardio Kickboxing
- Pilates
- Total Body Conditioning

III. Mediterranean Diet Challenge

We typically run two or three campaigns a year. Some examples include:

- Biggest Mover
- Backfield in Motion
- Heart Health
- Diabetes Education
- Various weight loss programs

Our Mediterranean Diet Challenge really engaged people. We focused on sustainable, healthy, lifestyle change. We loosely based the program on The Sonoma Diet. 50 people participated -- 20%.

How we did it

  • Short focused campaign -- 30 days
  • Presentations and cooking demos with nutritionist
  • Partnered with local cafe
  • 53 blog posts -- 36 from guests (mostly staff)
  • Included optional biometric screenings
We had 50 staff members formally participate in our Mediterranean Lifestyle Challenge and 18 individuals participate in the pre and post screenings we offered. We looked at blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol and glucose.

The flow of risk is exactly what we want to see-- we had people move from 3-4 risk factors to 0-2 risk factors. Cholesterol and glucose levels showed the most decrease in risk, body fat and blood pressure didn't show as much (if any change).

What's next? Possibly a series of cooking classes starting with basic knife skills.

IV. healthcare savvy

I truly don't understand why employers spend so much money on health insurance for their employees and their families and then put so little effort into educating them on how to get the most out of it. People can't value what they don't understand. And, you can't expect people to make cost conscious decisions if you don't give them tools to compare their options.

how we are doing it

  • Educate staff on how to choose a health plan
  • Introduced a new HDHP with HSA option
  • Focus on how to be a savvy consumer
Blogging, tweeting, pinning, Facebook posts, email blasts, text messages, smart phone apps, games and face-to-face meetings are all channels we employ to get people they information they need to make good decisions and feel good about being a part of the Association.

Our staff are very engaged during open enrollment. Almost every staff member attends an open enrollment meeting. For 2014, we introduced a new HDHP with an HSA. 40 staff members (18%) chose the new plan. (We made it appealing, but didn't try to entice folks by covering all the deductible.)

Our education is a work in progress. We have a healthcare savvy section on our intranet, we are scheduling a series of face-to-face informational sessions, and there is a section on my blog with some complimentary tools.