| Julie: | Hi Jessica. Can you tell me about yourself and your role in your organization? |
| Jessica: | Sure, I’m the wellness director for a company called, The Rasmussen Group. The Rasmussen Group is a management company. We own 12 different companies in the construction field. So, we have dump trucks, bridge building, concrete, asphalt, and crane services. We have a wide variety of different companies that are under our umbrella. Of course the Rasmussen Group, being the management company, oversees the benefits, such as the health insurance and the wellness program and the payroll. |
| Julie: | What is your role Jessica? |
| Jessica: | Being the Wellness Director, I oversee the Work Well employee wellness program. We have an online portal through Wellmark, who is our insurance administrator and we use their wellness portal. It’s called The Wellness Center and is powered by Web MD. Employees can access that through Wellmark’s website. It’s built to provide tools, information and resources to employees who are looking to improve their overall health. Anywhere from incentives from biometric screenings, getting a physical, watching webinars, and getting your preventative exams. My role is to build that portal every year, help track the incentives and send the files and incentives over to Wellmark. We do things outside of what is tracked on the portal too, so we will do wellness activities throughout the year like National Healthy Lunch Day, Diabetes Awareness, and volunteer opportunities. So, anything health and wellness related and for overall well-being lands in my lap and I try and coordinate that for all employees. |
| Julie: | How does health coaching work into this? |
| Jessica: | When I first go hired on, I knew looking ahead, for the needs of this population, that health coaching was going to be necessary. There was going to be a need for it. People know what to do. They know that they need to eat better, they know that they need to exercise, but health coaching brings that element of motivation and more one on one guidance. Whether people utilize it or not, it’s available and I knew that it would be a good fit and that if employees took advantage of it, it could improve our overall outcomes and our overall health of our population. |
| Julie: | Are you actually in contact with employees and how many coaches to you have? |
| Jessica: | I’m the only coach for our company. We stratify the risk, which is something I actually took away from the Fusion training. We have over 700 employees and I knew, knowing the demographics, we were going to have a lot of high risk employees. So, we use metabolic syndromes risk factors to stratify our risk. After they come in for their company health screening or their physical they are notified either through Mercy or through a worksheet that is handed out at their screening so we can keep things confidential for HIPA. I don’t know what their risk factors are. They are made aware of what their risk factors are, how many they have, and are told that if they have 3, 4 or 5 risk factors, health coaching is an option for them to earn the $50 incentive. It’s not required, but it is available. We require (5) 30 minute sessions to qualify for the incentive. |
| Julie: | What has been the response to the program? |
| Jessica: | Well, it could be better. I would like it to be better. I have probably coached 25-30 employees over the last 2 years. I work with a predominantly blue collar, male population. They don’t tend to go see doctors, don’t tend to get their checkups and they aren’t necessarily comfortable discussing. So, there are barriers as far as participation. We do offer another opportunity as well aside from health coaching. They can go through the Better Choices, Better Health Group Workshop as well to earn that $50 incentive. People can weigh what they prefer. A group atmosphere or a one on one. |
| Julie: | What was the one thing that excited you about the value of health coaching? |
| Jessica: | Being in a critical position to help others make significant positive changes in their life is what most excited me. Having the proper training and being equipped with information that can allow me to coach and bring awareness to a person’s situation and intrinsically motivate them. As I said earlier, people know what to do, but how do we get them there. How do we get them excited and motivate them to make the changes. They know that they shouldn’t have that donut every morning and they know that they should probably work out, but everyone needs that motivation. So having the skills to do that, to motivate and excite the employee to start making the changes is what excites me the most. Having a unique skill set that no one else in the company has and can bring to the table in helping to create overall well-being for our employees is exciting. You are excited for them when they have success and in turn that’s very rewarding. |
| Julie: | What skills have been the most valuable and you have seen success with as a result of the training? |
| Jessica: | Definitely, the conversation flow. That is a skill that I didn’t have prior to the training. You have skills that come natural to you. I am empathetic. Having empathy and being a good listener, that is the type of person I am. Putting that to good use and honing in on those skills and intertwining that with the conversation flow is valuable. And the Flex model. Those were the two most valuable to me. The Flow model provides some structure and you have something to refer to. How do we take this to the next level, how do we get them motivated. I kept going back to the Flex model and it gives me guidance. The Flex Model…I’m a young female working with a predominantly older male, blue collar population. Having the Flex model training has really helped me in this role. Those two skills have been invaluable. |
| Julie: | How often do you coach your employees? |
| Jessica: | I see employees five times. Not all are local, so we can do sessions via skype, phone or they can come into the office. Most people prefer to. (5) 30 minute sessions, but advantage in being in the role that I am, in corporate wellness, I’m not trying to move through 30 patients a day like in a clinic setting. I can go 45 minutes to an hour if I feel the need. |
| Julie: | Have you had anyone that continues after the 5 sessions? |
| Jessica: | Yes, I have 2 that have wanted to continue talking. Some feel like they are not done and want to continue. Sometimes they want to add something else or sometimes they just want to share successes and I love hearing about it. |
| Julie: | Can you think of a success story that you can share with us? |
| Jessica: | Most recently, I will share about one of our field guys. He works overnight. He’s had quite the life journey. He’s had a lot of unpleasant things happen in his life. He got real down and there was a lot of things he was dealing with in life. Everything that could keep someone from taking the positive road back to good health. He started to come to see me and talking to me about those things and he’s one that continues to see me. He has lost 30-40 lbs. We talked a lot about his “why”. We didn’t focus a lot on physical health with him, we didn’t talk a lot about diet goals or exercise goals. It was more about finding purpose, finding happiness. He got a dog. His dog changed his life. He had companionship and his dog made him get up in the morning. He was getting exercise walking his dog and his dog just brought him so much happiness and gave him purpose. Now he’s on a low carb diet. He’s working out. He is actually now one of our wellness ambassadors. He got some of the other field guys to sign up and in between fueling trucks they have competitions, like sit up, push up and jumping jack competitions. He found that “why” that everyone is seeking. He is such an inspiration to me. I feel like it had nothing to do with his physical health. It was his happiness that was the start of him starting to be more physically well. |
| Julie: | What a great ambassador to have for your program! |
| Jessica: | Yes. Absolutely! He’s encouraging and he’s positive and the best success story I’ve had to date. |
| Julie: | What would you share with those that are considering our training? |
| Jessica: | Do it. Definitely do it. Don’t question if you’re making the right move or if it’s worth the money or the investment. It is professionally and it is personally worth it. |
| Julie: | Well and you’re not clinical. We’ve had a few question it because they are not a nurse or physician. |
| Jessica: | They definitely should. It will not only teach you the skills to become a successful health coach, but it will help you be an overall practitioner in your role. I didn’t do a lot of health coaching prior to the training. The more you coach, the more honed in you become on your skills. The whole experience not only trained me to be a great coach, but it also helped me be more successful as a wellness director for our company. Even when I’m not formally health coaching people, I’m answering questions or I have people stopping by my office that want to chat and need guidance. You’re always using those skills, always, no matter what. Knowing how to be a good listener goes a long way. Knowing how to not have judgement, knowing how to have empathy for people. I honestly feel like having those skills is probably the most important thing in my role. All day long, we can push information out there to help people be healthier, but if you are in that role and you aren’t empathetic and people don’t feel comfortable with you, and they don’t trust you, you are not going to be successful in engaging them and you are not going to have great participation. Your health is very personal and for some people it’s embarrassing or uncomfortable. If they aren’t comfortable with you, you are going to have barriers engaging. |
| Julie: | With the growing interest in population health, how did the training equip you to be a player in the world of population health? |
| Jessica: | If people are wondering if they should take the training and how they are making an impact for example in a corporate wellness role like myself, something to think about is that is really goes beyond the walls of your corporation. It really goes beyond your employee base. All our employees live and work in our community. Each person who works for a company and improves their heath, that lends to statistics of the overall improved population health for our area. So, if people haven’t thought about that, it’s huge. If we are improving 700 employees that work for the Rasmussen Group and they are going out and making changes in their lives and in turn are motivating their spouses to make changes, and motivating their children to make changes because the wellness programs, there is a bigger purpose and a bigger impact. |