Molly King, Employee Benefits Director of the City of Milwaukee, shared with us what the City’s partnership with Workforce Health has brought the City and its employees over the years. She also shared some advice for businesses new to employee wellness programming.

Q. What type of employee wellness programs and activities do you offer? / How have you partnered with Workforce Health to support employee well-being?

A. My team's mission is to make the City of Milwaukee the top employer of choice in our region, and we know that a huge part of that is our benefits package. We take pride in offering a truly comprehensive wellness program for our employees and their families. 

Our employees have access to everything from an Employee Assistance Program to injury prevention services and maternity coaching, all 100 percent covered by the City. We joined forces with Workforce Health over a decade ago, and we've seen consistently great results for our employees since then. Every time I hear from one of our employees, they tell me how much they love the convenience of our on-site Workplace Clinic, which can do everything from quick walk-in visits to lab tests and is completely free for our employees and their families to use. It's a total game-changer. Our employees don't have to go through the hassle of making an appointment with their primary care team whenever they feel any odd symptoms, and we save money because they're proactive and get health issues diagnosed early. 

Through Workforce Health, we also have our own on-site Injury Prevention Clinic, and all of our employees and families get access to a network of FastCare® facilities across Southeastern Wisconsin. To get the word out about all of our offerings, we partner with Workforce Health to deliver a monthly newsletter and run two organization-wide committees that give employees the tools to promote the wellness program within their departments.

Q. What benefits do you see to the organization and employees as a result of these efforts?

A. When our employees have incentives to make healthier choices, it's a win-win. They save a lot of money on their out-of-pocket costs, and we keep our health care spending low. Over four in five employees regularly participate in our wellness program, and thanks to that high engagement, we have bucked the trend of rising health care costs to an astonishing degree. We spend over 40 percent less on health care in real dollars than we did in 2013, and we've kept our premiums flat for most of that time. 

The incentive-based design of our wellness program also allows us to give employees the final bit of encouragement that they need to get some extra steps in, quit smoking, or drop those last few pounds. All of us here at the City get our money's worth out of our investment in wellness.

Q. What advice do you have for a business just starting employee wellness initiatives?

A. Wellness is all about incentives. You want to make sure that employees have a reason to participate, and you want the choices they make to save you money. 

Take the time to understand what’s driving your health care spending and focus your incentives on activities that improve your employees’ well-being in those areas. 

For example, our number one cost driver is musculoskeletal disorders, so we focus a lot of our program on physical therapy and injury prevention. 

You can also make a big impact by encouraging your employees to quit smoking. We charge nicotine users that take our insurance a monthly fee, and the resulting decrease in the smoking rate among our employees has been a huge part of how we have kept our costs under control. It's one of the best decisions your employees will make in their lives, and you'll see the savings on your balance sheet right away.

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