Employees are accustomed to discussing personal health information with doctors and insurance companies, but many draw the line when it comes to sharing that information with their employer.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is cracking down on employers who encourage, require, or incentivize their employees to provide private health information as a requirement for participation in the employer-sponsored wellness program. The EEOC's mission is to keep employers from having access to information that may lead to bias when it comes to hiring decisions (e.g., hiring, firing, promotions, or salary discussions).
Most often, these numbers come from biometric screenings, health assessments, or onsite screenings that are required or encouraged through the hired wellness program. Employers (in conjunction with the wellness program) may use these numbers to divide the employee population into risk categories – or simply to determine whether an employee has reached a specific goal (often rewarded with a financial incentive). With the current EEOC rules in place, how are employers supposed to gauge progress if they're not granted access to their employees' baseline health information?
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Answer: Administer a strategically designed wellness program that motivates employees without collecting sensitive genetic information or health records. It's not only a more effective way to engage employees in the program – it's also the best way for a wellness program (and therefore the employer) to stay in the EEOC's good graces. Why spend valuable time and money trying to determine whether your program's practices are compliant, when it's possible to maintain massive engagement without poking, prodding, or prying for personal information? Don't throw in the wellness towel just because your access to baseline health measures are limited. Here's how EEOC-approved wellness vendors make these "restrictions" work to their advantage:
Establish trust. Establishing trust between an employer and employees is imperative to creating an effective wellness program (in addition to laying the groundwork for an overall positive and supportive employee-employer relationship). The less employees feel as if "Big Brother is watching" the better – allow them to see that the intention behind the wellness program is to help them lead a happier, healthier life.
Value improvements over outcomes. Over-stressing of outcomes data and ROI takes away from the value of daily progress. Of course, baseline health data is useful in many ways — giving employees a way to track improvement, tracking overall performance of the program, or justifying the cost of employee wellness programming, just to name a few. We should mention that collecting this information is approved by the EEOC as long as it's voluntary. But significant changes in biometrics or reduced claims costs won't happen in the first year of implementing a wellness program.
Instead of focusing on outcomes (i.e., reach this weight, lower your blood pressure to X, etc.), focus on the small (or large!) advances made over time by engaging employees in sustainable health-habit improvement. There are a number of ways to measure the value of a wellness program — boosted retention and recruitment prospects, improved workplace morale, more productive people, better sense of office culture, increased job satisfaction (and perceived job security), and better focus. Regardless of EEOC regulations or employees' and their spouses' medical histories, keeping the focus on progress made toward a goal allows worksite wellness to truly thrive.
Don't bundle employees into risk categories based on their numbers. The general prescription for wellness is the same for everyone. Whether you're an avid marathon runner or a sideline sitter looking to change, the path to a healthier version life is the same: make small, sustainable improvements that'll build up to huge changes over time.
Of course, people with specific or chronic conditions will require an individualized approach; that's where wellness stops and disease management begins. Disease management requires a more in-depth look at an individual's health (which the employer shouldn't need access to) — usually in conjunction with a medical doctor or nurse who will have access to their records to begin with.
The easiest way to stay EEOC-compliant is to work with a wellness program that doesn't require the collection of health records or genetic information to be successful. By turning the focus toward steady improvement instead of annual changes in biometric numbers, the wellness program (and the employer) is able to thrive in a perfectly EEOC-approved environment.
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