Employers’ role in increasing health literacy
As employers, we can improve employees' health literacy and change fear to understanding.
As Americans emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, health literacy and taking control of our health have never been more important. Throughout the public health crisis, many statements about the virus have circulated: Wearing a mask reduces oxygen intake and increases the risk of “carbon dioxide toxicity.” Taking ibuprofen worsens the symptoms of COVID-19. Vaccinated people can infect others. These and other misunderstandings persist despite solid science and data analysis that debunks them.
Related: Knowledge is power: Help employees understand their insurance coverage
Understanding overcomes fear
Misinformation about COVID-19 creates fear, confusion and poor decision-making. Health literacy, however, leads to understanding and better decision-making. Only understanding health issues overcomes fear. As employers, we can improve employees’ health literacy; to change fear to understanding so that better health choices and decisions can be made.
Consider this: Your employees spend much of their waking hours at work, in their workplace. As an employer, you are in a more effective position to increase your workforce’s health literacy than the CDC. The amount of time spent in your setting versus a doctor’s office means you may have more of an influence than even your employees’ primary care doctor, if they have one at all. In short: Improving workforce health literacy is a unique opportunity for employers – and it’s a smart business move.
Protect your investment in health benefits
Improving workforce health literacy supports the investment you’ve already made by purchasing health benefits. Educating employees to help them understand their health risks and the value of preventive care pays off in the form of higher productivity, improved retention, and lower health care costs.
Health literacy is 21st-century workforce training
Increasing health literacy can begin as simply as providing health literacy education as part of standard workforce training. No one argues with the necessity of educating employees on new skills to meet job and industry demands. Giving employees the skills and tools to improve their health also enables them to accomplish their work.
In part, improving health literacy relies on making preventive care easy to understand and accessible for your employees. Helping them understand health data, for example, with simple infographics and text messages, will help even employees with low literacy gain the essential information they need to guide their health decisions.
Lastly, consider reducing the burden on your human resource team by hiring a chief health officer – an increasingly common role – as an expert who understands the specific barriers to better health in your employees’ lives. A leader focused on building a healthier workforce will create opportunities and tailor pathways for employees to make better health decisions.
Health literacy is a straightforward aspect of health care with an enormous potential impact on your employees’ lives and the economics of running your business. Not only is it a smart way to optimize your investment in health care benefits, but it’s also a sound recruiting practice. Take Google, famous for providing perks like massages and Michelin-starred food. Google’s most recent offering is the most popular perk of all: at-home COVID tests for employees. Like Google’s employees, your workforce now and in the future wants better health. As employers, you now have the ability, the tools, and the responsibility to improve their health literacy so that they can achieve it.
Sean Slovenski is CEO of BioIQ.
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