The U.S. Supreme Court recently handed employers a legal victory by making it harder for workers to prove age discrimination in cases where the employer contends that the adverse action resulted in legitimate corporate restructuring.
In Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that an employee who files a compliant under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act must clearly prove that age was the sole factor for the adverse employment action.
In 2004, 54-year-old Jack Gross filed an age discrimination claim under the ADEA against his employer, FBL. He argued that the company demoted him, in part, due to his age. The company asserted that the move was a genuine business decision.
Before Gross, the courts allowed employees to assert that age, in part, played a role in their employer’s action, shifting the burden on the employer to prove that other nondiscriminatory factors drove the decision.
Mixed-motive discrimination claims filed under ADEA, however, apply legal standards under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, because Congress failed to amend ADEA to reflect mixed-motive cases. The Court observed that the mixed-motive standards under Title VII do not apply to ADEA claims.
“We hold that a plaintiff bringing a disparate-treatment claim pursuant to the ADEA must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that age was the ‘but-for’ cause of the challenged adverse employment action,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote. “The burden of persuasion does not shift to the employer to show that it would have taken the action regardless of age, even when a plaintiff has produced some evidence that age was one motivating factor in that decision.”
Justice John Paul Stevens, representing the dissenters, wrote: “The Court’s resurrection of the but-for causation standard is unwarranted. The answer to the question the Court has elected to take up — whether a mixed motives jury instruction is ever proper in an ADEA case — is plainly yes.”
Every company, regardless of size or industry, is keen to demonstrate the effectiveness of their investments, especially during times of diminishing returns and shrinking profit margins. Wellness initiatives and workplace health promotion programs are no exception.
Many HR/benefits professionals struggle to demonstrate a positive return on investment for their wellness initiatives due in large part to an absence of standardized evaluation methods or measures of effectiveness. Intuitively, they know that their programs are working. They have anecdotal proof and have seen the real difference these programs have made for their employees, but somehow the numbers just do not add up and they cannot prove a positive impact on the company's bottom line.
Indeed, as health care premiums continue to rise, benefits decisionmakers may come to the conclusion that their wellness programs have failed. That conclusion spells the doom for scores of wellness programs.
Fortunately, this kind of knee-jerk reaction can be avoided by expanding the scope of the measures used to determine the effectiveness of the individual program. It is vital to understand the link between population health and cost. This connection has to be emphasized during the program's planning phase and the corresponding matrix has to be agreed upon long before program implementation -ideally during the initial meeting at which the business case for wellness is made.
The Internet is a brilliant resource from which to draw statistics to support this point. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site states that "more than 75% of all health care dollars are spent on chronic conditions, most of which are preventable." This isn't new information, yet only the most savvy business leaders fully understand its implications. Since health risks are the building blocks of those costly chronic conditions, the primary focus of every good wellness program should be reducing or eliminating health risks across the insured population.
The success, or lack thereof, in reducing health risks should be one of the primary measures of any wellness program. It is a better selling point and it is also easier to demonstrate than bottom-line cost savings. Why?
Even with the most effective wellness program and 100% employee and spousal active participation (which is extremely unlikely), it will take a considerable amount of time before even a small percentage of individuals with multiple health risks will be able to move into lower health risk categories. After all, many of their health issues are the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices and have accumulated over years and even decades. Reversing the process will take time.
While this transition is in progress, your company is continually in jeopardy of catastrophic claims because of potential complications of those high-risk employees.
Just hypothetically, what would happen if the year you implemented your wellness initiative, or even the year after, happened to be a year in which your insured population experienced an unusually high occurrence of catastrophic claims? The cost for providing health care would spike regardless of your wellness program's effectiveness, which would make it appear - at least on the surface - that your wellness program is not delivering the expected results.
To safeguard your wellness program and keep it from suffering a premature death for reasons that have nothing to do with its effectiveness, demonstrate that average health risks in your insured population are progressively decreasing and have strong evidence to support your claim. This will show that your wellness program is effective and will lead to reduced medical claims over time - on average, $1,038 per year for each eliminated health risk, according to a study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Keep your wellness plan alive: Ensure senior leaders understand that reducing health risks - or even better, the change in the average health risk per employee - should be a key measurement for at least the first 12 to 36 months of your wellness program's lifespan. Call it a life insurance policy for your wellness program.
Americans go online for health information
The majority of adults in the United States have jumped on the Internet to educate themselves about health issues, according to a new report by Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
About 75% of Americans have access to the Internet, with 61% using broadband connections to obtain health information. The researchers interviewed 2,253 adults.Many are increasing their awareness of diseases, preventive medicine and prescription drugs while learning fitness and health tips. The shift to proactive self-teaching could be good news for employers that have understood ignorance of health issues often leads to poor health decisions, increased hospital visits and heightened claims.
The Pew study, researched in coordination with the California HealthCare Foundation, explains that nine years ago only 46% of American adults had Internet access and 25% looked online for information.
"We are beginning to see e-patients turning to interactive features both to help them find information tailored to their needs and to post their own contributions," says Susannah Fox, a co-author of the report and associate director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
"They treat the Internet as a supplement to traditional sources of information, using blogs, podcasts, and other online resources to deepen their understanding of a condition and sharpen their questions for a health professional," she adds.
Adults digest online information in a variety of ways; 59% have done one of the following, according to the Pew research:
- Read someone else's commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, Web site, or blog;
- Consulted rankings or reviews online of doctors or other providers;
- Consulted rankings or reviews online of hospitals or other medical facilities;
- Signed up to receive updates about health or medical issues;
- Listened to a podcast about health or medical issues.
As a supplement, the Internet comes in third as a source of health information, tied with books and behind asking a health professional and talking with a family member or friends.
When asked to recount their online health experiences, 60% of e-patients (42% of adults) say they or someone they know were aided by following medical advice or health information they found on the Internet, the study notes. This is a significant increase over 2006 Pew findings, which uncovered 31% of e-patients (25% of adults) utilized the Internet in this way.
A mere 3% of e-patients say that they or someone they know has been harmed by this counsel or information, a number which has remained constant since 2006.
Although growing numbers of U.S. companies are taking steps to "green up" their operations, those initiatives are being pushed harder these days by grass-roots efforts (no pun intended) by employees seeking to learn more about helping the planet.
The institute, a Pennsylvania-based HR research firm, finds workers in the United States report feeling more pride in working for their companies when they knew it had implemented green business practices (57%), compared to workers in Germany (46%), France (50%), Canada (46%) and Spain (52%).
Still, the data show U.S. employers need to catch up to their foreign counterparts in officially outlining their environmental position and objectives. This also includes encouraging their employees' creativity to find new ways to protect the environment.
"Although there appear to be opportunities for U.S. organizations to improve their environmental focus, employees who work in organizations that focus on environmental initiatives report stronger pride in the organization," Herman says. "This shows that organizations, even while facing challenges through the state of the economy, can reap the rewards of being environmentally conscious."
A study from Tandberg, a provider of HD video conferencing, echoes Kenexa's findings, revealing that 81% of employees would prefer to work for a company that has a firm reputation for environmental responsibility.
One such company is Berkeley, Calif.-based Bayer West Coast. As the largest private employer in the area, Bayer West Coast joined forces with the city of Berkeley in 1992 for a 30-year development agreement, which included an auto-use reduction program. The company provides free vanpooling for 25 of their 1,500 Berkeley employees with longer commutes and has set up subsidies of $60 a month for mass transit, of which 421 individuals take advantage. They also operate a shuttle to the local subway station for 130 employees daily.
On site, they give preferential parking spaces to those who drive hybrid or low-emission vehicles, and employees who walk to work a certain number of days a year receive $75 to purchase a pair of walking shoes.
The total transportation costs the Berkeley campus $500,000 a year, but a company shouldn't feel pressure to spend that kind of capital.
"You can do things that don't cost money because so much of environmental protection centers on the choices we make every day. There's something we all can do to be a leader in environmental protection, and that's at the organizational level down to the individual level," says Trina Ostrander, manager of the development agreement and community relations with the public policy and communications team at Bayer West Coast. "It's really important to communicate, 'There is hope, there are options, there's something everyone can do, so let's join together and do the best we can.' That's a great corporate message."
For its environmental fair, Bayer West Coast has enlisted the support of local utility companies to hand out energy-saving light bulbs, as well as educate employees on cost- and energy-saving initiatives they can apply to their homes. They also have set up a program where employees bring old electronics to work to be recycled.
Such efforts "promote awareness of how we focus on alternative options for the environment, as well as promoting employees to be aware of the environment," explains Sharone Page, chief human resources officer at Mantria Corporation in Pennsylvania. After implementing sustainable practices within the company, Mantria has already inspired three employees to purchase hybrids.
Mantria Corporation, a company focused on sustainable development in a number of sectors, offers a greening voucher of up to $500 for employees who "greenify" their home. The program has a 35% participation rate through which individuals have installed insulation, purchased front-loading washing machines or planted ferns and ivy to naturally filter air.
"My main advice to employers is to have something tangible that becomes part of the [company's] culture," recommends Page, who provides new hires with a 30-page green handbook detailing tips on how to live a sustainable life inside and outside the work environment.
Clif Bar, a maker of organic energy food and drinks in Berkeley, Calif., has ingrained its green initiatives into company culture through incentives and friendly competition. Launched in 2006, the company's Cool Commute program encourages employees to commute to work via foot, bike, public transportation or carpool. Its $6,500 cash incentive for employees who purchase a biodiesel-fueled, natural gas-fueled or high-mileage hybrid was the nation's first biodiesel incentive program for employees.
The Cool Bike program includes a two-mile challenge that encourages employees to forego driving for trips fewer than two miles. In exchange for biking twice a month, they receive $500 to improve their bike. The company extended its "Bike to Work Day" to an entire month, during which 70 of the 180 workers on the Berkeley campus formed teams and competed to post the most biking trips. The teams won points, which they could exchange for massages or commuter vouchers, and the winners received a donation to their charity of choice.
According to Jennifer Freitas, the HR manager at Clif Bar, employees appreciate the melding of their personal values and company support. "Sustaining the planet and sustaining our people are our values as a company, and the people who work here share in those values. I think that when you have values aligned, you have happy and engaged employees who are loyal to the company," she says.
Morty Cohen, the CEO of SunRidge Farms in Santa Cruz, Calif., started his company's bike-to-work program after reading about Clif Bar's "because it was the right thing to do." The initiative paid employees $5 each time they rode their bikes to and from work.
The program provides "an opportunity to all members of our team to live respectfully and healthily so that they are able to optimize their performance and lives. In my view, there is no distinction between inside [the office] and out; we're all human beings, and we should live our lives as consciously and respectfully as we can wherever we are," Cohen says.
Buck helps companies green up
Buck Consultants recently launched a practice group that counsels employers on green awareness in the workplace. The group hopes to help employers implement best practices that will improve the environment through reducing, reusing and recycling certain materials.
"We decided to explore what companies might need help with in ascertaining or defining what they want to do in the green space as it relates to HR," says Donald Sanford, managing director of Buck Consultants' communications practice.
The green practice group advises companies on educating their workers about how their behaviors in the office and at home affect the environment. The program offers monthly electronic communications, including newsletters and interactive games, as well as working with companies to appoint green coordinators in local offices to help develop plans and serve as points of contact for green practices.
Overall, green practices implemented by employers will vary depending on the industry. "But what we have seen, which is remarkable and exciting, is that the whole green initiative is becoming part of the vision and mission of the organization. The next step is to make it a part of their living culture," Sanford says.
Green stats make the case for direct deposit
According to the folks at PayItGreen, paying employees via direct deposit has saved U.S. businesses a total of $6.7 billion over the past 10 years, an average annual savings of $605 million — nothing to sneeze at in these tough times.
Breaking it down even further, the organization finds that in one year, if every U.S. employee with access to direct deposit used it, it annually could:
• Save 11,082,971 pounds of paper.
• Avoid the release of 105,709,380 gallons of wastewater.
• Save 4,105,889 gallons of gas.
• Avoid the release of 31,581,675 pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, equivalent to 112,329,703 miles not driven, 1,345,379 trees planted and 13,756,978 square feet of forest preserved.
The ‘Greening of HR’
“The Greening of HR Survey” conducted by Buck Consultants analyzed responses from 93 organizations in the United States, representing a wide range of industries.
The research was conducted during the fourth quarter of 2008 and examines the types of green initiatives employers are using in workforce management and human resources practices. According to Buck, more than 60% of survey respondents have made environmental responsibility part of their organization’s mission statement.
Some common green HR initiatives include:
• 78% using Web or teleconferencing to reduce travel.
• 76% promoting the reduction of paper use.
• 68% implementing wellness programs to foster employees’ proper nutrition, fitness and healthy living.
The survey found employee involvement in green programs dramatically increases when organizations appoint an individual to lead the efforts. For companies with at least three-quarters of their employees actively involved in green programs, 71% have appointed individual leaders, whereas only 29% do not have such a leader. Among companies that provide rewards to encourage green behaviors, 77% provide special employee recognition, 36% give prize incentives, and 14% provide a monetary reward.
