One of the major themes of last week's Transform HR Conference was wellness.  With health care costs continuing to rise, employers are looking for new and innovative ways to serve their employees while looking out for their bottom line.  Fran Melmed looked at ways that organizations could do better in her session, "The Second-Generation Workplace Wellness Program."  Similarly, Jennifer Benz looked at  HR communication efforts to make wellness more viable in her session, "3 Steps to Success: How Benefits Can Drive Your Strategic HR Efforts."  Even keynote speaker Billy Beane, GM for the Oakland A's, noted that injury analytics were the next market inefficiency baseball executives should look to expoit.

Coincidentally, in the March 5 edition of ESPN-The Magazine, Molly Knight highlights the Los Angeles Dodgers Senior Director of Medical Services, Stan Conte.  According to Conte, "In a post-Moneyball World, injury risk assessment is the final frontier." For over a decade, Conte has been trying to collect enough data to develop a compelling methodology.  Knight writes:

Conte is attempting to discover in advance who will get hurt and who won't - or at least give accurate odds.  With enough well-analyzed data from the past to inform roster decisions in the present, (Conte) believes, it's not outside the realm of possibility to assemble a team that goes an entire season without losing a day to the disabled list.

Certainly, the impact of injury on the roster is prohibitive.  Since 2007, Major League Baseball salary totals are $13.5 billion, of which $2.1 billion (15.2%) was paid to players on the disabled list.  Conte has made some initial progress:

More than a weatherman than a psychic, he can tell you that $22 million was lost in 2011 to oblique injuries that took an average healing time of35 days for pitchers and 26 days for position players.  He also knows that players almost always injure the oblique on the side they lead with (left for righthanders and vice versa) and that hitters account for 56% of those injuries.  Finally, he can say that a player put on the DL with that malady has a 12.2% chance of being DL'd with it again.

Certainly, these advanced analytics can impact decisions regarding talent:

In the Dodgers' new methodology for acquiring players, in which DL projections sit next to OPS stats on the GM's yellow pad, the question can become not only "What is the chance Guy X will get hurt?" but also "How badly will my team be affected if he does?"  It might be worth the gamble, Conte says, to add one high-risk, high-reward pitcher to a starting rotation of four reliably healthy hurlers, but it's suicidal to add two.

Most organizations would love to be on the same track with Conte, determining which applicants or employees are more likely to be absent or get injured....if only we could avoid those pesky genetic testing discrimination concerns

Kicking off the afternoon sessions of Day 2 of the Transform HR conference is "The Second-Generation Workplace Wellness Program" with Fran Melmed, Founder of Context Communication.  Given that wellness affects all employees, its important to not only learn about the continued barriers to effective workplace wellness, but the trends, innovations and successes that mark effective wellness programs.

Melmed asserts there is no better time to be discussing wellness.  Companies that are investing in wellness are seeing eight times more return in terms of employee engagement.  Companies are also offering 23 programs on wellness on average. 88% of all companies cite controlling employee health care costs as the #1 health care priority.  Incentives are being offered for screenings, etc., in an effort to get data to understand why some (many?) employees are not engaging in proper wellness behaviors.

Employees are spending 7.7 hours sitting.  Further, one's day job is extending into the night, which leads to greater stress, depression, etc., as they deal with caregiving.  This is compounded by stress of making ends meet, and not being able to find the time to, or even afford to, see a doctor.

So, how can organizations do wellness better? Melmed argues that there are seven levers that organizations can use to address this question:

1. Personal - What's in it for me in terms of benefits, communications and career arc?
2. Social - People are incredibly influenced by their networks.  Networks can influence weight gain or loss, quitting smoking, etc.  Health activists can serve as mentors for those apathetic or disempowered and bring them along.  HR can be the many tentacled group that serves as connectors to the different levels of health within the organization.
3. Mobile - With a mobile workforce, how is HR helping employees to find the time to take care of others, let along a work/life balance?  Smart phones provide an "ATM of health."  According to Susannah Fox, not only do smart phones allow us to look for health information, but people want to share their health knowledge with others.  
4. Emotional - Melmed says we are missing the boat here in terms of the connection of mind and body  For many employees, some health needs are hidden.  
5. Financial - Money is a huge stressor for individuals; wellness is linked to compensation.  Can we tie financial to employee health and wellbeing?
6. Environmental - Need to ferret out where we are inconsistent - offer sundaes in the cafeteria, but healthy items in the vending machine.  Can we put red, yellow, green stickers regarding the level of "healthiness" of the items offered at the cafeteria and in vending machines?  Should the "prestigious" parking spot that is awarded to the employee of the month be farther away?  What can we do to make the environment "fun" to climb the stairs?
7. Political - How can employers use their leverage to influence federal, state, and local policies?