Workology Podcast Episode 451: How Total Wellness Can Impact Your Bottom Line

Speaker A: Welcome to the Workology Podcast, a uh, podcast for the disruptive workplace leader. Join host Jessica Miller Merrill, founder of uh, workology.com as she sits down and gets to the bottom of trends, tools and case studies for the business leader HR and recruiting professional who is tired of the status quo. Now here's Jessica with this episode of Workology.

Speaker B: Welcome to the Workology Podcast sponsored by ace. The ah, HR Exam and Upscale Skill hr. These are two of the courses that we offer for certification prep and recertification for HR leaders. You can learn more about those courses over@workology.com this interview was recorded during the World at Work Total Rewards conference in San Antonio, Texas. And I met so many smart people during this conference and I'm thrilled to be able to highlight their expertise on the podcast. If you are thinking about wellness programs as a nice to have perk, this episode just might change your mind because today we're digging into something I think every HR leader is being asked right now, how do we take care of our people and show real business impact? And spoiler, uh, alert. You don't have to choose. I'm your host, Jessica Miller Merrill and in this episode we're talking about what happens when wellness programs become more than a program. Um, it becomes part of how your organization operates. From reducing health care costs to improving engagement, retention and even internal mobility, total wellness can directly influence your bottom line in ways that are measurable and meaningful. And if you've ever struggled to get leadership buy in for wellness, I mean, who hasn't, sadly? Or if you're looking to evolve your approach from transactional to transformational, this conversation is going to give you both the inspiration and the data to back that up. Uh, let's get into it. But before I introduce our guest for today, I do want to hear from you. Please comment podcast on our pin post over on Instagram. It's at Workology Blog and you can ask me questions there, leave comments and make suggestions for future guests. I want to hear from you before we start the podcast and introduce the guests. I just want to say that there might be some Taylor Swift references is happening, so don't be alarmed. We'll try to keep those, I don't know on the down low a little bit, but we're going to have some fun with this because our guest is exactly that. Joining me today is Whitney Ayer. She's the Wellness Program Manager at Garver, where she leads comprehensive wellness initiatives for more than 1500 employees across 60 plus offices nationwide with a focus on total well being. With Whitney designs and implements programs that support physical, mental, and emotional health, helping employees thrive both inside and outside of work. Her approach centers on creating sustainable lifestyle changes through education, engagement, and a culture that prioritizes wellness at every level of the organization. Whitney holds a Master's degree in Health Promotion and Education from Mississippi State University and is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist. Certified. She's also a CrossFit Level 2 trainer and an ACE certified nutrition specialist and a certified Red Cross in CPR and AED first aid instructor. In addition, Whitney is certified in mental health first Aid through the National Council for Mental well Being. And her work at Garver has contributed to measurable outcomes which we get to talk about and you're going to be blown away, including reduced, uh, health risk scores and projected health care cost savings. Demonstrating the powerful connection between employee well being and organizational success at Total Rewards, Whitney presented a session entitled Brains Gains and Health Care Claims How Garver Built a Culture of Total Wellness. And that is why I wanted to sit down with her to talk with you about this topic. So, Whitney, welcome to the workology podcast.

Speaker A: Thanks, fellow Swifty.

Speaker B: I know. So your presentation was so fun and I loved all the Swifty references. So we just had to start out

Speaker A: with all that we do.

Speaker B: Let's just, let's just go off the script right away.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: Your favorite era.

Speaker A: Reputation.

Speaker B: Okay, thank you. I would say that my favorite era is folklore, actually.

Speaker A: So. Okay.

Speaker B: I just loved her in the pandemic.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, we needed Taylor Swift in the pandemic. We also needed Tiger King. So it was a good balance.

Speaker B: It's a good balance. Well, let's get back to the conversation, but let's start with the big picture. When you talk about total wellness, what does that really mean at Garver and how is it different from a traditional wellness program?

Speaker A: Yeah, so, um, Garver really believes that employees and their families deserve a, uh, comprehensive and competitive benefits package. And so it's really designed so that people, uh, can thrive personally and professionally. Um, and wellness is a, is a key part of that. So we really focus on five pillars of health. Um, mental, social, occupational, financial, and physical. And I'm really excited in 2027 to also bring purpose to the, to the pillars. Um, and again, it's really incentivizing those, uh, individuals to utilize preventative care at no cost to them. So we want to break down those barriers so that they are really empowered with the knowledge to improve their overall health.

Speaker B: So you guys are self insured?

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Can you walk us through what that means maybe for somebody who's not familiar.

Speaker A: Yes. So that means that we cover the majority of healthcare claims costs that are coming through the door. So um, while our employees do pay certain, uh, premiums, Garver is in turn taking care of the healthcare costs on the back end.

Speaker B: And I think based on when I was in your presentation, that that allows you guys to do a lot of different things that are really non traditional in the benefits and, and wellness space.

Speaker A: Yeah, we get the opportunity to kind of think differently. So obviously to kind of dumb it down a little bit, you can basically say that we get to create our own rules and then work within those own rules. Now obviously we're not breaking laws here, but, but you know, if we want to cover X amount of visits for whatever care it might be, we can set those rules up.

Speaker B: So for anyone who is not familiar with being self insured and like the ability, so some of the things we're going to talk about, somebody who's not self insured might not be able to, to offer or be able to do.

Speaker A: Yeah, but I, then I would pose the question back to them and be like, how can you think about it differently? You know, how can you be innovative and work within the confines of what you have, uh, laid out on the table? And if you want to message me, I'd love to talk to you not only about eras, but also about how to think about that differently.

Speaker B: Many HR leaders are really struggling right now to connect wellness to business impact, which frankly I think HR in general is having a challenge connecting what we do to business impact. But we're just going to talk about wellness here. How did you begin tying wellness initiatives to measurable outcomes like health care costs, productivity and retention?

Speaker A: We gave it a few years period. Um, but no, we really had to give it. Uh, Garva's been around for more than 100 years and so we've really had the opportunity to kind of perfect culture. We've had the opportunity to perfect what works for us and our people and what doesn't work for us and our people and having a safe place to trial and error a few things. Um, and so when we really think about our people first culture, um, we are using data to then tell stories. So we really want our people to feel supported, connected and well, engaged. Um, because we know that in the end that's going to help with performance. When it comes to a wellness standpoint, you know, if someone can be well and we can be taking care of them as the whole person, then your data should show that, that they're more productive. And while that may be kind of hard to showcase, I can promise you that you can then look at it from missed days at work. It's like productivity may be kind of hard to, to measure, but when you start looking at health care claims, costs going down, or like I mentioned, missed days at work going down, or vacations, vacation days actually being used, because that is a piece of wellness is taking time off, then you really get to see that, uh, you're making an impact on people's lives.

Speaker B: So you kind of walked us through the different pillars of the wellness program at Garver. What kind of impact have you seen from your approach?

Speaker A: Well, it's really just made people have the ability to take responsibility for their own well being. Right, right. So, um, it's, it's made accessibility come to the forefront. So we have great stories, we have the data, we have the math is mathing. Right. That's what I call my data section in my presentation. But we have the stories. And that's really where it comes down to. Because someone was required to see their primary care physician, um, it really pushed them to focus on consistency and long term health. And they've lost 38 pounds and now their labs have never looked better. And, and so when you think about like, uh, like the impact that we've made, yes, there are numbers, yes, there are dollars tied to it, but man, those stories are so, so, so impactful. And those are my favorite pieces as to why, um, what we're doing on a daily basis.

Speaker B: And a lot of where you're getting those stories is because you have a podcast focus on wellness internally at the organization, which I think is amazing. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so I'm like everyone's mom at this point. Right. I've been around for about eight years at Garver and you know, it's like eat your vegetables and, and get sleep and do all these things. But in reality like that I start to sound like I think I can't remember who the person is on Snoopy, but like the wah, wah, wah.

Speaker B: The teacher.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, sounds like teacher. So, um, we decided to host in house podcasts where our employees can share their well being stories. And that is just a really great way for people to, to um, just show their success. This isn't rocket science here. And, and what's working for them could work for other people. And how motivating is it that you are sitting in the cubicle next to the person who maybe has you know, lost 100 pounds because they just went out and started walking and stopped eating out for lunch every day.

Speaker B: I love that. And I, I feel like podcasts are underutilized in, uh, in the corporate space. So I love that you're able to do that. And what's great is you're able to build rapport with team and you're able to extract those stories and be able to share them with leaders on stage at the presentation. Uh, and probably more.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, and also like we are. So I'm screen fatigued. Right. Like, I do a lot of virtual meetings with people. And so being able to, if you want to break down barriers, you have to be able to provide an opportunity for someone to, to listen or do something at any time during the day. And so that means that when they're driving to work, instead of listening to music, they could be listening to their coworkers, share their employee wellbeing story. And that's really, really cool. So I, you know, you can't say, oh, well, uh, it's just one more webinar that I have to listen to. No, you can listen to it in your car while you're driving, share it with your family. Maybe it'll impact someone there too.

Speaker B: I love it. Obviously, I'm on team podcast, because here we are. You've successfully moved employees. And I really want to talk about this because this was amazing. Moving them from high risk to low risk categories. What specific programs or interventions help drive that kind of behavioral change? And then give us the number because I think that was where the room sort of the air kind of came out of it a little bit. So walk us through.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, so again, we run our wellness program in house. So sometimes you're looking at vendors who run people's wellness programs. I have a full time job at Garver. This is, my only job is to run this program. And so again, I really have the opportunity to get to know everyone's name and face versus them being a number. Um, I take all of their feedback, whether it's, uh, positive or critical or if it hurts my feelings because I think about this program as my baby more so than an actual program. Um, it's going to help guide, uh, smarter decisions. And that also shows that we value our people's voices. And they, um, they, they believe in the program because they've created the program themselves. I'm just creating activities that they, their idea from their ideas. And so, um, when it, when it comes to. Yes, uh, with all of that background knowledge though, one data One year of data is not really going to tell, like a full story. And so early on it can really look like you're actually spending way more in return. So when we looked at a cohort over three years, uh, we had 315 members, uh, start out classified as at risk. And by year three, 91 of them had moved into the low risk category. It's a 29% positive risk shift and it translates into $625,000 worth of savings.

Speaker B: $625,000.

Speaker A: That's a lot of money.

Speaker B: I mean, that is not that it should be all about money.

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: But if you wanted to get your CEO and leadership team's attention, suddenly being able to say, this program did this, uh, HR isn't necessarily known for cost savings.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: They're known for cost increases. So this one is a big one.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. And again, I think when you can really, your C suite is going to have people who love numbers, but you're also going to have those that love stories. They love the fluff, the feel goods. And so when you can combine both of those together to tell a story, uh, I think that that's where you really make the biggest impact.

Speaker B: We're going to take a reset here. This is Jessica Miller Merrill, and you're listening to the Workology podcast podcast powered by ace, the hr, Ah, Exam and Upscale hr. Today I am chatting with Whitney Ayers, wellness program manager at Garver, about how total wellness can impact your bottom line. So let's get back at it. I want to talk about wellness programs. A lot of companies offer them, but participation in them can be a challenge. What have you done to create engagement that actually sticks?

Speaker A: I touched on this a little bit, uh, earlier about just having our people create the program themselves. So inclusion creates a sense of ownership and really fosters a culture of engagement. And so when they see what they want, we do surveys. When, when, when it is their program, if they want points for reading books, dang it, I'm gonna give them points for reading books. You know, like, so that means that every single person has something in the wellness program that they can actually participate in that. So it draws them in. If I can get you in for reading books, maybe I'll get you in, uh, to take a look at going for a 20 minute walk and then maybe I'll get you at working with the nutritionist. And now we've got your mental health kind of taken care of by slowing down reading that book. We've got, we've got your physical health Taken care of, and we're taking care of your nutritional health. And it just starts, builds, snowballing.

Speaker B: I love it. You also, I mean, you're talking a little bit about mind, body, and that approach. How have you integrated any other mental health support alongside wellness in a way that maybe employees really use? Because I think sometimes we put these things together and then the adoption isn't happening. What's working for you?

Speaker A: Mental health is my favorite thing to talk about. Um, and it's all about being vulnerable. So if we can really change the stigma surrounding mental health in the workplace. Um, I joke, but I'm not joking when I say that my people know that my happiness and sanity is, uh, provided in 80 milligram tablets. So, um, shout out to, um, that. And, you know, I, I, that's what I'm talking about when I say, like, I'm just open about it. Like, this shouldn't be a stigma around this. And so we really normalized the conversations. And because of that, in 20, from 2020 to 2021, we saw a 60% increase in behavioral health visits. And then we continued to see a rise in those from 11% rise and then 14% rise. And, and we look at that as, uh, like you may think, oh, my gosh, your healthcare claims just keep going up. But we look at that as, like a positive because it means that our people, people are taking action to address their mental health needs because they feel comfortable and confident enough to say, hey, I need help. How can I get that help? Whether that's through our employee support program or whether that's through using their insurance benefits, to actually see a, uh, clinical professional.

Speaker B: Just because claims go down isn't a good thing. No, I'll just say, and I think that we saw that during COVID Yeah. Where people weren't going to the doctor. And then once everybody kind of got back, there were more claims. And our, uh, one of our other podcast guests here from the conference talked about cancer diagnosis, and those claims increased because people put off the basic preventative things. And so more claims isn't necessarily bad in this instance.

Speaker A: Yeah, we definitely want to continue to see, like, our preventative care visits rise, which we have. We want to be above the norm. You know, I think sometimes people look at goals and statistics and they're like, oh, uh, I need to be below the benchmark. Not in this case. We want you visiting that primary care physician and creating that relationship with them, because in the end that's going to drive down costs. So if you're looking for again, Uh, a leadership's love language here and saying like, well, I don't want to send a lot of money to implement a wellness program. Well, you're probably spending a lot of money already with your health insurance claims costs. Let's just spin it around and put that money into the wellness program to then in a few years lower those healthcare claims costs.

Speaker B: I love your approach about how you go beyond programs and into culture. Uh, what are some practical ways that HR leaders can start embedding wellness into the organization's day to day operations?

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, so we synergize, that's the fun buzzword with the benefits team, our total rewards team. And so we're really looking at how we can work together with them in partnership as uh, collaborators. Um, so really, but combining their expertise and then combining the wellness program to gamify essentially, uh, what we want those behavior changes to be, then these teams really can design programs that are not only more effective but also more engaging and financially sustain ultimately, like leading to healthier, more satisfied workforces. And I would say one key thing that I feel like most people don't even, maybe even realize that they have the, the um, resources for is that they already have some of these things in their back pocket. So if you have a 401k provider, you have an insurance broker like they are resources, use them. So if you want to celebrate America Saves Week, then call up whoever your 401k provider is and ask them to do a presentation. More than likely it's going to be for free. Um, and there's your financial wellness for the, for the week. Um, you know, if, if you have an insurance carrier, they probably have wellness resources for you to utilize. So use them. And they're free. They're just emailing them to you and then push those out to your people. And then if your people kind of start to buy in, they kind of start to say, oh, this looks kind of cool, this is a Taylor Swift bridge I want to like memorize. Then they are going to go and uh, you can, you can continue to

Speaker B: customize those and brand those for organizations just getting started. Or maybe those who are feeling stuck with low impact programs. What's one thing you think they can do right now to shift towards a more strategic, results driven wellness approach?

Speaker A: I thought about this one and I'm going to have to lean on my answer. Might be different every single day that you would ask me this question, but today I'm going to lean on Garver's guiding principles. And if the direction that your company is going if they have a strategic plan. Try and align your wellness goals up to that strategic plan. Because again, that way there's more buy in from your people, there's more buy in from your leadership team. M. Um. And. And that way you really can find those results in your, you know, long term success.

Speaker B: Love it. So, last question. When do you think reptv is going to come out?

Speaker A: She wrote it in the note that she wasn't going to do it. But I would love. I need a Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne mashup.

Speaker B: I would. I mean, I can't. I love to see who she's collaborating with. I kind of went down this whole rabbit hole where I just listened to everybody she's collaborated with for probably like three weeks. It was fantastic.

Speaker A: Yeah, man. Uh, the life of a showgirl is probably one of my seconds. But I'm also in 1989. Girly and a lover. Girly midnights. I love them all. But when she came out with Post Malone, that was my. That was like a love language. That was a love letter. And I was like, thank you so much, Taylor Swift, for writing a song with Post Malone, because I love Posty too. But now I need you to get on board with Rep TV and invite Lil Wayne.

Speaker B: Anybody know Taylor? Send this. This right over to her right now. We need this.

Speaker A: Oh, gosh, I would die.

Speaker B: Has she ever liked anything on your social media or anybody that you know? It's like, I love it when it happens and then all the Swifties going crazy. Yeah, it's the coolest.

Speaker A: But maybe we could tag her.

Speaker B: We should. When this comes out, we need to tag her and do all the hashtags. So it's a plan.

Speaker A: And while I want to respect her wedding, man, I really, really, really want it to be like the royal wedding where they record it and we all can, like, sit at 3am Wouldn't it

Speaker B: be great to have, like, a documentary that comes out on Disney plus, like,

Speaker A: let's manifest that I would totally know what they want.

Speaker B: Well, Whitney, it's been so great. Uh, where can go. Where can people go to learn more about you and the work that you do?

Speaker A: Oh, well, you can find me on LinkedIn. Uh, Whitney Ayers, um, you can also, uh, follow Garver Wellness, uh, on Instagram at Garver Underscore Wellness. And that just gives you kind of an idea of what we're doing with our program and all the fun things that our people are doing to connect with one another across our footprint and message me. I'm the one that runs the account. So I'll get it and then we can continue to nerd out about corporate wellness.

Speaker B: I love it. Well Whitney, this has been such a great conversation and I love how you've shown that wellness isn't just about offering resources. It's about embedding support into the culture so employees actually feel it, use it, and benefit from it. So for those of you listening, I hope this episode challenged the way that you think about wellness in your organization. The biggest takeaway for me is this. When we connect wellness to outcomes like health care costs, engagement and retention, we stop defending the investment and start proving it's value. And that's where the real change happens. If you want to build a program that drives participation and results, start small. Stay consistent, and don't underestimate the power of data and your storytelling combined. If you found this conversation helpful, be sure to subscribe and share it with a colleague. Maybe tag Taylor Swift and keep the conversation going. I will see you next time. Thank you for joining the Workology Podcast. We're sponsored by ACE the HR Exam and Upskill Skill hr. It's part of Workology's learning platform where we help you with HR certification, recertification and manager training. And check out our newest venture, it's the HR Tech Marketplace. Go to www.marketplace.workology.com. this podcast is for the disruptive workplace leader who's tired of the status quo. My name is Jessica Miller Merrill. Until next time, visit workology.com to listen to all our podcast episodes.