Energy Solutions Mean Power for the People

BC Hydro & Accenture Business Services for Utitlities of BC
Vancouver, British Columbia

BC Hydro's reputation for finding unique 'energy solutions' for 94% of the province's population doesn't stop with its customers. Now, with the help of Accenture Business Services for Utitlities of BC, it also provides power to their own employees - health and wellness power that is!

The provincial Crown Corporation has close to 4,500 employees, and the company was one of the first organizations in Canada to introduce and sustain workplace health promotion, provided today by Accenture Business Services of BC.

Recently, BC Hydro has seen transformations that have reflected worldwide industry changes. Its back-office support functions are now under the umbrella of a new organization, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia. Accenture Business Services is one of the largest non-resource companies in BC and is now targeting the back-office utilities market throughout North America.

Lifestyle, the brand name for Accenture Business Service's health promotion program, was developed in 1989 and is currently in line with 'good' to 'excellent' ratings on the National Quality Institute's 'best practices' criteria for health promotion programs.

In fact, a recent review of Lifestyle found that the program has above industry-average levels of participation in its incentive program. Continued increases in the number and type of programs delivered, programs increasingly targeted to meet the unique needs of Accenture and BC Hydro employees, and strong growth in the use of health-related information, primarily via the companies' Intranet sites.

Moreover, participants in the Lifestyle incentive program invariably enjoy lower sick leave and disabling injury time off than their non-participating colleagues. The Lifestyle program is now under the auspices of Accenture as part of the company's Health & Safety offerings.

• The Lifestyle Program
• Identifying Trends & Providing Solutions
• Disease Intervention Techniques
• Containing Pharmaceutical Costs
• 5 Key Participation-Inducing Principles
• Conclusion

The Annual Employee Volleyball Tournament.

The Lifestyle Program

Key to Lifestyle's success is its wide variety of programs with the aim of reducing both absenteeism and health-care costs, while at the same time increasing productivity, building a safer workplace, recruiting and retaining quality employees, as well as fostering greater job satisfaction. The program works to target health issues identified through health risk appraisals.

"We're concerned with the physical and mental health of employees and we try to prevent and/or mitigate health problems in the workplace by giving employees the tools to be healthier," said Shirley Sung, Accenture Business Services of BC's Health & Safety Manager (formerly BC Hydro's Health Promotion Manager) in an interview with Benefits Canada magazine (Lee Owen, February 2003).

Initially, the tools available under the Lifestyle banner focused on educating employees around specific health risks such as lack of exercise, but the program evolved to include alternative treatments and information on related components, such as nutrition, weight management, flu shots, as well as glucose and cholesterol levels.

A group exercise class at the Burnaby Surges Fitness Centre location.

Identifying Trends & Providing Solutions

The Health Promotion Team works hard to identify trends in benefit consumption and match them with opportunities to address specific health issues to help contain costs and keep employees healthier both on and off the job.

For example, to promote heart health, Lifestyle conducted cardiovascular screenings of 272 employees which, when coupled with one-on-one sessions with wellness advisors resulted in 17 employees (43% of the risk group) lowering their risk from 'elevated' or 'high-risk' to 'normal' or 'lower'.

In another instance, when accident rates and their associated costs began to escalate, the Health Promotion Team developed 'Slips, Trips & Falls', a stretching and strengthening program aimed at older line crew members and meter readers.

With fully equipped health and wellness facilities in both Vancouver and Burnaby, implementation of the Lifestyle program also aims to provide effective disease intervention techniques and contain pharmaceutical costs.

Health & Wellness Advisor Gary Galloway conducts a one-on-one session with an employee.

Disease Intervention Techniques

Lifestyle's disease intervention techniques allows employees to reduce the number of retirements brought on by serious illness, while offering solutions to employees so they can remain productive throughout treatment for illness or injury.

For example, a diagnosis of depression or arthritis can result in a Health & Wellness Advisor setting up a customized exercise program to boost mood and improve energy while maintaining regular physical activity at safe levels.

At the on-site fitness facilities in Burnaby and Vancouver, employees can even receive physiotherapy so they don't have to leave the premises in order to find effective treatment.

Employees taking full advantage of one of two Surges Fitness Centres.

Containing Pharmaceutical Costs

With pharmaceutical costs in recent years hovering around the $2.5 million mark, Lifestyle has been taking a closer look at the use of medications and implementing programs to help limit their use in favor of more effective treatment and prevention measures.

For instance, after a review showed high use of ulcer-control drugs, the company set-up on-site education and blood-screen clinics to confirm the presence of H-pylori bacterium, which is commonly misdiagnosed as an ulcer but can usually be eradicated with just a single round of antibiotics.

The clinics gave those employees who tested positive for H-pylori an information kit with a copy of their test results that they could take to their doctor in order to try the antibiotic treatment. This eliminated the need for BC Hydro to cover the costs of ongoing expensive ulcer medication in those cases where it was not actually the appropriate treatment.

Just one year after the Ulcer Care program's inception, BC Hydro had reduced the consumption of gastrointestinal drugs by 4%, saving them $240,000 in benefit costs. Affected employees felt healthier, and were happier knowing they no longer had to follow the food constraints of the disease.

5 Key Participation-Inducing Principles

Regardless of the industry or size of company, Accenture Business Services' Health & Safety Manager Shirley Sung endorses and follows National Quality Institute's five key principles to designing workplace wellness policies that stimulate the strong level of employee participation enjoyed at Accenture Business Services and BC Hydro.

These principles are:

a) Personal Control: Allowing each employee to set their own health-related goals

b) Social Support: Addressing the unique social support needs of employees as they participate in the activities aimed at improving their health and wellness

c) Interactivity: Recognizing that positive health behaviors are often interdependent (e.g., sleep patterns, exercise habits and nutrition routines are usually related)

d) Wide Appeal: Developing programs and policies that meet the needs, skills and preferences of a variety of employees

e) Convenience: Ensuring programs are easily accessible to employees who may be just starting out and vulnerable to perceived barriers to change (e.g., where possible, have on-site facilities and classes; allow 'flex-time' so employees can improve their health during the workday; set-up 'buddy systems' with other employees so the newly active can practice healthier behaviors with peer support; etc.)

Conclusion

BC Hydro's efficient, reliable hydroelectric system means that British Columbians enjoy some of the lowest electricity rates in the world. Now, with the help of Accenture Business Services' health promotion services team, the company's real power comes from the energy of its fit and healthy workforce.

For more information, please contact Shirley Sung, Health & Safety Manager at Accenture Business Services for Utitlities via email at shirley.sung@accenturebizservicesbc.com.

Click here to see the full archive of case studies and to access information on the seven principles of highly successful physical activity in the workplace programs.

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