Organizational Wellness: What is it, why is it important, what good is it?
Judy Lofurno SHRM-SCP
Judy Lofurno is the Director of Organizational Wellness at HQ PT. She has over 25 years of HR Management experience with various industries including insurance, advertising, retail and hospitality as well as working as a consultant. Judy is passionate about staying active with regular training and participates in local tennis leagues. Judy has extensive training and experience in corporate wellness program implementation. In addition, Judy is involved in various ways with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help in the efforts to end all cancer.
When you launch a wellness program, you will want HQ PT by your side. Why?
A company's most important asset and largest overhead cost is, often, their people. Labor accounts for the single largest expenditure for most companies. The people that make up organizations also have a huge impact on the overall success of the company. That being said, to best serve and enhance the quality of life of your most valuable asset we choose to use the best resources possible.
When implementing a wellness program, you will yield the best outcomes and success when selecting the right partner. Our program is personalized and designed by an expert team of Doctors of Physical Therapy, Registered Dietitians, and Human Resources specialists who provide simple, but effective, solutions that are proven to have lasting impact in the health and wellness of each unique individual we encounter.
Too often, we see companies using self-guided, “wellness points” systems to incentivize employee participation with the goal of lower insurance premiums. However, the program options put all the responsibility on the employee to make changes without any guidance as to why these changes might be helpful to them. These programs also lack the accountability necessary for these changes to remain. At the end of the year the number of employees making true lifestyle changes is minimal at best and the employee is left feeling like their health is an item to be bartered for. The HQ PT team understands that a personal connection to the process of improving wellness has a significant positive impact on the outcomes of the program.
“75 percent of employees we surveyed said “personal touch” was important in their wellness program and can come from knowledgeable “live” experts—such as coaches and specialists—who are credible, engaging, easy to access, and provide one-on-one support for their specific needs” - 2017 survey by the Society of Human Resource Management.
Headquarters Physical Therapy is different in that we custom build and implement our programs to fit the unique needs of our clients. The same providers that serve top athletes and individuals seeking the highest quality of care are the experts that you will interact with to develop and implement a program. We are your information curators. Our clinicians hold themselves to the highest standard of utilizing evidence-informed education and interventions. An art curator’s job is to make sure that only the best pieces make it into the gallery. There is a lot of good work that gets left out, good does not make the cut. This is how we operate. Only the best and most impactful information and interventions are implemented.
For example, Michelle Tegenkamp, HQ PT’s Lead Dietitian/Nutritionist is also the Dietitian for the Portland Trailblazers. She takes extreme care to make sure that the Trail Blazers players are fueled properly to perform, consistently, at a very high level. No gimmicks, no placebo, just results. She applies the same principles when working with individuals in the organizational setting. With so many fad diets and outlandish claims by the dieting industry, it is easy for people to forsake the science-based principles for the “quick fix” or “magic bullet”. Some of the information that comes out is good, however, only the best and proven tactics for improved health and wellness will make it into actionable information that Michelle promotes. This leads to sustainable success for the individual, rather than a crash and burn fad diet.
Our Doctors of Physical Therapy are dedicated to the empowerment of the individuals that they work with. This means that they work tirelessly to promote individual autonomy in the rehab and training process. They aim to educate and equip people to better evaluate health and wellness information as it is presented to them. In a world where celebrity sound-bites and social media posts have a high degree of influence on our decision making process it is important to have someone in your corner who is dedicated to helping you filter out the misinformation. HQ PT clinicians seek to give people the tools they need for long-term success, not make them more reliant on a given treatment or practitioner.
Each client group experiences high level interaction with Headquarters PT team members. We have the ability to work with groups either virtually or in person or we can arrange for 1 to 1 sessions for employees to receive personalized consultations. The authors of the previously mentioned 2017 SHRM survey also found that, “Employees also value a program that helps them connect their health results to their everyday choices and want information on new programs, tips, deadlines and customized topics that meet their needs. Having the ability to also choose the type and frequency of communication methods helps employees feel like the programs were meant for them rather than the masses.”
Our methods are customized to be an extension of the company culture. In preparation for working with a new client, we make sure we understand the culture, needs and nuances within an organization. Our educational platform is structured to provide unique solutions, backed by hard science, to address the most pressing health and wellness needs of your workforce. From sleep health, exercise and fitness, pain management, mental health, and nutrition - we provide a holistic program to keep your employees healthier, happier, and feeling more valued.
Technology certainly plays a role in the way that we target our education and interventions. The more insight we have into the actual challenges that a company is facing, the more we can pinpoint what areas of investment in wellness will have the greatest ROI. We have the ability to ingest company claims data, via some incredible software technology, which allows us to identify cost saving opportunities and gaps in care management. We then analyze success by looking for a reduction in healthcare spending in the most costly domains of health and wellness for the organization. We also utilize highly tuned computed adaptive subjective testing that allows us to obtain an understanding of how employees rate themselves across a number of domains of health and wellness.
Are you currently involved with wellness in any way? We offer a wide range of services that can accommodate just about any budget, needs, wants, and goals.
Please contact me at judy@headquarterspt.com to learn more.