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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Chronic Disease Prevention
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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Chronic Disease Prevention Home | Contact Us |
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CENTERS FOR
DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION L.L.Bean The Healthy Bean wellness program helps the employees of L.L.Bean make behavior and lifestyle changes that reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke. The program’s focus on healthy lifestyles stems from company founder Leon Leonwood Bean. “He lived to be in his 90s and enjoyed hunting, fishing, and spending time in the outdoors his entire life,” recalled Susan Tufts, Manager of the Wellness Program. “It would have been hard to do that without leading a healthy lifestyle.” L.L. Bean’s grandson, Leon Gorman, launched the employee wellness program in 1982 because he felt it was the right thing to do. “But the program never would have lasted all these years if it had not been a good business decision as well,” said Ms. Tufts. L.L.Bean employs about 4,000 regular employees and as many as 6,000 seasonal workers each year. Heart disease is the number one health risk for employees, and it contributes significantly to L.L.Bean’s health care costs. “We are a self-insured company, so our health care costs are directly related to what the employees spend,” she explained. To help control these costs, L.L.Bean promotes the cardiovascular health of its employees in many ways: by offering health risk assessments, helping with smoking cessation, offering exercise incentives, helping with weight management, and providing team activities that focus on healthy lifestyles. Health Assessments Are Comprehensive Each health risk assessment takes 90 minutes to complete, and it is done on company time. Employees are paid $40 in cash to undergo the assessment, which includes tests to check blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and body composition. “In the past, we targeted risks by department (for instance, people in shipping might be more likely to smoke), but now we do a comprehensive health risk assessment, looking at each employee’s risk factors for cardiovascular disease as well as mental health,” Ms. Tufts said. At the end of the assessment, employees get immediate feedback about their health status and are told what services are available to help them improve their health. Employees with a high risk for cardiovascular disease are referred to a counselor, and they can earn up to $200 if they make healthy changes in their lives. “Some people tell us they had never had their cholesterol measured, so these assessments are a great awareness tool,” according to Ms. Tufts. “It’s important for people to not only know their blood pressure and cholesterol levels but to know what they mean. It’s important that they understand the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy weight.” “Companies must look at the total person—and what is going on in their lives—if these interventions are to work,” Ms. Tufts emphasized. “If a person is suffering from anxiety, depression, or stress, they’re not necessarily going to be successful in addressing their cardiovascular disease risks until those problems are addressed,” she explained. The health risk assessment also carefully measures each employee’s readiness to change. “Someone who is eager and ready to stop smoking could benefit far more from a smoking cessation program than a person who is only contemplating such a change,” Ms. Tufts pointed out. “We have focused on all of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease since the program began,” said Ms. Tufts, “and these efforts are paying off. Our smoking rate was about 24% in 1985,” she said. “Today, we have dropped that rate down to 12.9 —that’s close to a 45% reduction. With about 500 fewer employees who smoke, we estimate that we save about $750,000 a year in health care costs.” Work with Community Partners
L.L.Bean has developed partnerships that have strengthened its Healthy Bean wellness program. For example, the local Visiting Nurses Association sends nurses to conduct cholesterol screening and diabetes education workshops at the company. The company also considers the state of Maine a key partner. When the governor of Maine launched the Healthy Maine Partnerships Initiative, L.L.Bean launched its own Healthy Bean Initiative, which aims to change the company’s environment and culture in healthy ways. “One way we’ve changed the environment is by subsidizing the fruit and salad bar at work, cutting the price by 25%,” said Ms. Tufts. “At the same time, we slightly increased the price of less healthy foods. Since we did that, we’ve seen a 50% increase in the use of the fruit and salad bar and almost a 50% decline in french fry sales.” “Promoting healthy lifestyles at work makes good business sense,” Ms. Tufts advised, “whether your business is large or small. When you look at preventing cardiovascular disease, everything is related to lifestyle factors,” she said, “and anything you can do to prevent cardiovascular disease will benefit the company’s bottom line. Small employers are now trying this because health care costs can make or break the company.” Her advice to other companies is, “Get strong leadership support for your wellness program. Make sure employees at all levels of your company are involved and have access to these services. And always, always maintain respect for the individual and recognize that behavior change is difficult.” |
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Privacy
Policy | Accessibility This page last reviewed August 12, 2004 United
States Department of Health and Human Services |
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