Description
As a human resources specialist at Johnson & Johnson, you’ve identified a costly problem related to employee health. Every time a worker calls in sick or comes to the office feeling lousy and unable to perform well, productivity slides and the company loses money – not just a little but thousands of dollars each year.
To put a lid on the high cost of employee illness, J&J has decided against building another gym or adding more low cholesterol foods to the cafeteria menu (earlier tactics that haven’t paid off very well). Its “Live for Life” wellness campaign offers incentives for achieving and maintaining good health. Even if the program ends up costing the company several hundred dollars per employee, your calculations indicate that that it could save millions of dollars per year through reduced absenteeism and fewer health claims.
The Live for Life program targets several major contributors to poor health and accidents: smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, stress, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, and neglecting to use car seat belts. Instead of rewarding results (which can be temporary), the company will reward the process, thus encouraging employees to develop new habits that should keep them healthier, happier, and more productive over the long run.
For example, every employee who exercises an average of 4 hours per week over a month will earn 30 Live for Life dollars – play money exchangeable for merchandise like sweatshirts, sweat socks or even health club memberships. A blood pressure or cholesterol check is worth 5 Live for Life dollars, and a talk with children about drug and alcohol abuse is worth 10. Always wearing your seat belt when driving brings a reward of 25 Live for Life dollars. For all nonsmokers, J&J will reduce employees’ health insurance copayment rates by 5 percent.
To implement the reward system, the company plans to accept all claims employees make about their wellness efforts. After all, getting people thinking about health may get them doing something about it.
task: Write a letter introducing Live for Life and persuading workers to participate in the new wellness campaign.
This is a case where the AIDA approach will work well. Remember, the appeal must be to the employee’s benefit. If their health improves, your company productivity improves as well, but you needn’t speak to that aspect.
