On-line wellness program offered free of charge
Assists in identifying high-risk employees
RealAge, a San Diego-based firm that pioneered a unique method for measuring health status, has expanded its reach with an on-line work site wellness program through its Web site at RealAge. com. The program, which is being offered free of charge, provides interactive health information and motivational tools, daily health tips, and links to a variety of health-related products.
But perhaps most important of all, RealAge’s health assessment tool, which computes an individual’s "real" age in terms of health status and risk factors, as opposed to their chronological age, can be used to provide a corporation with aggregate data that will help identify specific areas of concern within the employee population.
The on-line program was launched in April 1999. "We are well aware of the fact that more and more corporations are recognizing the benefits of work site health programs," notes Steve Sarner, vice president of marketing. "We can either supplement or be a major part of an ongoing work site health program. Our program has excellent content, and can free up staff time. The benefit to us, and the reason we are offering it on a no-charge basis, is that we can build our brand and hopefully recruit employees as RealAge members."
Putting it to work
RealAge.com is different from other Internet-based wellness programs, explains Steve Davis, work site health manager for RealAge. "Our program is unique, proprietary, and patented," he notes. "We believe it is a much more robust, accurate, and meaningful measure of a person’s health. We bring a currency value to your health, show you how to benchmark it, and give you recommendations and options. We bring a qualitative value to your health status, and then give you choices."
The RealAge site is most often contacted through a company’s intranet. "The wellness professional contacts us, I send them a URL,and their systems people then cut and paste it onto their intranet," Davis explains. "Then the employee clicks on the RealAge logo and goes to the jump page."
Employees can fill out the RealAge assessment in about 30 minutes, and then receive a report on their "real" age and suggestions on how to lower that age.
"After a certain number of employees have gone to the jump page we can highlight information and report aggregate health data in a comprehensive report to the health manager," says Davis. (A sample report is shown on p. 54.)
"If I’m a work site health promotion manager and the report says 25% of my work force is identified as having a specific health risk, I can take my resources and put them toward, say, weight reduction or smoking cessation," he continues. "Virtually, every other wellness vendor charges for that."
"Wellness managers might wish to expand their services based on those results to offer high-risk condition assessments," Sarner suggests. "We also provide a link into our own clinical reference library."
Employees can also become RealAge "members" at no cost. "They have the opportunity to come to the site and take any number of our assessments," says Sarner. "In addition, we are continually scanning databases, looking for products and services that might benefit members. We are able to negotiate with vendors and get special offers and deals and present them to our members."
This service is also a source of income to RealAge. "We act as the agent for major companies, and then pass along the deals to the members," Davis explains. "It’s an excellent win- win’ situation."
Reaching beyond the choir’
Having access to an on-line program can help a wellness professional expand his reach to employees. That was the rationale that convinced John DeGregory, director of corporate fitness at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, CA, to try RealAge.com.
"With the programs I currently manage and run we’re preaching to the choir for the most part, but a much larger segment of the employee population needs help with balancing work/life issues and they’re not getting it," he explains. "This program is easily accessible from a computer terminal, it’s reputable, it’s well-designed, and the employees don’t need to come to the fitness center to see me."
Lockheed Martin is currently in the implementation stage with the program. "We’re now looking specifically at their Tip of the Day,’" he reports. It is being offered as a pilot program for any employee who participates in any of the wellness modules currently offered at the company.
It’s still too early to evaluate the program, says DeGregory, but he says that employees seem to appreciate the new service. "Here in Silicon Valley, employees really appreciate technical stuff," he says. "The site is well-designed, and I like its technical breadth and scope. And there’s not too much reading; everything is very well-summarized."
In addition, he says, "This is a potential new frontline employee benefit for us; it’s something we don’t do right now, and we can tie it in with our current services."
www.RealAge.com |
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RealAge Usage Report for Sample Corporation Employees |
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| The following report represents detailed data about demographic risk factors for sample corporation employees. A risk factor is a characteristic with consequences for illness or death. For example, cigarette smoking and blood pressure are risk factors. | |||
| The report is based on data collection from confidential individual RealAge health assessment program questionnaires covering a broad range of personal characteristics that influence health and health risks. | |||
| RealAge usage reports are available to companies that link their corporate Web site or wellness page to RealAge.com and reach a usage of 250 employees per month. A company can access their own reports on demand via the Internet at no charge. | |||
| ________________________________________ | |||
| Chronological Age and Gender | |||
| Men | Women | Total Group | |
| Less than 20 years old | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| 20 to 29 | 170 | 471 | 641 |
| 30 to 39 | 514 | 648 | 1,162 |
| 40 to 49 | 566 | 339 | 905 |
| 50 to 59 | 297 | 186 | 483 |
| 60 to 69 | 30 | 27 | 57 |
| Over 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total Count | 1,580 | 1,676 | 3,256 |
| Average Chronological Age | 41 | 36 | 39 |
| Average "RealAge" | 40 | 34 | 37 |
| Source: RealAge, San Diego. | |||
• Steve Davis, Work Site Health Manager, RealAge, 11300 Sorrento Valley Road, Suite 220, San Diego, CA 92121. Telephone: (888) 732-5243, Ext. 206. E-mail: [email protected].
• John DeGregory, Director of Corporate Fitness, Lockhead Martin Space Systems, P.O. Box 3504, O\27-E4, B\163, Sunnyvale, CA 94088. Telephone: (408) 756-1612. E-mail: [email protected].
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