Paperless wellness programming? Well, not quite, say the experts
Trend is strong, but some employees may never have computer access
The trend toward electronically delivered wellness promotions and interventions is gaining speed — and it’s just the beginning, say observers. Nevertheless, they assert, there will always be a role for plain old paper.
Part of the reason, they say, is something as basic as access. "For the office worker or an employee in a high-tech industry, [paperless programming] may work fine," says Joan Cantwell, MA, COHN, manager of the employee health and wellness program at Chicago-based Quaker Oats Co., "but our company, for example, is still a pretty hard-core manufacturing company. There are production people out on the floor moving and making product, and that group, the majority of our employees, doesn’t have access to a computer and wouldn’t check e-mail messages on a daily basis." However, she adds, "I still use e-mail to target the coordinators of those areas."
"I don’t we’ll think ever become totally paperless for several reasons," adds Don R. Powell, PhD, president of the American Institute for Preventive Medicine in Farmington Hills, MI. "First, you will always have some employees who will not use the new technology. For some older people, it’s not part of their generation. Then, you have the issue of whether you want your employees going on-line to seek out information during the work day — how much of their work time should be devoted to wellness; you could eventually run into productivity issues. And there’s one last variable: Having something written in paper and pencil on my desk, and thumbing through pages, just feels more comforting, and less impersonal."
"The new technology is a huge step forward, but I don’t think this is the Holy Grail; it will not replace other means of communication entirely," says Anda Bruinsma, MSC, senior manager, worklife and wellness global programs, Nortel Networks Corporation in Ottawa. "Technology is limited to the number of people who have access to it — and you will always have remote populations."
Advantages are clear
The advantages of electronically delivered programming are significant, says Cantwell. "A lot has to do with the speed and immediacy of it," she notes. "With your main wellness messages you can implement just-in-time learning. Posters are nice for reinforcement, but people with e-mail can get quick reminders every day, while they may not have read — or they may have forgotten — the poster."
"With interactive media, you can jump around from place to place," adds Powell. "There is more detailed information available in a computer as opposed to the printed form; you’re not going to give someone a thousand-page book. And it’s updated continually, so theoretically it will never go out of date."
"The disadvantage of print media is that it is very much limited to raising awareness and educating people; there is no proof that it does anything more than that. But the interactive media can be used to create behavior change," says Bruinsma.
"Changing people’s behavior is singularly one of the hardest things to do," she continues. "Current research indicates that people go through change in stages. The beauty of interactive media and the Web is that you can identify what stage people are in and target them with the appropriate messages for their stage of change."
For example, Bruinsma poses, let’s say you want to change someone from a smoker to a nonsmoker. "The success of traditional programs has been marginal at best," she says. "One of the key reasons is that we offer quit smoking programs — but if you ask smokers, a lot of them don’t want to quit; they are pre-contemplative. If you offered action-oriented programming to someone like that you’ll fail 100% of the time. But this medium is so fantastic it actually allows you to build a relationship with expert systems that you could previously only get in a one-to-one relationship with a health care professional. You can meet more people with more appropriate and more targeted interventions."
Still, counters Cantwell, it is precisely those individual differences that will keep low-tech programming around. "When it comes to intervention, it really depends on what kind of learner you are," she says. "Some people need to walk through things step by step, while some need personal interaction. Part of learning takes place with other people — there is a group dynamic when you have a class that can be very valuable, providing a support group for each participant. But some employees only want to get the information and get out of there."
In short, she says, you have to know your learner. "Some salespeople out in the field need cassette tapes or targeted information over their computer; that’s how they have to learn. We just shouldn’t lose the human touch side of things."
This is not to say Cantwell eschews the new technology; in fact, she’s far from it. "At The Tower, our corporate headquarters, e-mail is what brings people into our programs," she says. "When we survey employees, I’d say 70% said they found out about our programs and responded because of it."
In fact, she says, the company is considering getting rid of the "Take Charge" brochure they were also using to let employees know about wellness program offerings and screenings, such as health risk appraisals.
"It’s also easier to respond to e-mail. You can say, I’m coming’ with the click of button — there’s no need to make a phone call," she continues. "Of course, you can also just delete the e-mail message if you’re not interested!"
Despite the dramatic effectiveness of e-mail, Cantwell remains insistent that paper will always have a role. "I don’t think we will ever do away with hard-copy posters, paper tents, and so forth, because we can put them where employees work," she says. "And there’s still something to be said for paper; it’s more subtle, it works on a more subconscious level, and visually you can do some things that are pretty stunning. In addition, it has texture, and you can fold it."
Bruinsma agrees. "If you have a strategically placed poster where your employees have lunch, it clearly adds value to your program," she says.
"You can readily share printed materials with someone else just by taking them to that individual," adds Powell. "It’s true; some people have laptops, but you can take a book with you everywhere. Just look at the work site setting — there are posters, brochure racks right there staring you in the face. If you had a kiosk, it might perform the same function as a brochure rack, but it just doesn’t strike you visually."
The future is clear
While paper may never totally disappear, it is clear that technology will continue to gain market share in the wellness program of the future.
"The Internet currently reaches 500 million households and 100 million users, according to a survey by SVP, a New York City-based company," says Powell. "That doubles every hundred days, and health care has become the sixth largest content area. According to SVP, two-thirds of us go on-line to seek out health care information at least once, while one-third of us do it regularly. And half of us are looking for specific information about a disease."
Still, says Powell, "we recommend a cafeteria approach to wellness — self-help, screenings, a potpourri — so people can gravitate to different methods. No one method is a panacea; if we were to stick [technology] down everyone’s throat and go paperless, we would lose some people."
Bruinsma sees things a little differently. "There are some real big drivers toward technology," she explains. "First, there is a singular shift in the North American population away from a treatment focus to a prevention focus. Then, there are dramatic advances in computer technology and bandwidths and what we can deliver to people — and it’s still in its infancy. Statistics around utilization of the Internet are a very good indicator of how much public demand there is around information about health and wellness."
Web technology is becoming increasingly accessible, Bruinsma notes, and "it allows you to reach people you never could reach before in an environment you never had before."
What’s not changing, she notes, is what printed materials can and cannot do. "Technology does more in a broader context, and it does it faster," says Bruinsma. "Paper will always be there, but its use will decrease; it will send people to the wellness message, rather than being the message."
Just how far can you go today with electronic media? (See story, below.)
Sources
• Anda Bruinsma, Nortel Networks Corporation, 185 Corkstown Road, Nepean, Ontario, Canada K2H 8V4. Mailstop 040/12/L06. Telephone: (613) 765-5875. Fax: (613) 763-8618.
• Joan Cantwell, Quaker Oats Company, 321 N. Clark St., Suite 163, Chicago, IL 60610. Telephone: (312) 222-8548. Fax: (312) 222-2733. E-mail: /g=joan/s=cantwell/[email protected].
• Don Powell, American Institute for Preventive Medicine, 30445 Northwestern Highway, Suite 350, Farmington Hills, MI 48334-3102. Telephone: (248) 539-1800. Fax: (248) 539-1808.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content