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Your 2006 Resolution:
A Sleeker Workforce (and a Heftier Bottom Line)
Obese employees could be costing you much more than you realize.
Tom Gilliam suggests that you make slimming them down your New Year’s resolution—and offers seven tips for doing just that.
Hudson, OH (January 2006)—You’ve probably already given some thought to your 2006 New Year’s resolutions. And if you’re like most Americans, “weight loss” is at the top of your list. (Or at least somewhere on it.) Thomas B. Gilliam, Ph.D., thinks you shouldn’t stop with the man or woman in the mirror. Why not encourage everyone in your company to share your resolution to achieve a healthy body weight? After all, it’s a proven way to reduce your company’s costs . . . and the timing couldn’t be better.
“Just think about it,” says Gilliam, co-author (along with Jane Neill, R.D., L.D.) of Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.: Achieve a Healthier Workplace One Employee at a Time! (T. Gilliam & Associates, LLC, 2005, ISBN: 0-9762703-0-7, $19.95). “Most people are already in a goal-setting, healthy-eating, gym-joining frame of mind at the beginning of a new year. It just makes sense to capitalize on that energy. Now is the perfect time to offer your employees a structured way to achieve those goals.”
Gilliam—whose customizable Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy. corporate wellness program provides tools and techniques for helping employees slim down and stay that way—spends his days preaching the gospel of Healthy Body Weight. He has a nearly inexhaustible supply of statistics on obesity and how much it is costing employers:
 In a recent Wall Street Journal article (04/07/05), General Motors stated that an obese employee cost the company about $1,500 more in health services each year compared to an employee with a healthy body weight. The article went on to say that about 26 percent of GM’s active workers (341,000) and dependents are obese. The bottom line? Obesity is costing GM nearly $1.4 billion more in healthcare costs each year.
“Normal weight” employees made up about 33 percent of the workforce in 2000 and only 23 percent in 2005. Obese employees made up 29 percent of the workforce in 2000, which increased to 37 percent in 2005. A trend analysis predicts that by 2010, the number of normal weight employees will drop to just 17 percent and the percentage of employees who are obese will continue to increase to 47 percent.
Add to these changes an approximate 80 percent increase in healthcare costs. A company with just 500 employees will spend more than $2 million in added healthcare costs in 2010 compared with less than $1 million in 2005. Imagine the cost if your company employs 50,000 people: the added costs would be $200 million in 2010.
Of course, knowing your employees need to slim down and actually getting them to do it are two different matters entirely. How can you get your employees to buy into your corporate New Year’s resolution, and actually stick to it? Gilliam offers a few tips:
• Broach the subject in terms of overall health, not just weight. You’re probably worried about offending your obese employees with the suggestion that they lose weight. It’s a valid concern. That’s why Gilliam suggests that, rather than focusing on the amount of fat on a body, you emphasize the big picture: achieving a healthy weight can prevent a myriad of health problems. “Remind people that by losing weight, they may ward off hip and knee replacements, diabetes, heart disease, perhaps even cancer,” says Gilliam. “Body weight is simply a common link that we can control. No one wants ill health; they just don’t know how to achieve good health. Teach them and they’ll listen.”
• Be inclusive. Don’t just single out obese people. Choose a wellness program that emphasizes the benefits of lifestyle change—whose principles center on healthful, nutritious foods and regular exercise—and everyone will benefit. “Fitness” and “thinness” are not always synonymous. “There are plenty of thin people who eat junk food and never, ever exercise,” notes Gilliam. “Programs like Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy. will help them get fit, too. And even if you have employees who are already doing everything right, the program helps them keep up the good work and maintain their healthy body weight.”
• Be honest with people about the costs of excess weight and the illnesses that come with it. Tell employees honestly and directly that it’s difficult to provide higher wages and better benefits when so much of the company’s money is going to support illnesses that could be prevented. If you’re implementing a company-wide weight loss initiative, you can make these points in a letter or a kick-off meeting. But don’t discount the power of personal, face-to-face conversations. People will respect you more if you look them in the eye and tell the truth—and if you express concern for their well-being (rather than focusing solely on the money), they may even be touched and appreciative.
• Teach employees the basics of weight loss. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to consume a moderate, nutritious diet and exercise regularly. Period. Fad diets, fitness gadgets, and other get-thin-quick schemes won’t work. Obviously, though, plenty of people are buying into them or the sellers wouldn’t be doing such a booming business. Educate your employees on the realities of weight loss. A book such as Gilliam and Neill’s, Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.: Achieve a Healthier Workplace One Employee at a Time!, can serve as a solid foundation for your corporate effort.
• Get your employees excited about good nutrition. Create a “recipe” bulletin board—the old-fashioned “cork board” kind or the virtual online kind—so that employees can share the details of their delicious finds and their own culinary creations. Host a potluck lunch to which everyone brings his or her favorite healthful dish. Or ask employees to take turns bringing in fresh fruits, veggie trays, or other low fat snacks for people to munch on during break. Don’t forget to remove all “junk food” from the premises. It’s hard to stay on track when vending machines packed with grease and sugar and trans fatty acids beckon with their sinister glow.
• Foster and encourage exercise groups. Human beings are social creatures. They are much more likely to sustain an exercise program if they have company. Hire an aerobics instructor to come in several times a week—during pre- or post-work hours—to lead everyone in a vigorous workout. Start a lunch-hour walking group. You might even put a treadmill, stair-step machine, and weight bench in a vacant room so that employees can have their own “gym.” (Just ask everyone to sign a waiver so you’re legally covered in case of injury.)
• Link weight loss to larger family issues. No one wants to be obese. But most people want their children to be obese even less. Offering to help employees set a healthy example for their children can be a powerful motivator. That’s why Gilliam’s Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy. program has a strong child-centric component—including cartoon characters with names like Heart “E” Heart, Sticky Lipid, and Thundering Triglyceride. “I’ve found that when you say to people, ‘Look, every time you open a new bag of potato chips and collapse in front of the TV, your kids are watching you,’ they pay attention,” he says. “Hey, guilt can be a very useful tool. Ask any mother.”
Companies that implement, promote, and rigorously adhere to an integrated, well-coordinated wellness program will find that their commitment to employee health pays off in unexpected ways, says Gilliam.
“It’s a given that you’ll save money in healthcare costs,” he says. “But you might also find yourself profiting in less tangible ways. People who successfully lose weight often gain a huge boost in self-esteem. They become happier and more confident, which makes them more effective at work, as well as at home. They feel connected to their coworkers. They’re more loyal.”
“Plus, when you commit to becoming a healthier workplace, you’re creating a culture that talented people will want to be a part of in the future,” adds Gilliam. “That will yield continuing dividends. Who knows? You may look back on 2006 as the year that changed your company’s fate forever.”
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About the Authors:
Thomas B. Gilliam, Ph. D., is a pioneer and acknowledged expert in the field of dynamic strength testing for industry based on the sports medicine model. Since 1982, Dr. Gilliam has provided isokinetic physical capability assessments for Fortune 1000 companies. Dr. Gilliam’s programs have dramatically reduced worker’s compensation costs and decreased injury incidence and severity rates for major industrial clients. In addition, Dr. Gilliam has been instrumental in identifying and presenting to industries the higher risk for injury and disease caused by obesity in the workplace.
Dr. Gilliam is the creator of the Heart “E” Heart program, which is a healthy lifestyle program for children and their families. He was the principal investigator in a National Institutes of Health research study investigating the impact of physical activity and nutritional habits on heart disease risk in young children. This research in the late 1970s resulted in numerous scholarly publications, and television and radio interviews throughout the world, including NBC’s Today Show and NBC’s Evening News with their science editor Robert Basel.
In 1973, Dr. Gilliam earned a doctorate degree from Michigan State University in exercise physiology with a minor in graduate statistics and research design. From 1974 to 1982, Dr. Gilliam was on the faculty at the University of Michigan. Before resigning from his tenured faculty position, he was involved with numerous funded research projects (i.e. N.I.H., Kellogg Foundation, State of Michigan, and others) that resulted in 29 refereed, scholarly publications.
Jane C. Neill, R.D., L.D., is the 2004 recipient of the Nutritionist of the Year Award for the State of Alabama Public Health. She is an active member of the American Dietetic Association and currently employed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, where she works with the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program as a WIC coordinator and a licensed dietitian. She has worked in the WIC program for over 10 years, providing daily nutrition counseling for women, infants, and children.
While on the staff as a registered dietitian at the University of Michigan Health System in the late 1970s, Jane was instrumental in working with Dr. Gilliam as an investigator on the National Institutes of Health research study to investigate the impact of physical activity and nutritional habits on heart disease risk in children ages six to eight years.
Ms. Neill is a member of the team that developed and wrote the Heart “E” Heart program for children and their families.
She received her bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Alabama in 1977 in food, nutrition, and institutional management. Ms. Neill has been working as a registered dietitian for over 27 years.
About the Book:
Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.: Achieve a Healthier Workplace One Employee at a Time! (T. Gilliam & Associates, LLC, 2005, ISBN: 0-9762703-0-7, $19.95) is available in bookstores nationwide and through all major online booksellers.
For more information, visit www.healthybodyweight.com.
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