Employees: 45,000 in the U.S.; 110,000 total worldwide.
“An important part of our Credo responsibility to our employees is providing them with resources to lead healthier lives. Good health is important to all of us. Good health is also good business.”
-William C. Weldon
Chairman, Board of Directors, and CEO, Johnson & Johnson
The world’s most comprehensive and broadly-based manufacturer of health care products, Johnson & Johnson, has a long tradition of investing in health programs for their employees. In the 1970s, then-CEO James Burke said that he wanted Johnson & Johnson employees to have the opportunity to be the healthiest people in the world. In 1979, the company’s LIVE FOR LIFE® program began, which brought together experts in health care education, behavior change and disease management to create a program to improve the health and productivity of its workers.
The company had long offered a voluntary Health Profile, a health risk assessment (HRA) as part of its wellness program, but in 1995, the Johnson & Johnson Health & Safety Department offered employees a $500 annual medical contribution discount for completing the bi-annual confidential Health Profile – self-report health risk assessment. This simple step vaulted participation in the company’s Health Profile from 26 to a sustained 90 percent.
To receive the $500 incentive, employees are required to complete the survey every two years and if at risk for cholesterol, blood pressure, tobacco use or physical inactivity, accept a follow-up conversation over the phone with a registered nurse. The aggregate data helps Johnson & Johnson Health & Safety focus health resources and interventions for promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors associated with the areas of greatest health risk and also to maintain the health of the low risk population. This allows the company to use hard data to guide their wellness program choices and to ensure health improvements result. This data can also be evaluated and programs tailored based on specific operating company health needs within the overall corporation.
The company offers free to employees, health promotion programs which address healthy lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity, healthy eating, tobacco cessation, managing weight and awareness of appropriate health screenings. In addition, they have made changes within the culture in support of healthy behaviors such as working with the food service vendors to provide healthy food options in all aspects of food service; and adopting a tobacco-free workplace policy at all of its locations worldwide. Tobacco use (including smokeless tobacco) will be prohibited at all Johnson & Johnson campuses, company-owned or leased buildings and vehicles, and sponsored meetings on – or off-premises.
The company also utilizes electronic and on-line modes to communicate health promotion resources. A set of health and fitness tools and resources can be accessed right at the employee’s fingertips through the Johnson & Johnson Health and Benefits and the My eHealth websites. Features include benefits information, healthy recipes, workout logs, personal health trackers, daily health reminders, vital health news, and fitness and nutrition calculators. They can also access and/or learn more about The Healthy People: Health Profile, Exercise Reimbursement, Wellness & Exercise schedules by company location, and much more.
In addition, Johnson & Johnson has a monthly health newsletter – Healthy People News – that is available from the My eHealth internet website and is also placed in the bathroom stalls or in prime traffic locations (cafeteria, break rooms, locker rooms and entrance areas) within the operating companies
To help employees maintain or adapt a healthy lifestyle, Johnson & Johnson has a variety of health & fitness programs. Nearly all locations have on-site fitness centers that are free for employees to use with Wellness Professionals available for health coaching and health program implementation. Through the company’s Exercise Reimbursement program, any employee that works “in the field” or at a facility that does not have a fitness center can be reimbursed up to $200 per year for any related expense to exercise such as joining a fitness center.
The company has in place a Million Step Challenge in which they challenge employees to walk at least one million steps in a year. To do so, employees can get free pedometers and A Million-Step Challenge kit. There are goals along the way, at 250,000, 350,000, and 500,000 steps, which include raffles for iPods, mountain bikes and other big prizes. To measure the effectiveness of their programs, Johnson & Johnson tracks participation and provides follow-up employee satisfaction and behavior based surveys.
Health Fitness Corporation is Johnson & Johnson’s business partner for management of the onsite fitness centers and wellness programs.
Integration
Johnson & Johnson’s goal is to completely integrate and coordinate the services they offer their employees, including Work Life, Disability Management, Employee Assistance, Occupational Health, Wellness & Fitness, Safety and Benefits to improve health, productivity and control health care costs. They believe, and articulate at the highest levels of the company, that the company is responsible for providing their employees with resources to lead healthier lives. This integration includes a number of elements, including:
The company believes that health and wellness programs are not simply programs, but rather an ingrained aspect of their corporate culture. Some departments have walking meetings, and fitness center use during the day is considered acceptable. Their goal is to have employees say that healthy behavior whether being physically active or eating healthy “is just the way we do things.” This attitude demonstrates the complete cultural integration and company commitment that has made their programs so successful.
Results
A two-part study was conducted for Johnson & Johnson by The MEDSTAT Group, Inc., of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The evaluation included a financial analysis of medical insurance claims for 18,331 Johnson & Johnson domestic employees who participated in its Health & Wellness Program from 1995 to 1999. Employee medical expenditures were evaluated for up to five years before and four years after the program began. Savings grew over time, and most came in the third or fourth year after the program began. Reduction in medical care costs amounted to a savings per employee of $225 annually.
Johnson & Johnson savings averaged $8.5 million annually, primarily due to lower administrative and medical utilization cost, reductions in hospital admissions, mental health visits and outpatient service use.
In addition to the financial savings achieved by the company’s Health & Wellness Program, a separate study also revealed reductions in several health risk factors, such as high cholesterol and sedentary lifestyle, over a 2.75 year time frame following the program’s debut. Early studies conducted at the company showed that even those employees who took the assessment but had no follow-up support through wellness programs showed improvements in their health.
In alignment with the federal Healthy People 2010 initiative, Johnson & Johnson has set numerical targets to measure success in helping employees improve and maintain their health. The company had originally set the 1/1/05 goal of having 80% of their employees be physically active, which they defined as exercising for 30 minutes at least four times per week. They did not quite reach their goal in this category, but impressively, by the goal date, 62% of employees were physically active as defined by the 30 minutes four times per week. The company also reached their goals of:
Strengths
Innovative Ideas
Lessons Learned
Contact Information
Johnson & Johnson
Worldwide Health & Safety
Director, Worldwide Wellness & Health Promotion
(732)524-2691-phone
(732)524-2961-fax
jbruno3@corus.jnj.com
