Is employee morale low at your company? Employee morale is higher when companies provide shift work lifestyle training. Nearly 60% of employees at companies providing shift work lifestyle training rank their morale as good or excellent compared 35% without shift work training.[i]
Some shift workers are at a greater risk for cardiovascular disease. Want to save upwards of $6,500 for each of these at-risk employees per year? And, protect your employees from this number one killer!
Workers in shift work operations generate, on average, more health care costs than other workers. How about reducing overall company health care costs by 17% to 37% by targeting this population and helping them improve their health?[ii] Other cost savings may also be possible, including safety incident and workers’ compensation costs. Worker productivity may increase, possibly even up by 39%.[iii]
In extended 24-hour operations, a well-designed shift schedule or roster is unlikely to provide adequate protection from worker fatigue. An integrated risk management system incorporates data analysis and training towards an effort of reducing fatigue and reducing a company’s costs, risks, and liabilities.[iv]
Among the shift worker population, 71% of men and 53% of women are overweight, 54% of workers have smoked or currently smoke, only 27.5% workers report having good nutritional practices, and 77% report not exercising regularly. Add to this the sleep deprivation statistics, 27% of shift workers report making mistakes of inattention several times per month, and it’s clear that both shift workers and their employers would benefit from worker health and lifestyle training.[v] In addition, a fatigue management program would help target the reasons shift workers aren’t always as attentive and productive as day-time workers and help companies and employees develop some initiatives to reduce employee fatigue levels.
Each of the examples above show the overwhelming benefits to a company and its employees when an employee health and shift work lifestyle training program tailored to the company’s needs is implemented……..It’s all in the details, so read on for more information about targeting a program for your operation…..
It’s All in the Details
May is High Blood Pressure Month, so here is a detailed case study of how one large company has been working with its employees to fight cardiovascular disease…
CSX Transportation has been busy during this tough economy. Shipments may be down, but the company’s efforts to engage employees in improving their health are up. Last week, at the American Heart Association’s conference, Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke 2010 Scientific Session, CSX’s Ken Glover, Director of Health and Wellness and Thomas J. Neilson, MD, Chief Medical Officer showcased their firm’s successful efforts in fighting cardiovascular disease.
According to the American Heart Association, more than one in three American adults have one or more types of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Of these, 38,100,000 (47%) are estimated to be age 60 or older. That means that 53% of those with CVD are under age 60. So, if we look around our workplaces, up to one out of every three people we see may be suffering from cardiovascular disease!
Want to know more about why companies should look closely at what CSX is going? Here are a few interesting facts about the prevalence of heart disease from the American Heart Association:
- 75 million Americans have high blood pressure (one of every three people).
- A person dies from cardiovascular disease every 38 seconds in the U.S.
- One person in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds and every four minutes someone dies.
- Cardiovascular disease is the underlying illness responsible for 34% of all U.S. deaths.
- CVD ranks highest among all disease categories in hospital discharges.
- About one of every six hospital stays is due to CVD.
How much is your employee health insurance plan paying? A lot!
U.S. 2010 Estimated Annual Direct and Indirect Costs (in Billions) of CVD and Stroke:
Hospitals: $155.7
Nursing Home: $50.8
Physicians/other professionalz: $48.1
Drugs/medical durables: $69.5
Lost productivity/morbidity: $41.7
Lost productivity/mortality: $137.4
Total Cost: $503.2
This is approximately $6,500 per person diagnosed with CVD and/or stroke! Multiply this by the one third of the working population suffering from CVD and stroke, and our country’s employers are paying somewhere around $300 billion per year! See why CSX has made fighting heart disease a priority? It’s a win-win situation; it’s good for CSX’s employees and good for the Company’s bottom line.
What did CSX do? Their program included several different interventions, such as biometric screenings (checking cholesterol levels for full lipid panel and glucose; blood pressure; blood glucose levels and a measurement of height, weight and body mass index), nutrition, exercise and health coaching, and on-site fitness centers at multiple employee locations. Some programs include a health risk assessment to be completed by the worker and evaluator as well; not sure if CSX did this. The CSX researchers analyzed the impact of the program on cardiovascular disease-related medical and hospital claims, using 2006-08 data on 5,768 non-contract employees (on average data was gathered over six years). They found:
- The percentage of employees with a cardiovascular disease-related medical claim declined from 56.6% to 48.3%, and cardiovascular disease-related medical claims declined from 14.1% to 13.1%.
- The percentage of employees with a cardiovascular disease-related hospital claim declined from 6% to 4.3% and cardiovascular disease-related hospital claims declined from 2.5% to 1.7%.
These significant cost savings were attributed to the following results:
- In employees with high cholesterol, the average total cholesterol declined from 196.4 to 185.2 mg/dL; average high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol increased from 38.7 to 42.1 mg/dL. The ratio of total cholesterol to HDL declined from 5.5 to a healthier 4.9.
- The percentage of employees reaching low-density lipoprotein (LDL) goals increased from 48% to 62.4%.
- In employees with hypertension, average blood pressure declined from 137.2/86.1 to 125.4/80.2 mm Hg. Blood pressure goal attainment increased from 42.5% to 67.4%.
- In employees with diabetes, average fasting blood glucose (BG) remained unchanged, while non-fasting BG declined from 152.3 to 146.2 mg/dL.
A study by researchers at Michigan State University,[vi] attempted to generate a single indicator of a healthy lifestyle. National data for the year 2000 were obtained from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which consists of annual, statewide, random digital dialed household telephone surveys. The researchers defined four healthy lifestyle characteristics (HLCs): nonsmoking, healthy weight, consuming five or more fruits and vegetables per day, and regular physical activity. The four HLCs were combined to create a healthy lifestyle index (range, 0-4).
In respondents ages 18-74, the prevalence of HLCs was as follows: nonsmoking, 76%; healthy weight, 40%; five fruits and vegetables per day, 23%; and regular physical activity, 22%. Only 3% of the respondents’ lifestyles contained all four HLCs.
Helping Shift Workers
Remember the statistics from above? Among the shift worker population, 71% of men and 53% of women are overweight, 54% of workers have smoked or currently smoke, only 27.5% workers report having good nutritional practices, and 77% report not exercising regularly.[vii] There’s a lot of room for improvement. Employee health and shift work lifestyle training leads to a happier and healthier workforce and to increased company profits
Why not follow CSX’s example and start working on this today?
Go to our website at www.workingnights.com to order health and safety training materials for your workforce or contact us at 1800-SHIFTWORK to talk about designing a program for your organization.
©2010 Circadian Age, Inc. ˜Working Nights”
[i] ©2009 Circadian Information, LP. T. Dawson, Shiftwork Lifestyle Training: Employee and Employer Benefits.
[ii] ©2008 Round-the-Clock Systems. S.L. Koen, PhD, The Importance of Training for Sustainable Performance in Multi-Shift Operations.
[iii] ©2008 Round-the-Clock Systems. S.L. Koen, PhD, The Importance of Training for Sustainable Performance in Multi-Shift Operations.
[iv] ©Interdynamics/FAID®.  FaidSafe® Risk-based Integrated Fatigue Management Solution. Fatigue Hazard Analysis.
[v] ©2003 Circadian Technologies, Inc. A.Aguirre, MD, PhD. Health in Extended Hours Operations: Understanding the Challenges, Implementing the Solutions.
[vi] ©2005 American Medical Association. M. Reeves, PhD; A. Rafferty, PhD, Healthy Lifestyle Characteristics Among Adults in the United States, 2000. Downloaded from www.archinternmed.com on May 25, 2010.
[vii] ©2003 Circadian Technologies, Inc. A.Aguirre, MD, PhD. Health in Extended Hours Operations: Understanding the Challenges, Implementing the Solutions.
