Using Technology and Social Media to Support Workplace Health Programs

I'm felicia Seibert, a CDC, contractor. With ICS, and I'll, be serving as your moderator. Now. It's my pleasure to introduce our, presenter mari, ryan mari. Ryan is a CEO and, founder of advancing, wellness which, helps organizations, develop, a culture of well-being, in the workplace she's. Also the founder and former board chair of the worksite wellness Council, of Massachusetts, and is, a member of the board of directors of health promotion advocate and global. Women for well-being. Today. Mari will describe how technology. And social media can, be used by companies to support their workplace health programs and. We'll also discuss, limitations. Of social media and trends, in the field thank. You for presenting today let's. Get started, Mari you may begin. Thanks. So much Felicia, my. Pleasure to be here today and I'm very excited, to share some information with you that hopefully you all will be able to use with, the folks that you're working with in your respective. Constituents. So. Today we're going to talk about technology. And how we utilize technology. And social media to support our workplace, well health programs. So. We're going to talk about four, different types, of technologies. Health. Portals, wearable, devices applications, and, social, media, and. Let's. Just start with the idea that as. We all know, technology. Is everywhere, we, can't avoid, it our. Offices. Technology's. Ubiquitous, in our workplaces, in our offices, and in. Our lives we've, really come to a point now where technology. Is in every, aspect of our lives we. Can turn. On the heat before we leave the office we. Have technology, that we're wearing and there's, a whole generation that. Is growing up who can't figure out why someone would possibly, want to talk into a phone with, a cord attached to a box that's connected, on the wall so. There's a lot of different, elements the way technology is, pervasive. In our lives and therefore. It's hard to avoid the fact that it's going, to be something, that we need to leverage and, utilize to, the best of our abilities, into. In our well-being. And wellness programs. When. We talk about technology, being everywhere, I think it's important, to just draw on some research that supports. This concept, and you'll. See here some research from the Pew Research Center that, shows the trend, of the adoption of technology, and usage, over. The last you know Dec, in more than a decade decade and a half and you'll, see the extent, to which this really has continued, to grow and. Understanding. These technology, trends, can really be helpful when, you're planning to incorporate, technology. Into, a wellness, program. Oftentimes, when I'm working with a client and we have an opportunity to gather, data such as a needs and interest survey, you, know or some element of a, program where we can can, ask questions, of the, workforce, we, often, ask about what, technology, they use how. They use it do they have smartphones and. You. Know what type of phone do they have is it a smartphone do, they have access to computers at home are they connected to the Internet and that's, very, helpful information for, us to be able to use when, we're planning our programs. We. Also know that health and wellness technology. Continues. To emerge this is a huge, field that it continues, to grow and this, is sometimes referred, to as M health, which, is really referring to the use of mobile, and wireless devices, to. Improve health outcomes, healthcare, services, and health research and. Continuing. To see a number of different. Applications that, are emerging that, are focused on a variety of types of behavior, change but. This is a huge, growing industry. You can see the reference here that talks, about four hundred and forty, nine billion, dollars, by two hundred. 2020. And over. Forty thousand, health, and wellness apps for Android and iOS devices, so. This is not anything that's going to go away and we're. Going to continue to see the, ways in which some of these technologies, will, emerge. And change. Over, the coming years. But when we talk about technology, in the use of technology, and wellness programs, there's, one really, really important, message and that, is technology. Is, a tool, it. Is not, the, wellness program, I often. Have conversations. With folks who say gee I want to buy X. Fill-in-the-blank. What's the technology, they want to buy thinking. That it is going to be their wellness program it, is really a tool to, help them in their wellness program, and the, ways in which we like to think about this are the four elements that are highlighted here and this. Is that the technology. Can be used for.

Communications. Encouragement. Tracking. And more. Importantly for community, to create community, amongst. The participants, in the program so. Really, really important point to remember it is a tool but, it is not the, wellness program. The. Types of technology squirt we're going to explore it a little bit more detail today our health. Portals, wearable. Devices health. Apps and social. Media so, let's start with health portals. So. Health portals. Are. Something. That has emerged, I would say probably pretty. Much over the last five, or so years health, portals, have really, become. Pretty. Standard, in a lot of programs, they, health portals, what's interesting about health portals is they're kind of the Swiss Army knife of. Technology. Tool for, well-being programs, because. They offer a variety of tools and resources they. Are typically, available to, run on laptops. Desktops. Tablets mobile, devices, and. Some of the features you can see here, and you may, have access to one of these types of portals in, your own business. Sorry, in your own you, know usage, through maybe your health plan so. Some of the types of things you'll typically see tracking. Tools such, as exercise, food water weight. Planning. Tools such, as an exercise planner or a meal planner they. Often, incorporate. A health assessment health. Risk, as we sometimes call it personal, health assessment, some. Sort of questionnaire, that will assess, underlying, health risks, and health, behaviors. There's. Often educational. Aspects, such as workshops and, in. Some cases you, may also find, that there is a link to health coaching, services, if, that service is available and, what's, nice about that linkage, is if someone, is using. Health coaching services, the, health coach can have access to their data that can communicate with, their coach, through. The portal. And there's. A connection that they can then have for, purposes, or perhaps nudging. Or for, the coach to really be able to potentially. Hold that individual, accountable, to the goals that they may have said.

One. Of the things that's really helpful about health portals, and if any of you have ever managed, a wellness program where, you've tracked things on spreadsheets. Or, you. Know paper tracking, that, the elements. Of, administrative. And management features, is probably, one of the really strong. Elements. Of a health portal and what attracts, many. Wellness. Program, managers, to want to incorporate them so. For example an inherent. Part of a, you, know managing, their. Their well-being. Program, may be around challenges. Or incentive. Management, oftentimes, incentive. Management, may have you know multiple criteria. Or elements, that, folks are using to earn points or rewards. Event. Registration. Can be helpful from a perspective of, whether they're doing on-site workshops or, in. You, know enrolling individuals and, challenges, or other kinds of activities, so. The reporting, and administrative, features that come from that can, be really. Really helpful to, make managing. A large, especially a large wellness, program really, much more. Much. More manageable, and, then, email, communications. Is another feature that, I consider, to be really important, as part of a health portal, because. What this really gives you the ability to do is to communicate, directly with, the, individuals, that are participating, dating or a particular, target, audience. Sometimes. There's, mechanisms. By which you, can based on risk factors send. Targeted messaging. To individuals. So, these can be really helpful tools, to. Be able to manage. And administer the, program. The. Question, often becomes, how to use these health portals and how to integrate them. Sometimes. The health portals come, from health plans, and they only offer the. Access. To the health portal to members. Subscribers, of the plan and one, of the things we see is really important, is to be able to make sure that all employees, have.

Access To, the health portal, this, is can, also be an important, element if you're trying to build a culture of well-being, where, you want part-timers. To really feel engaged with, the workforce, so, really making sure that all employees, have access. But. Those programs that may be a little bit more mature that, are offering. Programming. And services to family, members these, can also be another way to really, make that connection for, the, whole family that's. Participating, in a program and. Actually. Have that connection, be stronger, for the the, members and the employees, so, that their family, members can actually be benefiting, as well. Again. You want to think about using these from an administration, registration. Tracking, perspective. So, that you've got all of your data in one place and, this, is where things like incorporating event, registration. Challenge. Enrollment, and management, will have all of the information in one place. Incentive. Communications, again depending on how your incentive, program is set up making. Sure that employees know where they stand when. Something, that they have accomplished, is credited, to them for, use, in the incentive, program so, it really can be very helpful to manage. All of the communications. Around. Incentive, management. And tracking. So where do these come from we're we're Kenya these health portals be acquired well, oftentimes, a, health plan many. Health plans now, offer these to all. Of their employer groups in some, cases health, plans may offer them, to, just, larger, employer groups or for those who are willing to pay for them I think there's um there's no you know one size fits all in this it really varies, depending, on the health plan and the. Type of services, that are included some plan some, health plans may offer this. As a an. Add-on, benefit, to an employer group but, they may not have challenges. That are part of it they just it. May be something that's just connected, to a member as a member service for, individual. Members and not connected, back to the employer, program, so, there's a variety of different options that might be available some. Benefit, brokers offer the these health. Portals, as well so, worth, checking to see if a benefit broker has resources. Such as this and then. Finally of course an employer could purchase, these types. Of service this type of service from. A wellness service provider, and. There's certainly many of those in the marketplace. I'd. Like to give you a couple of examples of how, health, portals have been incorporated and the. Examples. All of the employers that I'll use as examples, in our program today are from. A program, in Massachusetts. That's conduct, that has been led. By the Massachusetts, Department of Public Health for the last two, and a half years and this, is called working on wellness and some. Of these employers are all, of these employers whose examples, I'm using are participants. In this working on wellness, program, so. Our first example here is a, municipality, so, this was a town of Fair Haven which is a municipality.

Located, On the south coast of Massachusetts and, they, employ close to 500. Employees in, a variety of typical, municipal, departments. They. Acquired their health. Portal, from their health plan and, they. It. Is pretty standard, but it's, not a highly customized. Both portal it's called a healthy me and it, was made available to, all town, employees, not just those who subscribed, who. Were subscribers, on the health plan the. Way the town is using, the, healthy, me portal, is to track a walking challenge, and they. Use it as sources, for health education content. With. It and there's also a variety of tools and resources that. They have available through, the portal, employees. Say that they're getting a lot of information, from the site and it makes them feel like they're getting some extra benefit, from their health plan, Fair. Haven happens, to be self-insured, on their health plan so, it's a nice way to feel, make the employees feel like they're getting some, extra benefit. The. Second example is from a YMCA this, is the YMCA, the, South Shore YMCA, they. Employ. Over a thousand, full-time and part-time employees, and, they. Worked with their health plan to, offer employees, the portal, so that it was available to all employees. Even. Those who are part-time any of you who are familiar with the way Weis are set up there's the. Majority, of their employees, sometimes can actually be part-time employees, so. They're using it as a source for health education content. And additional. Tools and resources, and. Additionally. It's using the portals email, tool to, provide employees with information. On healthy. Living resources, and. Recommendations. So. Just a couple of examples there, of how, these health portals are being incorporated into. Their, worksite. Wellness, initiatives. So. Let's talk a little bit about some of the pros and cons of using. Health portals. So. First. Off some. Up from the pros perspective. Health. Portals, really make program. Administration, much easier, and again, as I mentioned if, you've ever managed, a program you, know track things on spreadsheets, and tried, to manage, that way it can be really hard there. Are a lot of resources, available in one place, they. Vary based. On you know the portal that is selected, but, they. A lot, of different types of information available. And. It's, available on multiple devices so, I might be able to have it on my desktop on my computer at work I can have it on my mobile phone so, I have access to it in a number of different, ways, and. I think the communication piece is a really strong. Element. Of what health portals can do it gives you a way to be. Connected. To, the, workforce, and, specifically. Around, their health and their health, behaviors. Some. Of the cons of they, health portals, is that it really is a responsibility, and ownership of, the individual. To use this and the. Challenge, becomes if they aren't intrinsically, motivated. They, may need nudging they, may not go in and login or you, know unless they're in some sort of an active, program. Such, as a challenge, they, may not log in we often see very high spikes. In enrollment, rates but, then big. Drop-off, in usage, in these types of devices, so. You need to keep driving, the employees. To the portal to keep them engaged so, this is again where the communication. Aspect of it can be really helpful and, the. One place. That you may have challenges around, this depending, on the skills. Language. Culture. Of your workforce. Individuals. With limited limited. Technology, skills, may, need some additional support and, training, to, help them in, using this type of tool. So. Let's go on to our wearable, devices so. Raise your hand who's, got our wearable device on, probably. Many of us do and. These. Are again. The, devices, that we're, pretty much seeing to be, ubiquitous. These, days, so. The. The. Basic devices, that. We see and these you know again there's a whole range there's a vast number of options. In terms of wearable devices, basic. Devices typically, are used, for stepping step, tracking, activity. Time tracking. They. Some, of them now do sleep. Racking and some. Of them will have links to applications.

With Additional, features features, such. As food tracking, or water tracking, so, for, many of them there's you know really, these. Are the kinds of things, you're gonna see as the kind of get in the gate types of things they've, really moved beyond, just the tracking steps, or tracking activity, as the, original accelerometers. Did. In. Some of the more advanced, devices you'll also find heart, rate monitoring, and also. The ability to set, reminders messages. Nudges, and get your cell phone to ring through to it you know there's all kinds of you. Know let you know when your cell phone's ringing or you know it's your time to go to your next meeting so there's a lot of additional. Functionality, that's available in, some of these devices now. In. Terms. Of the integration, of these devices into programs, one. Of the the key decisions, an employer has to make is, who's. Going to own the device in. Many cases, they adopt, a policy of you know what's called bring-your-own-device, where. Employees, bring, their own devices and in. Other cases the employers are providing, them it, can be expensive if they're, using, high-end. Device that includes all of the features that I, mentioned, you know in the previous comments. But, it's something that if it's. Consistent. Across the organization. It can, be, a bonding, element between. The workforce because everyone's, got one they. Can also be integrated with the health portal many, health portals, now on their mobile, device. Support. On their applications. They, actually allow you to connect, your device right, into, the health portal, so, it's, it cuts down on the amount of tracking, that you need to do it. Can also be you, can also use a third-party. Application. Or integration, tool that, allows multiple devices. Or multiple manufacturers. So, this you are adopting. An employee bring your own device type of strategy. That. They can be integrated together and be. Able to have the results, available. And. Where, did these devices. Come from so, health, plans. Periodically. May, have provide. Access to these I think, we've pretty much moved beyond the pedometer, days from. Many health plans benefit. Brokers and they also offer. These, in. Some. Cases we're seeing employers, purchasing, them directly from manufacturers. We, do encourage you to look for discounts. And really. Encourage, you to look for less expensive, devices, that. Are you know not brand, names or even refurbished, models I had, a client that we. Were working with the Massachusetts workers, compensation. Insurance company that, we were working with and. Working with some of their policyholders. And one. Of their policyholders, had a very creative, IT, guy. And he said I bet we can find something out there that's really inexpensive. And he, actually did he was able to find a device a, wearable. Device that, was fairly reliable, that was about twelve dollars per employee and, they. Were able to create a great program, based on that so, takes, a little creativity but, it's not to say that they're, not out there.

Let. Me just talk about another example here, this, is from an organization again. In Massachusetts. This is a not-for-profit. A. Small not-for-profit. Organization. That's a social service, agency, providing. Services, to individuals. With disabilities in. Employing, just 40, employees, they. Purchased, fitbit's, for use in a walking, campaign, and what. They did was they asked each participant, to sign a waiver, they, had, 94%, of their employees participate. And they. In essence, gave the. In. This case Fitbit to their workforce, and encouraged. Them to set. Their goals based, on their tracker features, so it was increasing, steps or increasing, activity time and if. They completed, the program then they got to keep the Fitbit so, this was a nice way for a small organization to. Really bring. Their team together around. A, common, challenge. And in. A way to really connect, so, this was really fun for them. Let's. Look at the pros and cons here, so. For, wearable devices again, you've got ease of administration. Of the program and in. Some cases you, know it actually, takes, the ease of, entering. Things off you, know there's no burden for entering things on the employee either they're, not writing things down on a piece of paper or having to log in it's, doing all the work for them if. Employees, you know if you use a BYOD, approach. Then the employees are paying for the device it doesn't hit your budget and they. Are much more reliable than how many of us have lived through the days of pedometers, when, you know how, many I've probably. Had a closet full of pedometers, at various points in time you, all did - - you know but, they were not as reliable. As as we would need them to be to. Really be able, to use them in a meaningful way but, we got by with them for years before there was another option, in. Terms, of cons the. Biggest, one that I am most concerned, about in using these types of technologies is, that the research really shows that, interest, in this wanes after, about six months, so, while, everybody's, all hyped up and excited about it at the beginning then. Sometimes. You know they're just it's not going to last and this, is where you know the extent. To which folks are intrinsically. Motivated, to, do this as opposed to just being extrinsic, ly motivated, to you, know win the challenge, or be on the winning team. We really want to hope we can encourage, long-term, use, for. Individuals, there's. Always the challenge of lost devices. Might. The first wearable, device I had, was. Very prone to the. Device the, band on the device popping, off until. Somebody. Showed me that oh you buy this little belt, that goes around the, band so that it doesn't pop off and that. Prevented, me from losing my second one but, you need to make sure that, you're, aware of the, issues, associated with lost devices, I think they make him to attract the already healthy population. Not, the people who may benefit both most. From these new health behaviors, that you may be trying to encourage so. This is another piece to state about it's, not to say that it's not going to encourage individuals. To start to adopt a new behavior but. We just want to be careful that we're, not you know just. Having. The same individuals, who, are already healthy, engaged. And that the target population, that you might want to be reaching, not. Engaged, so. Just keep that in mind, so. Let's go on to apps so. As. We know there's. An app for everything or, at least it seems like there is. With. Particularly. With regard to, behavior. Change and in. Health, this. Is a whole universe, that is just so. Enormous, and emerging, in so many ways many. Of the specific, behaviors, that you may have seen or used apps for are things like tobacco, cessation, food, tracking, weight management stress, sleep. Mindfulness, personal. Health information and. Family history and biometric. Tracking so. There's, any number of possible. Options. Here I've. Been testing, apps for a variety of clients and it's, fun to see some of the different options that are available and, and. One, day last week we're had four different apps that I had scheduling. Into my day to make sure that I could. Test, each one of them so it's really fun to see how, different. Apps are being, developed we, often see chronic, condition, management as. Another place where apps can be very. Specifically, useful blood, pressure tracking diabetes. Tracking, medication, tracking, and pain management and, this, is a place that health.

Plans And. In some cases providers, are also, starting, to you. Know take more initiative and, work. More closely in, managing. In case management and managing, some of these chronic conditions. In. Terms. Of how these are, integrated. You. Need to develop a specific intervention. That utilizes, an app but, typically only as one aspect, of the intervention, so let me use an example here of tobacco, cessation, so. There are a number of quitting, tobacco apps, that are available there. But. We know that that could be you know just one mechanism by, which to, be able. To, attract. Individuals. To this type of program, and give them resources to, be able to participate, group. Discussions, and the kinds of programs, such as you know the gold standard, form you know freedom from smoking, and those kinds of things that we're based on, evidence-based. Programs, that showed you know group interaction, and group support, or important, elements of being able to quit tobacco and, then, utilizing, tobacco. Cessation age such, as nicotine, replacement patches. So. These, elements are, four. Different. Approaches. So there's awareness and education there's, behavior, changes, there can be none jizz you know they, offered, the, support, element, and together. These. Types of approaches. Can, be integrated to. Offer to. Your workforce or to the workforce to, be able to help them around in, particular a behavior, change, approach. But. The app alone. Is probably, not, going to be sufficient to. Be able to accomplish, your objectives, and. Where. To get these well, they. Are everywhere, and they're easy to find pretty, much on the internet and they're, available you, know for, these the, two main types of devices Android, and iOS type devices, the operating, systems, but. It takes some research, to really be able to know what, is going to be right what is going to work what is you, know has something got some you, know good. Scientific. Evidence behind its. Use I, could go and create an app next week but, is it going to have any real. Application, and. Evidence, that's going to support that, it's going to accomplish what you want to set out to do. Let. Me use an example here, of an organization. That, is a, little bit larger, organization. This, vamsee, stands, for Brockton, Area multi services, incorporated. This, is a social, service agency, providing. Services to individuals, with disabilities and. Employing. Over 2000 employees. They implemented, a walking, challenge, that, employees, could participate in on their own time, and the. Time is tracked through a step, tracking, device of the, individuals, choice but, then it's posted, on a leaderboard through. An application, that's. Used on a smart device and if. You're not familiar with leaderboards. Really, what it is is it's just telling, us who's ahead, so. You know it's and, the motivation, here on the individual, employee is that you know to be, part of a team or whether, you know they're in. Some. Cases, participating. As individuals, not as part of a team they, want to enter their information and. People, want to see who's ahead so. Utilizing, an. Application. Of this nature it offers a couple of benefits, first. It provides a way to communicate easily, to the participants, it, encourages. The competition, aspect using. Aspects, of gamification but it also can encourage social, connection, between, employees. So, this can really be a, neat, way to be able to think about how to incorporate, an. App into. Into. A campaign, or into your your, wellness, initiative. So. Let's explore the pros, and cons here, so these, again, offering, easy administration. Of the program they, can actively. Engage employees. It, can create a sense of belonging and connection, and camaraderie and all. Of those pieces belonging. Connection. Camaraderie, these, are core to intrinsic, motivation. Which, is really, one of the things that we're we're trying to achieve and provides. Visible, measurable feedback. To participants so. Being able to really see where, things stand and. How. Everybody is doing is really. Going to create some, buzz. But. Some of the cons on this is there. Are a ton, of apps, to choose from and they're, not all created equal, so, really, being able to understand. What we call you know have a requirements.

Definition, That, you're using when you're selecting an app and know, what you want it to accomplish, how you want it to be you know how do you want use it so really being able to think that through some. Apps are free some. Cost you really have to weigh that in terms of how that fits with your budget and if. Using, multiple, apps another, step may be required, to aggregate, the data so. Think, about how, everything, is going to interconnect, and how that data is going to. To. You know to be managed. And then. Keep in mind how, you need to keep people engaged so. Do. You need to, remind. Them to be using, this or is it something that you. Know if things are going well and they're intrinsically, motivated, to use this then, you're, not going to need to nudge people but. Sometimes. You, know they just it's, not a habit it's not part of their day so, they don't think about on, a regular basis, the, logging. Or whatever it may be so, some. Considerations. To think about how the app. Interacts. With the individual. And. How, often they're, going to be nudged, or. Encouraged. To use it. Well. Let's head into our last section of our conversation, today on social media, this. One is an area that is you know just everybody. Seems to be talking about this so let's jump, in here so, what, are the elements around some. Of the features of social. Media in particular are the aspects, about engaging, participants. Something. That's easily accessible always. Available you. Can make it a game you, can use it as a recognition, mechanism. And. Most. Importantly, you can get the participants. To become the, content, contributors. I think, that's an element that you. Know the idea of it being social. Is after. All about. Not just it's about a conversation, it's, not about just you know one person. You. Know putting information, out there which, is often, where we start, but the idea is we want to start to make this truly, social and in. Terms of a definition of this just so you know we're clear, about what we mean by this this is both web sites and applications. That. In users, to, create and share content, or. To participate in. Social. Networking. When. We think about social, networking, in the, context, of health behavior. This, is actually. A fascinating, myth. From me I find it just as a fascinating, field. Weird. We as human beings are, genetically. Predisposed. To connect socially, with one another you, know long before there was technology, to make social networking easy and available we, had families, and tribes and villages where. Our social network existed. And, social. And I think it turns out can be good, for our health and I, love the fact that research. Is being done in this area now and social. Scientists Nicholas, Christakis and, James Fowler have, done some work in this area in their epic epic, Amy ology studies, that. Good, behaviors, like, quitting, smoking or, staying slender, or being happy, can, actually, pass from, friend to friend almost, as if they, were contagious.

Viruses. So. I just love that idea that good. Behavior in, good health good health habits can actually, be, shared and we. See this we can that we can influence one other's health just. By socializing. So good, health and therefore, good health behaviors. Is. Actually, a product of the, sheer proximity. To, other healthy, people and, the. Problem is that is that it also applies, to bad, behaviors, so, we can infect our friends, with obesity. Unhappiness. Smoking. And this. Is what's called the social, contagion theory, so. The, workplace in, and of itself by its very nature is a social, network it's, a place where people have they come together with, a social with a common purpose and it. Is an ideal environment, in which to leverage, these peer-to-peer interactions. For. The purpose of encouraging healthy, behaviors, so, we've got the container, in which to be able to really encourage, this so. Fascinating. Research, that. I just, I really enjoy learning about some of these things and how, it impacts, health, behavior, so. When we think about how, to incorporate. Some, aspects, of social networking into, wellness programs, the. Key is that we want to be able to find ways to create, connections so. It's about these connections. You, know with individuals. And this, is what challenges. And competitions do. For us and when, we can do that in a way where you. Know individuals. So the peer-to-peer invitations. And interactions. Are. Starting, then. It's, really, something, that starts to take on life of its own people get talking about it one. Of the things I think is most powerful. In the elements, of social media is. The use of stories. And, how. Stories. Can. Inspire. Other individuals. And make. Us want to be like that person I. Have a person that has been on my team for a couple of years who, is a, master at this she, has. Coached marathon, teams and she runs marathons herself. And just. She's. Just inspirational. In seeing. What she does you know she logs, when she comes back from a long run or this last week she finished a marathon, in Maine and the stories she had that went with that it's, just it's inspiring, and, hopefully. Contagious. Leaderboards. Can be a way to to, use social media to be able to keep folks posted, again it you want the. Participants. To be generating. The content and generating. Those stories, and you want them linking, together for, these social behaviors, and in. Some cases linking. Incentives, to social behavior, can, be another approach, I, you. Know I'm not a big. Advocate of incentives, but in some cases you know you may be able to to. Use incentives, to to, drive folks to some of this, in. Terms. Of how to integrate. Really. Need to you, know set up specific, sites for the use of as. A part of the program again. It's not the whole program, it, is a part, that's going to support the program we, often, see Facebook, used. As a part of a workplace. Program, inviting. Participants to, post their pictures you, know of them doing you, know them and their families doing healthy activities, and this, is where you start to get that conversation going. Amongst. The individuals, so, really want to encourage. That. It's not you just posting, things out there oh that's a great ways way to start, you, want folks actually taking an active role in it. So. The, important, thing in thinking, about which social media tools to use is because, there's a lot of them is ask, employees, what they're using you, know are, they even using social media tools you, may find that they, you, know we have some.

Folks Who use Instagram, but they only use Instagram, for you know their personal, life or their family things. Some people use LinkedIn. Just for professional, but use but don't use and. Only use Facebook for personal, things so you really need to understand you know what are people using and, then. You. Know whether they really want to you know how do they want to be interacting, so. You really want to research you know which is right for the given program that you're doing and. That your workforce is going to be doing and making. Sure that you're, encouraging you. Know your employers, to, be able to think about what's, the right program, you. Know what's the right social media mechanism, for them to use, let. Me talk about a couple of examples here in terms, of some of the folks. From the working on wellness program, Gandhara. Center, is a mental, health services, provider, that employs over 700. Employees, they're. Using, technology as, a tool for a, physical, activity awareness, and education, initiative, and what. They did was they developed a Facebook, group for their employees, and they. Use an easy, text. They. Use it as a way to text, in send messages to employees, as a way, to increase physical activity and, then. Employees, who sign up receive, monthly emails, they see receive, waist weekly, Facebook, posts, and bi-weekly. Text, so, you can use it as a communication, mechanism as well but. Again the key to this is it, can't just be outbound, to, the employees, you want to really encourage their engagement, in the interaction, that's, when the social, element really. Comes into play and. This. Organization, is a head-start. Organization. Called pace headstart, there's. Again, a small non-for-profit. Organization, with a you know small budget, they only employ 77, people and they're. Using a private. Facebook, group to create. Community, with, and to engage their, workforce, they, have a member of their wellness committee who posts. Twice. A day on the page and they. Sometimes include healthy links to nutrition, articles local events, they're, also using fitbit's, as a way to encourage increased, physical activity, and the. Staff, was offered an opportunity to, get up to $100, reimbursed. For the purchase of their fitbit's. 65%, of their staff was engaged and they, were using their Fitbit app to, connect to the you know to both this, and the community, and. They've now is on, their own initiated. Walking groups as a result of this initiative so, really finds a way to start to connect. The individuals. So. I just want to go through the pros and cons on this, again. It. Participants. You know you want to get participants, getting the information this. May attract a younger, element. Of your workforce think. About this in terms of the demographics of your workforce, are. Your you know the members of your workforce, even, using, these types of social, media tools. Provide. Alternative. Communication, channels, because it can use this as a way of getting information to folks where they may already be and, it. Can create a sense of community and, be fun, and, then. But. The cons. Of this are that. If you are looking at content, creation or, maintenance, tasks, those can take time so. You, want this to be social, you want the it participants. To be generating, the content so, that it doesn't have to be something, else that you.

Know The champion, or the Wellness Committee is doing and then. We always have that distraction. During the work day that. Employers are concerned about thank. You Mari well. This concludes today's webinar so. On behalf, of CDC's, workplace, health resource center thanks, for making wellness your business and have a nice afternoon.

2018-10-23 14:13

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