The Big Chill
Can antistress programs help today's beleaguered workers?
In 2002, health insurance premiums at White & Case, a New York-based law firm with 1,900 lawyers in 25 countries, shot up 30 percent from the year before. After an in-depth look at the employees' pricey prescription medications, Susanne Wamba, the firm's director of health and welfare benefits, knew why: The firm was spending a lot of money to control a slew of stress-related medical conditions, such as gastrointestinal problems, anxiety, and high blood pressure--conditions that could have been prevented through exercise, weight control, and stress management.
The next year, White & Case rolled out several antistress programs, including yoga and cardio kickboxing classes, nutritional counseling sessions, a new heart-healthy cafeteria, and health screenings and fairs in several of its U.S. locations. In 2003, health insurance premiums increased 17.9 percent; last year they rose only 8.9 percent. "Most people have participated in at least one thing--whether the screenings or the classes--to the point where they've made some positive change in their lives, which helps them and helps us," says Wamba.
Yes, stress relief is being measured in dollars and cents these days. In fact, 1 in 5 companies offers some form of stress management, according to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va. That includes companies large and small, from DaimlerChrysler, Pfizer, and Credit Suisse First Boston to start-ups like ING Direct. Such programs "are required in today's work environment in order to attract top talent," says Michelle Cook, DaimlerChrysler's senior manager for diversity and work life.
Typically, these programs fall under the larger umbrella of departments whose names shun the word stress in favor of phrases like "health and wellness" and "work-life balance." Says Alicia Whitaker, managing director of global human resources programs for CSFB, "We do a number of programs that have an impact on managing stress, without necessarily labeling them stressbusters." Of course, Whitaker acknowledges, some stress can be positive. "We want people to be pumped up about business," says Whitaker. "But it's the overuse, the corrosive continuous demand that wears you out, that we want to mitigate."
The stressed-out worker is not a new phenomenon. But today's downsizings, outsourcings, company closings, economic fears, and technological overload seem to have exacerbated workers' stress levels. Add to the mix the responsibilities of the sandwich generation that is caring for its elderly parents at the same time it is raising its children. "You may have your employee at work, but are they focused on the work, or worried about their aging mother?" asks Rick Bruno, Pfizer's director of health and wellness.
Companies trying to keep their workforces stress-free aren't doing it just out of the goodness of their hearts. As White & Case discovered, stress can be costly to the bottom line. In a 1998 study of 46,000 employees by the Health Enhancement Research Organization, a nonprofit coalition of employers and healthcare providers, medical claims filed by employees who were deemed highly stressed cost 46 percent more than those of employees who were not. In 2000, another of the organization's studies found that stress is a factor in 25 percent of all healthcare costs.
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