Top Tools to Drive Behavior Change for Your Employees

It’s easy for people to get overwhelmed with all the promises brands say their products will deliver. A faster metabolism in two weeks! Quit smoking in three easy steps! Follow this cleanse for lower blood pressure! Your employees are inundated with these messages and are eager to change their behaviors for the promise of better health. In fact, 80% of the population wants to live in a better state of health, but don’t know how to pursue it.

As an employer, you have an opportunity to help your employees on their path toward healthy, sustainable behavior change through a personable, accessible, and intelligent approach to care. Whether they want to lose weight, keep a chronic condition under control, or better manage their stress, you can provide them with the proper solutions to reach their goals. Read on for our top four tools you can implement to support your employees and drive behavior change.

Find Help

While social determinants of health may not be in the traditional scope of how we think about healthcare, they have a significant impact on health outcomes. Examples of social determinants of health (SDOH) include food insecurity, poor living conditions, inability to pay for medications or bills, lack of transportation options, and more. Because of the impact each of these examples has on overall health, behavior change will be difficult without taking a whole-person approach to care. For example, if a patient is trying to change their eating habits by incorporating more fruits and vegetables but they live in a food desert, that behavior will never change unless their food insecurity is addressed.

One valuable resource you can offer to address SDOH and impact behaviors is Find Help, a free online platform that makes it easy for anyone in the U.S. to find and apply for social services by simply entering their ZIP code. Searches are completely anonymous, and the platform pulls results from applicable national, state, county, city, and even neighborhood programs. Having access to this website empowers people to get the help they need on their own time in a place they feel most comfortable.

If you have an onsite or nearsite wellness center, Find Help can also help your providers deliver whole-person care, whether in-person or in a virtual appointment. The real value comes from integrating Find Help with an EMR, such as Epic. This integration better equips providers to close gaps in care for their patients. Providers can view local resources during appointments and make seamless referrals to social services at the point of care, just like they would refer out to a specialist. SDOH are significant barriers to health and wellbeing, and without addressing them, behavior change will remain stagnant.

One-on-One Coaching

A wellness solution that lets your employees work one-on-one with a provider, nutritionist, or wellness coach, is another tool that can drive behavior change.

Registered dietitians – also sometimes referred to as nutritionists – help patients manage and prevent a variety of chronic conditions like pre-diabetes/diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. Dietitians can play a large role in driving behavior change given how closely they work with patients to plan, implement, and evaluate a behavioral change program for weight management. Based on the patient, their program may include learning how to read food labels to determine what healthy options are or how to put together healthy meals based on what ingredients are accessible in their home.

In addition to nutrition, a wellness coaching program can help members achieve lasting lifestyle change for a broader array of challenges like stress management, physical activity, tobacco cessation, work/life balance, and life satisfaction. This is also a close partnership between patient and provider, who serves as a trusted accountability partner. After setting realistic goals, they work together to stay motivated and on track to reach them.

Digital Engagement Platform

Corporate wellness programs have long been solutions employers turn to for behavior change, but with a large portion of the workforce now working remotely or in a hybrid model, digital engagement platforms are increasingly becoming valuable behavior change tools. These digital solutions make healthy habits fun! They’re designed with employees in mind to improve health through corporate contests and challenges, on-demand health education, personal goal tracking, and other tools.

The best platforms are highly customizable to be relevant for each person. While one of your employees may be working toward a weight loss goal, another may be taking strides toward quitting smoking. Based on those priorities, the platform can provide appropriate content to encourage the lifestyle changes your employees are seeking.

Digital engagement platforms are fun and motivating, but incentives play a key role in keeping your employees engaged over time. Offer a wide variety of choices to appeal to your entire population, such as gift cards, branded swag, health and wellness trackers, etc.

Connected Devices

Connected devices are high-tech tools that benefit both patients and providers when it comes to behavior change. For patients, fitness trackers, smart scales, blood pressure cuffs, and heart monitors keep them informed on what’s happening with their health. The device insights let them play a more active role in their health and monitor conditions from the comfort of their own home, while also giving providers greater visibility into their health status.

Wearable technology in healthcare uses remote patient monitoring (RPM) to share data in between appointments so providers can stay on top of any worsening conditions and intervene, if necessary. This seamless sharing of information decreases the number of in-person visits a patient needs to establish a treatment regimen, which means less time spent driving to and from the doctor’s office, and more time dedicated toward improving habits and changing behaviors.

Premise Health offers all these options and more so you can create the most personalized solution for your population. Whether it’s one product or a combination, you won’t need to keep track of multiple contracts with multiple vendors. We’re proud to be your single partner as you take steps to help your employees achieve lasting behavior change. Let’s get started.