Whether trying to lower their blood pressure, manage their weight, quit smoking, or decrease their stress, your employees need support in their health. But, they can’t move along their health journey if they’re not ready or interested in doing so. To better understand your employees’ unique health hurdles, worksite healthcare providers can assess their willingness to change through health coaching and motivational interviewing. This approach provides the guidance, support, and education employees need to begin their health journey.
Your worksite healthcare providers can build a trusting partnership to help your employees navigate and improve their health. And it makes good business sense. Poor health among American workers is costing employers as much as $153 billion each year in employee absenteeism, lost productivity, and turnover.
What is Health Coaching?
A health coach partners with your employees to make a realistic, actionable health plan. Health coaches support your workforce by offering education and encouragement to help them stay on track and achieve their goals.
“During my first appointment at my health center with Angela Curran, NP, she instilled hope in me that I would succeed and I appreciated her empathy. We created action plans covering diet, meal planning, and exercise, which helped me prioritize my physical and mental health. We regularly discussed my progress, struggles, and triumphs.” – Hong, Marathon Health patient, employee at Nelnet, and winner of Healthy Like Me
Health coaches use motivational interviewing to help people become interested in changing their behaviors that prevent them from making healthier choices. Motivational interviewing is “a practical, empathetic, and short-term process that takes into consideration how difficult it is to make life changes.”
Coach and Cheerleader
Support and inspiration are important drivers for lasting health improvement. In that spirit, our Healthy Like Me program encourages patients across our nationwide network of worksite health centers to share their personal health transformation stories to motivate their peers to prioritize their health. 2018 was our most successful year yet with small, manageable behavior change leading to significant health improvement.
This approach is impactful. At Marathon Health, 58 percent of our customers’ employees are making progress toward their health goals and 55 percent of our chronic condition population is engaged in health coaching. Making health progress makes people happy, and we see that with a 99 percent patient satisfaction rate. Taking the time to listen, understand, and build a trusting partnership with a patient is a simple equation that yields powerful results.
“Before I began my health journey, I was not living life. I was tired all of the time, sluggish, had poor sleep, no energy, and was fighting depression and anxiety. I was very discouraged and had resigned myself to be overweight and sick for the rest of my life. My health coach provided the support and encouragement I needed to make a positive change.” – Dawn, Marathon Health patient, employee at Trustmark National Bank, and winner of Healthy Like Me.
