Norfolk Southern: Health and Wellness 1. Background Norfolk Southern Railway Corporation was formed in 1982. This company has been around under many other names throughout the history of the United States, with the constant mergers and acquisitions in railroading history. In northern Indiana the railroads were originally New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad, these two lines merged to become Penn Central. Penn Central went bankrupt and the United States government merged them with other railroads to form Conrail. In the early 2000’s the government then sold portions of Conrail to the largest railroads in the country and Norfolk Southern purchased the Chicago Line which runs through northern Indiana. This is only a small portion of the company’s history but is the part that is important in context to Norfolk Southern Elkhart yard, where I am currently employed. 2. Human Resource Need The human resources situation that needs to be evaluated at Elkhart Yard would be a sub set of Risk Management and Worker Protection, more specifically the health and wellness of employees. Many of the employees at Norfolk Southern have a tendency to be overweight or even The second ideal is healthy weight, this includes access to “tools and resources that any employee can use to help reach and maintain a healthy weight” (HealthAhead). The final portion of this program is Healthy in a Click, this is a computer based program offering access to information regarding living a healthy lifestyle including, recipes, wellness topics, and ways to challenge each other to fitness related goals (HealthAhead). This program is clearly working to help avoid downtime as the corporation has shown a 12% decrease in health related absenteeism, which can result in a huge gain regarding overall output per employee (GE Goals and
The Norfolk Southern mission statement begins with, “NS aims to enhance the value of stockholders’ investment over time by providing quality freight transportation services…” (Norfolk Southern Corporation, 2015). This is the very first line of the mission statement. It shows us that Norfolk Southern Corporation is focused on the value of stockholder’s investment in our company. Over the last 5 years our stock value has gone from $59.47 to $104.68, almost doubling in value (Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), 2015). We have also paid dividends of $0.50 (+/- .09) per share 11 times, since August of 2011 (Norfolk Southern Corporation Dividend Date & History, 2015). Our business has historically been very successful much of the time when looking at the business from a shareholder perspective. In fact when the 2014 Annual Report was released, CEO Charles “Wick” Moorman said recently, “Our performance during the year demonstrated the increasing demand for our services, the growing value of freight rail transportation in the marketplace, and Norfolk Southern’s progress in enhancing service to meet the needs of customers and create long-term value for shareholders. (Vantuono, 2015)” It is clear that our executive management values the shareholder perspective when making strategic planning
Employee wellness programs, also known as a “worksite wellness program”, are programs that are designed to promote and support the health, safety, and well being of a company’s employees. Wellness programs are meant to improve the health of the staff, their morale, and in turn also help improve their productivity. There are many components that make up employee wellness programs, for example; Health Screenings, Health Fairs, Fitness classes, Smoking cessation classes, and even wellness issue workshops. Employers have begun adopting these programs in hopes of helping their employees while they are at an age when health interventions can still help transform their long-term health choice. This paper will focus on trends found between employee weight and productivity, and the impacts these could have on a business overall.
The people in the workplace can be categorize into two groups: the employer and the employees. The employees work for their employer and in turn the employer has the duty and responsibility to ensure that the minimum safety requirements are met. However, employers are not required to provide health insurance benefits to their employees. More often than not, providing health insurance benefits is very costly to the employer and in an attempt to mitigate the costs, employers’ encourage employee participation in various healthy lifestyle programs and initiatives as well as providing incentives for their participation in such programs. These kinds of action are not always met with enthusiasm, some find it unreasonable to be expected to do so on their own time to change their lifestyle to suit their employers.
...ng, eating habit, walking and exercising. This program allowed the researcher to teach weight management lesson and skills week. All topics support the messages given in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and My Pyramid.
...ible if Lincoln Electric stopped prioritizing its employees. By making sure to look out for its employees’’ well-being, the company can stay aggressive and stable without stagnation or lawsuits. Ultimately, the company sounds like it blends traditional management elements with an above-average attention to employee morale, training, and well-being. For a place that’s nearly two hundred years old, with thousands of satisfied employees, this is an impressive track record. Other companies should look at the management style present at Lincoln Electric for proof that companies can make profits and still put their employees above stakeholders.
The earlier people know what their baseline is and what their optimal blood presure should be, the greater change they have of maintaining wellness and monitoring their optimal health. It allows for a variety of lifestyle adjustments to be made and allows for early intervention and specifying individual needs. The workplace can provide services, programs, policies and supportive environment to support healthy lifestyles making it easier for individuals to implement. The following are the offerings that will aid in assessing individual and providing implementation
...program of nationwide health-promotion and disease-prevention goals set by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The goals and objectives of Healthy People 2020 was predicated on a health system accessible to all Americans that would integrate personal health care and population-based public health activities. The goals were first set in 1979, for the following decade. The goals were subsequently updated for Healthy People 2000, Healthy People 2010, and Healthy People 2020. Healthy People 2020 was developed through a broad consultation process, built on the best scientific knowledge, and designed to measure programs over time. It is composed of 467 specific objectives organized into 28 focus areas, as well as two overarching goals. The two goals are "increase quality and years of healthy life" and "eliminate health disparities".
Lastly, building a business case for the wellness initiative is an important part of the process. According to previously noted literature review, it makes good business sense. Employees with healthy behaviors, on average, are more productive when at work and incur lower medical costs than workers with less healthy behaviors. In writing a wellness operating plan, several business aspects should be addressed like the overall goal of the program, the specific objectives, the implementation strategies with a timeline, the communication methods to be used, and a detailed budget (Goetzel et. al., 2004).
The vision and mission of this program is to promote health and wellbeing to all Americans while reducing the health care cost and increasing the life expectancy of all individuals. The mission reaches far beyond just encouraging exercising for thirty minutes...
You have defined what you want to happen in the first step. Now, you need to decide how you are going to achieve those wellness goals.
(2014) they found that the foremost effective strategy to promote healthy eating methods is to supply data on nutrition double-geared towards the individual, give incentives, encourage self-efficacy and to support total activity modification. This embodies the strategy of communication as a result the advocator is encouraging a complete lifestyle change by swopping out recent habits with better and healthier choices.
Creating an individual health and wellness plan helps you plan for your future of creating and /or maintaining a positive, safe lifestyle by addressing underlying issues. “No matter how hard we try and no matter what skills we bring to bear, some problems remain out of our control. When this is the case, we can tell the truth: ‘It’s too big and too mean. I can’t handle it.’ In that moment, we take a step toward greater health” (Ellis, 2015, p. 320). Problems and their solutions within a health plan can be evaluated through five different categories: Diet, Exercise, Rest, Safety, and Health Support. Today we will discuss how I was personally affected in each of those areas and how I plan to implement a solution.
With the health care costs reaching high number there is no wonder we have a large number of absenteeism. So many wait to the last possible painstaking work day to decide to see a doctor about their aliment, and all of that could be prevented. Preventing oneself to have to take time off from work is one way to keep costs low. There are so many areas that need to be addressed when it comes to what is going to slow us down as a company. According to estimates by Dr. Jaime Claudio(1991), a corporate wellness consultant for Health Plus, a provider of health-care insurance, a comprehensive eating awareness and weight- management program designed to improve long-term habits could generate an 80% reduction in the incidence of potential problems caused by obesity in the workplace. These problems include hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and diminished work efficiency. Obesity is not the only eating disorder that is a problem, there is bulimia and anorexia. Smoking, drinking, substance abuse, and stress are problems that are brought into the workplace and stop productivity. We have to be aware of issues that are there but are not usually thought of as an illness.
The SMART goal of the obesity program is to reduce the obese population in Pitt County by creating a healthier diet program. Different objectives will be needed in order to reach this goal. The first objective is that from July 2016 through December 2016 100 community members will participate in the health department’s health promotion activities. This objective aligns with the reinforcement construct of the Social Cognitive Theory. By repeatedly participating in the activities, the 100 community members will be rewarded with the knowledge they receive and also motivation to change their behavior. By having an enjoyable time, they will be rewarded and want to keep coming back to the activities. The second objective is that following the 6-month duration; the majority of the participants will lose 2-10% of their original body weight by changing to a healthier diet. The reason the participants need to lose 2-10% of their body weight is to either prevent or reduce the chances of gaining other health diseases associated with obesity, including coronary artery disease and Type 2 Diabetes. This objective aligns with the self-efficacy construct. By losing a little bit of body fat, the participants will believe in their ability to lose weight, and continue to do so. The third objective is that on June 17 and June 24, informational brochures will be distributed to the community members to create awareness and reminders to join the obesity program, and gain knowledge about the health condition of obesity. This objective deals with the behavioral capability construct of the Social Cognitive Theory because the participants will gain the knowledge and skills needed to change their behavior through the brochures.
Workers of every organization need to embrace the culture of living a healthy lifestyle rather than implementing specialized health programs and insurance plans (Goetzel, 2012). Coca-Cola Company initially perceived health and well-being as only integrated into the safety programs that employees are given. The company needs to distinguish between health and wellness from safety concerns. Many governments have encouraged wellness programs through the Affordable Care Act; this raises the legal limits on the penalties imposed on the employees by employers for the health-contingent wellness plans (Baicker,