Chris Hanson For Assembly

Well City-Fox Cities

In fall 2009, Chris Hanson of Hanson Benefits, Barbara VanGorp of McClone Insurance Group and Pamela Utpadel of Universal Insurance Advisors, decided to join forces to enroll 20 percent of the Fox Cities employed workforce (32,442 people) in WELCOA’s Well Workplace program. They met this goal in June 2010.

WELCOA provides the nationally recognized structured set of ‘7 Benchmarks’ to achieve the high standards and designation of a Well Workplace. The process requires employees to take a biometric screening and a written assessment of their lifestyle choices. They also participate in wellness education and interventions at their workplace to improve their ‘health assessment score.’ After adhering to a stringent, ongoing process of creating a wellness culture, the employer and its employees become accredited as a Well Workplace. This achievement often leads to national recognition.

Hanson, VanGorp and Utpadel believe behavior change is the key to controlling healthcare costs. According to the Wellness Council of America, seventy percent of the healthcare costs are a result of people make poor lifestyle choices (lack of exercise, poor diet and smoking).“It takes twenty one days to change a behavior. People spend so much time at work, so really good behaviors start there,” states Utpadel.

Healthy behaviors can also yield the results businesses need: Return on Investment. According to WELCOA, an investment of $150 per employee will yield between a $3:1 to $16:1 return. “Besides impacting health insurance premiums, worksite wellness has an impact on employee retention and recruiting, absenteeism, presenteeism, workers compensation, disability and overall employee morale,” states VanGorp.

The three women believe bringing a fresh concept like Well City-Fox Cites to businesses in the community will help them look forward to something positive in return for good behaviors and accountability.

“We are three ordinary women with three extraordinary destinies. We are not self-promoting and don’t get paid to do this. We just want to affect positive change,” states Hanson.