Author: Graham Lowe

SXSW Interactive, Austin Texas. 15 March 2015
Panel on : Gaming the Hospital for High Quality Patient Care
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP39047
Hospitals in the US are in crisis. Pressure and stress threaten to create disengaged hospital workers an unsettling prospect that can be dangerous to patients. Meanwhile, the Affordable Care Act ushered in a shift to value-based purchasing, which ties payer dollars to quality of patient care. To ensure high-quality patient experiences, an outcome dependent on the dedication, skill and compassion of healthcare workers, interactive gaming may aid hospitals seeking to improve employee engagement.
In this panel we’ll discuss the opportunity for gamification to boost hospital staff engagement, which improves when employees believe their hospital truly values quality care and have clear, measurable goals allowing them to understand how their performance drives hospital success. Interactive platforms enabling real-time evaluation and game mechanics that engage employees with friendly competition can solve problems in the hospital workplace related to high stress and low sense of community.
Presenters: Clint Carlos, CEO & Founder, AMPT Health (Gear Five Studio); Graham Lowe, President, Graham Lowe Group; Paula van de Nes, Director of Medical Strategy, LLNS
#EngageCare

One-page summary of key action principles for making your organization healthier.

10 healthy organization principles

Graham Lowe will be speaking at the 2015 Vermont Worksite Wellness Conference, Burlington, VT.

The Healthy Outcomes Conference, hosted annually by Benefits Canada, is an excellent opportunity to learn what leading Canadian employers are doing to achieve their wellness goals. As conferences go, it is an intimate gathering — only 60 invited participants — so there are many opportunities for discussion and shared learning. I had the pleasure of giving a plenary talk, ‘Maximizing Wellbeing and Performance’, which was based on my recent Wellness Dividend report (which you can download free from www.grahamlowe.ca). I also facilitated an interactive workshop on how to link wellbeing and wellness.

Brenda Bouw has done a great job of summarizing the highlights of the conference, including my plenary talk. You can download this special feature from the September 2014 Benefits Canada issue from the www.grahamlowe.ca homepage.

My point of comparison was the Healthy Outcomes conference 10 years ago in Whistler, where I was invited to give a talk on the business benefits of healthy workplaces. Remarkable progress has been made in Canada on the wellness agenda over the ensuing decade. Most large employers now realize that investments in the health and wellness of their employees is a direct contribution to their organization’s success (small and medium sized employers lag behind in this regard, for a variety of reasons). The 2014 Healthy Outcomes conference documented the innovative steps some leading employers, and benefits providers, have taken to more fully understand and address employee health and wellness needs. Included here would be mining health claims data, the use of incentives, mindfulness training, focusing on getting a good night’s sleep…and more.

And there also are signs that employers are addressing the organizational dimensions of wellbeing. That means more are actually putting into practice the language of ‘healthy organizations’ — which is easier said than done. For example, there is wide recognition that both wellness and engagement goals are important for corporate success. Yet in response to the question “How can managers and HR specialist better engage employees through wellness initiatives?”, there was general agreement during workshop discussions that more needs to be done. Specifically, the interactive workshops I facilitated on this topic identified 3 actions in this regard: break down the silos separating corporate engagement strategies and wellness initiatives; use data from engagement surveys, HR and benefits utilization to paint an integrated picture of organizational health; and empower employee-management committees to make connections across engagement, wellness and OHS areas.

The take-away for conference participants: be ever-mindful of opportunities to enhance wellness goals by challenging the status quo. In short, lead healthy change!

Benefits Canada’s overview of its 2014 Healthy Outcomes Conference, published in the September 2014 issue. The special feature provides summaries of Graham Lowe’s talk, ‘Maximizing wellbeing and performance’ and the workshop he led on ‘Linking wellness and engagement.’
2014 Healthy Outcomes Conference

Keynote at the Occupational Health & Safety Industry Group annual conference, Auckland, New Zealand. September 11, 2014. For further information: www.ohsig.org.nz/programme/ohsig-conference-2014
Talk description: Employers in New Zealand and many other countries face mounting pressures to find better ways to reduce employee health and safety risks. These challenges are best addressed by viewing employee wellbeing as a strategic human capital advantage. This positive approach to risk reduction is guided by a healthy organization vision. A healthy organization forges strong links between health, safety and wellness initiatives and core human resource goals. Wellbeing is viewed as a leading indicator of employees’ capabilities – and future business performance. Evidence-based insights from current research support this approach and provide principles that can help employers reap a significant ‘wellness dividend’.

Keynote talk at the 2014 Comcare National Conference, Melbourne, Australia. September 9, 2014. For more information: www.comcare.gov.au/conference/program

Graham Lowe’s keynote presentation at the 2014 Healthy Outcomes Conference, Vancouver, June 13, 2014. The conference agenda can be found at http://www.benefitscanada.com/conferences/healthy-outcomes-conference

My Wellness Dividend report has received lots of attention. Good feedback from clients, colleagues and readers in Canada, the US, and beyond. What resonates is the up-dated business case for investing in truly comprehensive wellness interventions, which get at the underlying workplace drivers of wellbeing and performance. Today’s Globe & Mail published an interview with me about the report. The article offers a concise summary of the business case for happy, healthy employees: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/life-at-work/the-business-case-for-healthy-happy-employees/article18877107/#dashboard/follows/

This article summarizes what occupational health nurses need to know about the ingredients of successful workplace wellness programs, based on the latest research evidence.
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