HERO Summer Research Meeting Proceedings: Advancing Systemic Approaches to Mental and Emotional Well-being
Each summer HERO convenes a meeting of Think Tank members and invited special guests to inform the ongoing advancement of HERO’s research agenda. Our June 7th meeting provided a brief update on HERO’s research activities, including research studies in progress or in development, as well as informed new attendees about how to get involved in HERO research initiatives. The primary focus for the meeting was on HERO’s measurement initiatives. Meeting slides and a recording of the presentations are available by accessing this link.
Two panelists set the context for the interactive discussions that followed by sharing information on HERO’s primary measurement initiatives including the HERO-PHA Program Measurement and Evaluation Guide (Measurement Guide) and the HERO Health and Well-being Best Practices Scorecard in Collaboration with Mercer (HERO Scorecard).
Ed Framer
Ron Goetzel
Steven Noeldner
Ed Framer, co-chair of the HERO-PHA Measurement Guide workgroup, discussed the development of the Measurement Guide and shared the reasons for the Guide’s focus and content. Steven Noeldner, HERO Research Committee Chair, provided an overview of the data collected so far on the HERO Scorecard’s optional outcomes section, which was informed in its development on measures recommended in the HERO-PHA Measurement Guide. Ron Goetzel, chair of HERO’s Board of Directors, concluded the panel by sharing an overview of other measurement initiatives that are emerging in the industry.
The measurement panel prepared the group for more than 90 minutes of interactive discussion, facilitated by Seth Serxner, chair of HERO’s Research Advisory Group. The discussion focused primarily on understanding the measurement gaps and needs of employers and practitioners to support the measurement and evaluation of health and well-being initiatives. This included a focus on content needs as well as the format for new deliverables or measurement resources. A brief summary of discussion comments follows.
Content: What is needed to advance measurement for the field
- The strongest area of need in our field is providing guidance and resources on how to more comprehensively measure mental and emotional well-being. For example, employers are increasingly incorporating activities into their health promotion initiatives to foster caring and kindness for one another, compassion, happiness, mindfulness, resiliency, professional fulfillment, and meaning/purpose in one’s life. Our current measurement resources largely focus on stress risk or depression. The field needs tools and resources to evaluate their initiatives with this broader focus.The strongest area of need in our field is providing guidance and resources on how to more comprehensively measure mental and emotional well-being. For example, employers are increasingly incorporating activities into their health promotion initiatives to foster caring and kindness for one another, compassion, happiness, mindfulness, resiliency, professional fulfillment, and meaning/purpose in one’s life. Our current measurement resources largely focus on stress risk or depression. The field needs tools and resources to evaluate their initiatives with this broader focus.
- Health promotion initiatives are increasingly integrating with employee assistance and talent development efforts and need better measurement approaches to aid early identification of employee engagement and performance concerns and support referrals to EAP and Talent Management resources.
- Employers are also seeking better tools to identify and refer employees with special needs related to addiction recovery support, opioid use, and specialty drug management. • The health promotion field is increasingly interested in understanding how to support employee engagement with their health and with their work. Measurement resources are needed to evaluate how initiatives contribute to accountability, engagement, health literacy, and levels of participation in initiatives. There is not a single common understanding of what “engagement” means in the field of health promotion and it would be helpful for a collaborative effort to develop a definition that is relevant to the field.
- The value proposition for health and well-being has expanded to include attraction & retention of employees and outcomes that are meaningful for talent management and development. Resources are needed to support measurement and evaluation of health and well-being initiatives against these outcomes.
- Organizational culture continues to be an area of interest. While existing measurement tools guide employers around how to measure culture, new needs are emerging including resources to help measure levels of compassion, control over work, leadership support, trust, and respect.
- Other comments identified needs related to measurement in the areas of performance, financial well-being, net promoter score, quality of life, social connectedness, and value on investment.
Deliverables: Who do we hope to influence and how do we influence them?
- There were mixed ideas about who the end-users of measurement resources should be. Suggestions in order of the most comments include employers (including business leaders), professionals/practitioners in the field, and vendor suppliers. One insight that was especially helpful is that guidance on how to measure is useful for researchers and vendor suppliers but what is meaningful to measure is informed by employers. So resources need to address multiple audiences.
- There were a lot of suggestions about how to structure resources in ways that will be most useful for a variety of users including:
- Embed a feature that assesses user needs at the front end and then provides guidance on content most appropriate for them.
- Use concrete examples.
- Ensure format is appealing and approachable by using side bars, check lists, etc.
- Discuss how measures inform actionable strategy.
- Create something scalable and flexible, not a static resource that cannot be changed or modified over time.
- Connect the dots between new resources we develop and existing resources already available.
- Provide case studies to illustrate how other employers are using measurement strategies and tools to demonstrate value to their stakeholders.
- Release new developments in phases rather than waiting for the entire effort to be concluded. Consider a series of releases or publications.
- Ensure multiple dissemination vehicles are used to get the word out to broad audiences. Webinars and press releases alone are insufficient. We need a more comprehensive and ongoing communication plan to promote use.
Conclusion
Paul Terry, HERO’s President and CEO, closed the meeting by asking attendees to vote on where they felt HERO’s future measurement efforts should focus, with one (1) representing a need to update existing measurement resources, and five (5) representing a need to focus on developing new measurement resources. The greatest number of responses were associated with a three (3), which Paul interpreted as a call to do both: update existing resources and augment with new measurement resources.
HERO’s future work will be informed in part by the comments collected during the June 7th meeting. Future activities include engaging members of HERO’s Research Advisory Group to inform the initiatives HERO will tackle in 2018. This guidance will be further informed by the active interest that our broader HERO Think Tank members demonstrate in contributing to future measurement efforts. While it’s easy to relegate the development of measurement tools to researchers, it’s equally important that employers, practitioners, and vendor suppliers get involved. It is only through such a collaborative approach that any effort will result in the development of meaningful resources that are relevant and practical to all stakeholders wishing to demonstrate the value of their health and well-being efforts.
Call to Action
HERO’s work is staff supported but member driven. Our most successful initiatives are the result of collaborative efforts that leverage the energy, insights, and experience of HERO members. If you are interested in leading or contributing to HERO’s future measurement activities, please contact me at Jessica.grossmeier@hero-health.org. If you are aware of other measurement initiatives within the health and well-being field, please also let me know.
HERO Member Webinar – “Human Performance and Care: How Caring Impacts Engagement and Safety at Shell Oil”
Mark Poindexter, Shell Oil
Krystal Sexton, Shell Oil
August 17, 2017
1:00 PM CDT
Thursday, August 17, at 1:00 PM CST
Shell’s Human Performance and Care (HP&C) initiative places an intentional lens of care on all its programs aimed at improving human performance. Covering physical, psychological, and emotional well-being, HP&C contains a number of programs, initiatives, and tool kits to help teams and individuals perform at their best. In this talk, two programs, Resilience and Care for People, will be highlighted, along with their impacts on engagement and safety throughout Shell.
HEROForum17 – “Engagement and the Emerging Workforce.” September 12-14, 2017 – Phoenix, AZ
In keeping with HERO’s reputation as host of a learning experience that is practical and thought-provoking as well as agenda-setting for our field, we will be offering an eclectic number of conference tracks with learning objectives that advance our theme and address other timely issues in health and well-being: diversity and workforce engagement; measures that matter; skills, motivation, autonomy; sustainability; well-being; and culture change. Three pre-conference summits—for CMOs, healthcare systems, and university well-being professionals—have been added on Monday, September 11th (8:00 am – 1:30 pm) and require separate registration.
1st Annual HERO CMO Summit
Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Phoenix, AZ
Monday, September 11, 2017
8:00 A.M. to 1:30 P.M.
3rd Annual Healthcare Summit
Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Phoenix, AZ
Monday, September 11, 2017
8:00 A.M. – 1:30 P.M.
5th Annual University Summit
Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Phoenix, AZ
Monday, September 11, 2017
8:00 A.M. – 1:30 P.M.
2017 Fall Think Tank Meeting (members only event)
Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Phoenix, AZ
Monday, September 11, 2017
2:30 P.M. – 5:30 P.M. (Reception and dinner to follow)
Register
Agenda
Study Identifies Factors That Matter to Business Leaders
Check out this newly published study by HERO’s Employer-Community Collaboration Study Committee co-chairs, Nico Pronk and Cathy Baase, and HERO staff Jeanette May, Paul Terry and Karen Moseley. The study identifies factors that matter to business leaders when it comes to decision making about investment in community health improvement efforts.
Summer Policy Report from American Heart Association
AHA’s Office of Policy Research recently released their latest Policy Report. This issue highlights their latest forecasting report, recent policy statements on payment and delivery system reform, the Supplementation Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Active Transportation.
HERO and Emory Publish Case Study on Use of Wearables as Part of Wellness
Recently, I co-authored an article with Michael Staufacker from Emory for Employee Benefit Adviser. The article highlights Emory’s introduction of wearables into its employee well-being program and features the key findings from the HERO wearables research report. This is part of HERO’s ongoing efforts to promote a wearables in wellness case study report released earlier this year.
Mercer Features Analysis Linking Best Practice Approaches with Lower Turnover Rates
Mercer, HERO’s collaboration partner on the HERO Health and Well-being Best Practices Scorecard in Collaboration with Mercer (HERO Scorecard), featured findings from an analysis that links high scores on the HERO Scorecard with organizationally reported turnover rates. Read on.
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