The new vaccines for Coronavirus are allowing us to look over the horizon and consider a new normal.  Employers can begin to consider their overall employees’ health post raging pandemic and not just focus on COVID and business survival. So what should employers be considering now? Here are a few thoughts:

1. How did the modifications to your workplace and processes to get through this pandemic impact your employees and their health? Some things to consider:
   1. Were more working from home? How did that impact stress, loneliness, team relationships? How would you identify and measure that?
   2. Were there changes to the onsite work at your office, store, restaurant or workspace that impacted their safety, health, well-being? If so what were they?
   3. Did they miss doctors appointments, delay treatment for a condition, miss health screenings as per the USPSTF guidelines, change their diet or exercise regimens?, and
   4. Did you see increases in the use of certain benefit offerings or programs and decreases in others, what were they? Are they important or did they represent a service that needs more focus and resources or one that was not needed to begin with?
2. On a go forward basis how do you:
   1. Help employees make up for missed appointments, delayed treatments, screenings and other items?
   2. Determine what benefits or services that you provided are now relevant and which you should discontinue? What new benefits should you consider?
   3. How do you help employees improve their well-being in the new normal?
   4. How do you create a culture of health in this post pandemic environment?

This is a chance to really look at your benefits plans, health improvement programs, and overall employee health and do a reset.  It’s an opportunity to develop and select a benefits package with programs that are effective.  we know that much of what is provided is often not used or has no improvement in outcomes.  At the same time there are newer approaches as well as those that have shown efficacy over decades that can have an impact. So where and how do you start?

If you’d like to set up a quick call to discuss how to look at these areas, review your benefits plan and/or review your health improvement programs, give us a call.