Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security. The company is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC – composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, Inc., and URS for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
LANL has a proud history and heritage of more than 70 years of science and innovation, playing a role in some of the most transformational discoveries of the 20th and 21st centuries. The people at the laboratory work on advanced technologies to provide the best scientific and engineering solutions to the nation’s most crucial security challenges.
LANL has a long history of investing in employee health and wellbeing. Early on, they offered funding for employee recreation and morale. Over time, this was a gateway to
LANL building an on-site Wellness Center and hiring full-time staff to offer a robust corporate health promotion program to meet employees’ wellbeing.
But even with health awareness programs and classes offered at the center, employee participation varied. Many of these early initiatives focused on physical activity alone – a great start but often falling short of lasting behavior change.
Safety is a top concern at LANL. A number of employees work in and around hazardous materials, and LANL wanted employees to adopt a 24/7 mindset where they come to and return home from work each evening healthy and safe.
LANL’s two major challenges were: Build the case for a holistic health and wellbeing program to help employees form healthier habits, and decrease the number of safety injuries on the job.
Solution
Prioritizing Employee Health & Wellbeing
To build his case to management, Jamie Aslin, Team Leader of Ergonomics, Health, and Wellness at LANL, first recruited the help of LANL economist Steve Booth in early 2012.
Booth benchmarked the returns and engagement of other corporate health promotion programs. He found Personify Health was recharging employees and transforming company cultures at other organizations across the country.
The two presented the results of their economic analysis to management, and in October 2013 secured support to proceed with a wellbeing program for LANL. After selecting Personify Health, Aslin oversaw the launch of the program in January 2014.
With Personify Health, LANL was able to offer a simple technology platform that helps build good lifestyle habits through personalization, tracking, positive feedback, education, rewards, and a hefty dose of fun.
This empowered LANL employees to work on the areas of wellbeing they already wanted to improve, beginning with small, daily habits.
Aslin and his team set out to enroll as many employees as possible. With a wide campus of dispersed employees, he was worried that participation may not be high. LANL used Personify Health’s tailored campaign resources to communicate its new health and wellbeing initiatives.
“A healthy employee is a safe employee, and a safe employee is a healthier employee.”
Results
A Healthier & Safer Workforce
During the first month, LANL saw 60 percent enrollment in the Personify Health program from its workforce. To date, 67 percent of eligible LANL employees are enrolled.
Employees now take an active role in their personal health and wellbeing. Nearly a quarter of Personify Health members at LANL use a nutrition tracking and education app as part of the program, something Aslin called “a great resource that really helps employees build healthier eating habits.”
Since 2014, Aslin has received over 100 success stories from the workforce. Employees are getting more activity, improving biometric measurements, and losing over 100 pounds of body weight. Aslin also values the relief in administrative burden that the program has brought.
“I like the ability to customize and integrate all of our different health and safety initiatives into the Personify Health platform and have one communication going out to employees,” said Aslin.
With employees engaged in building healthier habits, Aslin was able to further address safety at LANL. In 2014, a Safety Wellness Action Team (SWAT) was created. A few initiatives of SWAT were to train employees on proper push/pull/lifting
techniques, ergonomics, and participate on the Slip Simulator – a kinetic learning experience teaching proper techniques when walking on slippery surfaces.
Since 2007, the company has seen a 70 percent reduction in repetitive trauma. It’s reduced slips, trips, and falls by 68 percent, and has decreased push, pull, and lift injuries by 47 percent. The success of LANL’s safety program, which includes a robust health effort, earned it the Star Award from the Department of Energy’s Voluntary Protection Program in 2014.
“LANL realizes that a healthy employee is a safe employee, and a safe employee is a healthier employee,” said Aslin.
Today, LANL is used as a resource to other U.S. Department of Energy laboratories as a benchmark to provide guidance in building a business case of their own for employee health and wellbeing programs.
“I like the ability to customize and integrate all of our different health and safety initiatives into the Personify Health platform.”
Ready to take your employee wellbeing program to the next level? Talk to an expert at Personify Health to get started.