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BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – July/August 2014
It may sound too good to be true, but the management and employees
at Lincoln Industries in Lincoln, Nebraska are living it day in and day
out. The mid-sized manufacturing company has won national acclaim
for its first-class wellness programming, including the C. Everett Koop
National Health Award. In addition, it’s been named one of the 25
Best Medium Companies to Work for in America numerous times.
But that wasn’t in the plan when company executives decided to
tackle the health and happiness of their employees to encourage higher
productivity and improve employee morale.
“All these things started coming in, which we didn’t even consider
because that’s not what we were after. What we were after was, we
believed people who had a happy place, a safe haven to go, they’d perform
better and they’d be better parents and make better communities and
that’s what we wanted to get to,” recalls former president Hank Orme.
Orme – who is now part of wellness consulting firm Performance
pH and has relocated to Noblesville to be near family – explains that
there’s usually no fast return on investment with wellness programming.
He calls wellness a journey.
“Everybody wants a quick hit. They want to save money quick.
But you ought to do it for other reasons and let the fallout be (financial
savings). … Leaders have a lot of financial pressure on them, and they
tend to believe (wellness) is too esoteric or altruistic versus bottom-
line oriented. It is the other two, but also the bottom line.”
Keeping employees engaged
Another result for the bottom line is employee retention and
recruitment.
“We know that a key driver of employee engagement for
companies is when an employee feels that the company shows genuine
By Charlee Beasor
• 15% average revenue growth every year for over 10 years
• Annual health care costs 40% lower than industry average
• 6.8% annual volunteer turnover rate (industry average is 10.6%)
• Worker’s compensation claims at 50% of peer organizations
• Tobacco usage decline from 42% to 16% in less than 10 years
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration Total Injury and
Illness rate: 2.54 (half the industry average)
“You have to work first on
the culture. Measure it to
determine where it is. Whether
it’s good, bad or indifferent,
you have a culture. Don’t try
to create this without having
a culture.”
- Hank Orme, Performance pH
BIG
PICTURE
Strong Economic Case
in Place for Wellness
Would you be interested in the following results for
your business?
Nebraska-based Lincoln Industries
offers a healthy incentive for top
participation in the company’s
wellness program. The prize: A three-
day, company-paid vacation to climb
a 14,000-foot mountain in Colorado.
