The power of senior-level support in helping employees make healthy decisions and  some good old fashioned competitive spirit were recently on display in the first ever “Beat the Chief” challenge, sponsored by Virgin HealthMiles.  During the two-week challenge, Virgin HealthMiles CEO Chris Boyce and Tom Linebarger, CEO of one of the company’s leading clients, Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, put it all on the line to see which executive could burn the most calories.  At stake was a $1,000 donation to the charity of the winner’s choice.

The competition was fierce, with both Boyce and Linebarger tracking their daily calorie burn and progress using Polar™ heart rate monitors and the HealthMiles program’s tools. The two also engaged in some friendly, motivational “trash talk” on the challenge’s website throughout the event.  In the end, Boyce was crowned this year’s champ, with an impressive 58,951 calories burned. Boyce said he’ll donate his $1,000 winner’s prize to Virgin Unite.  And in the spirit of the competition, Boyce said he’ll also donate $1,000 to Tom Linebarger’s charity of choice, Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana.

“Chris’ activity level was impressive and he outperformed me,” said Linebarger. “I received a lot of encouragement and support from Cummins employees from all over. The notes of encouragement, the healthy lunches and delivering exercise equipment to my office all helped keep me motivated. At Cummins we offer many health resources to our employees and their families. I hope this competition helps emphasize the importance of making a steady effort to stay healthy for the long term.”

“Tom is one of the most active and fit CEOs I know, which is reflected in the emphasis Cummins places on creating a healthy workforce,” said Boyce. “Tom’s outstanding daily performance in the challenge inspired me to kick up my activity level a few notches to keep pace with him. And knowing our employees were working hard to best our progress was also incredibly motivational. Challenges like ‘Beat the Chief’ provide important motivation for Virgin HealthMiles members to stay physically active.  I’m honored to have won this year’s competition, and am pleased to donate the prize to Virgin Unite and Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana.”

Employees Literally ‘Sweat it Out’ to Best CEOs’ Performance
Employees from both Virgin HealthMiles and Cummins (U.S. and U.K) also took part in the competition to see whether they could burn more calories and beat their respective CEOs’ performance. The top contenders from the companies were: Karl S. (32,950 total calories, Cummins U.S.), Johannes S. (29,535 total calories, Cummins U.K), and Dustin A. (17,617 total calories, Virgin HealthMiles).  In recognition of their top place finishes, each of these individuals will receive $1,000 from their companies to donate to a charity of their choice.

Learn more about the Beat the Chief challenge at www.beatthechief.com.

CEOs Place C-Level Emphasis on Healthy Lifestyles, Battle to Burn Most Calories During
2-week Challenge

Leading by example is one of the most effective ways senior leaders can show their workforce that they’re committed to helping them lead healthy lifestyles. To demonstrate this, Virgin HealthMiles kicked off the “Beat the Chief” challenge yesterday with one of our leading clients, Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins.

The “Beat the Chief” Challenge pits Virgin HealthMiles CEO, Chris Boyce, against Cummins’ CEO, Tom Linebarger. The rules are simple: the executive who burns the most calories during a two-week period wins.  The Challenge runs from January 23 through February 5.  Boyce and Linebarger are using the HealthMiles program’s tools to track their daily calorie burn and progress throughout the challenge.  At the end of the two-week period, the CEO who burned the fewest calories will make a $1,000 donation to a charity of the winning CEO’s choice.

“Our business is about making peoples’ lives better by unleashing the Power of Cummins, and there is no better way to make lives better than through improved health,” said Linebarger. “So I want to model a lifestyle that is committed to good health and help showcase the many resources that we offer to our employees and their families to help them stay healthy – in this case, the Virgin HealthMiles program.”

Virgin HealthMiles CEO Boyce couldn’t agree more. “I believe it’s critical for senior leaders to embody the behaviors they want their employees to emulate – especially good health.  Virgin HealthMiles has proven challenges like ‘Beat the Chief’ provide motivation for employees to increase their daily physical activity, the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle, and stay engaged on their path to good health.  I’m looking forward to some friendly competition with Tom in this important challenge…and I’m looking forward to winning!”

And it’s not just Boyce and Linebarger who will go head to head in the “Beat the Chief” challenge.  Employees from both Virgin HealthMiles and Cummins (U.S. and U.K) have the chance to join in on the challenge and see whether they can burn more calories and beat their respective CEOs. The employee from each company who burns the most calories by the end of the challenge will also receive a $1,000 donation to their charity of choice.

Currently, Boyce in the lead. But it’s anybody’s game.  Results will be updated daily at www.beatthechief.com, and the winning CEO and the companies’ top contenders in the “Beat the Chief” challenge will be announced on February 13, 2012.

Learn more about the challenge at www.beatthechief.com and follow #beatthechiefs on Twitter throughout the challenge.

Major Atlanta Employers Participate in Spirited Competition to Get Employees More Physically Active on Path to Wellness

Three Virgin HealthMiles clients and prominent Atlanta employers, Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust, recently came together and laced up their walking shoes to participate in the first “Walk to Win” challenge.  Nearly 6,000 downtown Atlanta-area employees representing these major brand name organizations joined together for some friendly competition during the three-week challenge to promote good health and see which company could take the most steps.  In total, challenge participants from these three organizations cumulatively logged more than 365,000 miles.

“For workplace wellness programs to effectively improve employee health and lower costs, employees need to participate over the long term.  Challenges – whether between individuals, departments or companies – are one of the most effective strategies for creating social communities that support ongoing employee engagement,” said Chris Boyce, CEO of Virgin HealthMiles.  “We congratulate Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust for their demonstrated leadership in providing employees with the tools and motivation they need to make healthy lifestyle choices.”

The winner of the Walk to Win challenge was Georgia-Pacific, whose 1,715 team members took a total of more than 388 million steps – or the equivalent of nearly eight times the circumference of the globe.  Georgia-Pacific was awarded the 2011 Walk to Win Challenge trophy.

“While we are excited to take home the trophy in the Walk to Win Challenge against Coca-Cola and SunTrust, we are more excited about the overall health improvements of not just Georgia-Pacific employees, but for everyone involved,” said Julie Brehm, senior vice president – human resources, Georgia-Pacific.  “Initiatives like these help encourage friendly competition and get us all one step closer to achieving our personal health goals, so from that perspective, we all win.”

Social connections played an important role in keeping Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust employees “walking to win.”  Employees from the three companies leveraged an online message board to spur their team members on to success, with comments including, “Do you see that together we have taken over a billion steps? That’s a healthy win for everybody!”  And, “Don’t forget to keep uploading your steps. Make an extra push this evening to get in a nice long walk & then upload tomorrow!”

Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust are all enthusiastic proponents of organization-wide employee wellness programs as a core aspect of their business philosophies.  “Coca-Cola is thrilled to take part in this healthy competition with SunTrust and Georgia-Pacific, and is even more proud of the hundreds of Coca-Cola associates who participated,” said Carolyn Jackson, Chief HR Officer, Coca-Cola North America.  “This challenge reflects our Coca-Cola motto ‘Live Positively,’ which happens through being active and taking a healthy approach to life. We applaud everyone who ‘walked the walk’ in this program. We look forward to the next challenge and encourage everyone to keep walking!”

“On behalf of SunTrust, I’m proud of the commitment and performance of our ‘Walk to Win’ challenge participants,” said SunTrust Chief Human Resources Officer, Ken Carrig. “When it comes to improving your health, we all know that walking is more important than winning. That said, I’m already looking forward to next year’s rematch.”

Virgin HealthMiles helps employers create and sustain a workplace culture of health.  Through challenges like Walk to Win, Virgin HealthMiles members leverage the power of individuals’ social connections to form communities and build enthusiasm, camaraderie, and healthy competition with their peers. These active communities have helped members take more than 400 billion steps since the HealthMiles program’s inception in 2005; these increased levels of physical activity are proven to help organizations lower healthcare costs.

More and more, organizations are realizing the power of incentives to drive healthy employee behaviors. We recently conducted a survey and found 70 percent of employers now offer incentives to employees to participate in wellness initiatives. This growing trend of incentives-based wellness solutions – and the very real impact innovative programs have on lowering rising healthcare costs – was spotlighted today in a segment on the CBS Early Show. The Early Show story profiled Virgin HealthMiles’ customer, the PHH Corporation, and the success the company is having in applying incentives to help curb rising healthcare costs and create a more engaged workforce.

In the Early Show segment, PHH shares some of the benefits of its Virgin HealthMiles incentives-based wellness program, which the company describes as a “win-win” for both employees and the corporation. PHH reports having fewer medical claims, less employee sick time, higher employee productivity and more engaged employees as they take control of their wellness as a result of the Virgin HealthMiles program.

Virgin HealthMiles Selected by Virginia-Based Norfolk Southern as Key Component of Company-Wide Wellness Initiative

We’re pleased to announce that Norfolk, Virginia-based Norfolk Southern Corporation, one of the nation’s premier transportation companies, has selected the HealthMiles program as a key component of its corporate employee wellness initiative.

In 2009, Norfolk Southern launched a three-pronged wellness initiative focused on “Know Your Health,” “Quit Tobacco” and “Get Active” to help its 30,000 employees improve health and productivity. Yet, since Norfolk Southern’s employees are scattered across more than 600 locations, finding an effective solution to engage employees and accurately track and report on measurable healthy behavior changes proved challenging.  (more…)

We’re pleased to announce that our client Protective Life Corporation (“Protective”), was the recipient of a 2010 Optimas Award from Workforce Management magazine. Protective received the award in the Partnership category in recognition of its work with Virgin HealthMiles to develop a wellness strategy that engages employees in improving their health and well-being.

The Optimas awards are issued to just 10 companies each year that exemplify workforce management excellence in areas such as vision, competitive advantage, innovation, service, financial impact, partnership and global outlook. Protective was joined by other 2010 winners including leading companies such as Microsoft and IBM.

Through the years, Protective has become geographically dispersed, with 80 percent of its employee population engaged in sedentary, desk-centric work. The company was challenged with engaging both healthy and at-risk employees in a measurable wellness program to prevent the onset of lifestyle-related chronic conditions that significantly drive healthcare cost increases. By implementing the Virgin HealthMiles program, Protective engaged 61 percent of its employees in the Company’s ongoing wellness initiative and the number of Protective’s members who are considered active — or getting enough activity — has increased from 27 percent at program launch to 43 percent. Furthermore, 10 percent of Protective’s participants have dropped out of the obese category since the program’s inception.

We congratulate Protective on this impressive recognition by Workforce Management, and are proud of the significant gains they’ve achieved in their health and productivity program. Protective is an outstanding example of how companies can take proactive steps to use technology to successfully motivate, measure, and manage employee health and productivity.

More information can be found at: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/hr-management/protective-life-corp-optimas-award-winner-partnership/index.php or in the December 2010 issue of Workforce Management magazine.