How Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund Improves Employee Health & Reduces Costs with WellSteps
When Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund’s wellness program no longer met its unique needs, the organization turned to WellSteps to develop a custom solution. This wellness case study illustrates how Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund’s program fosters employee wellness and achieves high participation rates – all while lowering healthcare costs.
Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund Wellness Program Overview
Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Montgomery, AL, Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund (AHBSIF) is an organization that provides affordable workers compensation coverage for members of the Home Builders Association of Alabama. The homebuilding industry experiences significant revenue fluctuations, so AHBSIF enables members to make payroll-based quarterly and monthly payments while saving 35% on workers compensation rates.
AHBSIF has a long tradition of wellness, but in 2021, they realized their program wasn’t meeting the needs of their organization and its 65+ employees. They switched to WellSteps and have been enrolled in our Foundations program since. The Foundations program features:
- An online program center and app for each employee
- Reward activity and incentive tracking
- Personal health assessments and screening reminders
- Behavior change campaigns
- Gamified challenges
- My Tracker, which tracks health behaviors and syncs with wearable devices
- MyStory, a social platform that makes it easy for coworkers to post photos and encouraging messages
- Recipe library and video library with on-demand exercise classes
- Wellness News You Can Use – a library of pertinent wellness articles
RELATED: Discover the WellSteps Foundations Program
Wellness Case Study Success Stories
This wellness case study illustrates how Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund’s program has proven successful on multiple levels.
Healthier Employees and Wellness Culture
AHBSIF employees have improved their health through their wellness program and an overarching culture of wellness under the leadership of their program coordinator, Human Resources Manager Courtney Foley.
“We have seen better physical health, including more routine doctor visits to maintain a healthy balance. The program seems to help mentally by keeping health at the forefront of our minds, whether it be movement or a random act of kindness,” Courtney says.
WellSteps guide Heidi Taylor says that AHBSIF has a strong wellness culture centered around team campaigns and rewards. Employees are driven by friendly competition.
“They are all very competitive. Employees can earn a prize for every reward level, and I think that helps with more frequent rewarding of their efforts and increasing engagement. They also compete on the Leaderboard every month, and the top winners of steps and minutes receive bonus points,” Heidi says.
Heidi adds that Courtney provides the strong leadership that’s critical to wellness program participation.
“Courtney is fantastic. She is easy to communicate with and very responsive,” Heidi says. “Their company talks about WellSteps often and it’s a part of every staff meeting. They incorporate two or three ideas from the campaign coordinator kit every time, and that helps increase campaign engagement.”
RELATED: Healthy Employees: An Important Factor for Workplace Productivity
Outstanding Engagement
AHBSIF’s wellness program earns excellent engagement levels from employees. Engagement factors include competitive team campaigns, rewards, and shared wellness goals.
“We have had increased engagement between departments because they are connecting through wellness goals,” Courtney says. “It is fun to hear plenty of encouraging words – a.k.a. ‘smack talk’ – around the office during team campaigns.”
AHBSIF strives to meet employee needs through its wellness program, a significant factor in influencing participation and engagement.
“Courtney knows her company well and gets feedback from employees, then shares it with me,” Heidi says. “They have great participation. The program is annual, but we award prizes to anyone who has reached a new level every month.”
RELATED: 15 Wellness Engagement Ideas to Build a Culture of Wellness
Lower Costs
Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund has also reduced healthcare costs through its wellness program. In fact, reducing costs was one of the organization’s primary goals when choosing a new wellness partner.
“As health insurance costs began to increase more rapidly each year, it was a way to further serve our employees’ personal needs while helping curb insurance costs,” Courtney says. “We have been able to keep healthcare costs increasing at a lower-than-average rate… increases have been lower than the market increase most years.”
RELATED: Impact of Employee Wellness Programs on Healthcare Costs
Why Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund Chose WellSteps for its Wellness Program
Organizations have many wellness options, and no two programs are alike. Courtney says AHBSIF switched to WellSteps after their previous wellness program no longer met their unique needs.
“We had a wellness program before WellSteps that was local and provided health coaching on-site. There were changes made to that company’s platform that did not suit our needs any longer,” she says. “Once searching for an online option, WellSteps made the choice easy with a user-friendly platform and a dedicated guide for our plan.”
Courtney says some of the most popular features with AHBSIF’s staff include large team campaigns, personal challenges, and the ease of capturing data.
“It is a great tool to help your staff know that you care about the ‘whole’ person – not just how productive they are at the office. They feel invested,” she says. “It is also easy to handle on the administrative side because you have a guide helping you every step of the way!”
As this wellness case study shows, switching to a new wellness program can offer significant benefits for your organization, from fostering better health to lowering overall costs.
| Help Employees Make Lasting Changes – and Lower Costs – with WellSteps Get results like Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund with a custom wellness program designed for your organization. Schedule a demo today. |