FIT TO SUCCEED: MAKE HEALTH & WELLNESS YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

FIT TO SUCCEED: MAKE HEALTH & WELLNESS YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

BY STEVE HEUSSNER

Walt and Mike, joint CEOs of a successful construction company, are stereotypical opposites in terms of modern-day "health and wellness." Walt is

While these divergent styles to employee health can be seen throughout corporate America, this is the tale weaved in Steve Heussner's simple narrative of the road to health risk management and wellness programs, Fit to Succeed: Make Health and Wellness Your Competitive Advantage.

With Walt's staff "stretched to the max," morale down, absenteeism up, high turnover and productivity sagging (each of which Huessner makes hyperbolic to drive home his point), Mike introduces Walt to Hartley, a health care-plan risk-management consultant ("that means he was an insurance broker-but an insurance broker with a difference"). The conversation between Walt and Hartley is the beginning of Walt and the reader's journey. When Hartley asks how Walt manages his health care risk, Walt says, "Just like everyone else. After we receive the 10% to 20% increase from our insurance carrier, we shop our coverage to see if we can get a better deal."

Hartley is shocked. Then, in short order, Hartley becomes a savior of the company. And in the process, Walt and the reader are sold on health risk management.

The author is, in fact, the creator of a similar program. Heussner founded a construction risk management and wellness program group (American Construction Benefits Group) in 2005. And throughout his career-and Fit to Succeed-Heussner has maintained that, if employees are given the opportunity to improve their health, they usually will.