Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER APRIL 2018 NEWS 13 Total Health Index: A new metric for senior leaders What is the most important number your senior leadership and CEO pay close attention to at your organization — and do they know why? BY BILL HOWATT EVERY senior leader has at least one key metric they pay close at- tention to, and they are crystal clear as to why. e "why" may vary for each metric, such as mea- suring success, predicting results, mitigating risk, or some combina- tion of all these. One example found at for- profit businesses is EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). is metric is often used to as- sess an organization's fi nancial performance. ough it's not a perfect met- ric and has its critics, the "why" is because many senior leaders pay close attention to it year over year to forecast earning potential. e Total Health Index (THI) is a new metric for senior lead- ers. It's a behavioural-based met- ric that senior leaders can put on their scorecard for tracking and predicting human capital health, engagement, productivity, costs and profi tability per employee. And when considering the benefi ts of this metric, the why becomes obvious. e THI is for leaders who: • believe their success is dependent on their people being able and willing to come to work each day and do their best work (when they don't or can't, the organization's results are negatively impacted) • believe there are direct relationships between employee health, engagement and productivity • believe that organizations play a critical role in facilitating every employee's success (for example, their workplace experience), and think that all employees ultimately own their behaviour in the workplace and outside work (for example, physical, mental and life/fi nancial) • want to evaluate and measure the benefi t of program dollars when it comes to employees' health, engagement and productivity, using an evidence-based framework • want to be able to benchmark their workforce against other Canadian organizations, by size or sector, with respect to health, engagement and productivity. Before any senior leader can answer the why question for this metric, they need to learn its sig- nifi cance and what it is. is metric is generated from employees completing the Total Health Index Assessment (see " e 4 pillars of the Total Health Index" in the March issue of Ca- nadian HR Reporter). The following tools can be used to reach the THI metric: discovery, insight and employee- recommended workplace award. Beyond providing the THI score, each tool delivers a diff erent level of analysis and insight. e THI is a composite score derived from the sum of four sub-pillar scores: physical health, mental health, workplace experi- ence and life (meaning relation- ships, work-life blending and fi nancial). e score ranges from zero to 100 per cent. e higher the score and the higher the orga- nization's aggregated THI score, the higher the total health. Before accepting a THI score, statistical analyses are used to ensure the organization's sample size is signifi cant enough to pro- vide confi dence that it accurately represents the workforce. Every employee's score is put into one of fi ve categories: opti- mal health, active health, strained health, problem health and at- risk health. Productivity insights learned from examining the THI metric When we compare the THI pro- fi le categories in the chart above to three key performance be- haviours — average number of days coming to work feeling ill, presenteeism score, and discre- tionary eff ort score — employees with a lower THI score are less productive. e THI score can also be used to predict employee risk levels for sick days, short-term disabil- ity (STD), long-term disability (LTD), and workers' compensa- tion claims. Using a lost-time salary analy- sis, it's straightforward to estimate the average cost in each of the THI profi le categories with respect to productivity, as well as with en- gagement (for example, turnover risk and engagement sustainabil- ity), health (for example, the num- ber of chronic diseases and risk for obesity, mental illness, addictive behaviours and accidents). e productivity analysis is a favourite analytic for the CHRO, COO, CFO and CEO because it provides statistical, defendable links among employees' health, engagement, productivity and fi nancial results (both lost oppor- tunity and cost). Our research has found that 46 per cent of the Canadian work- force falls in the bottom three cat- egories (strained health, problem health and at-risk health). Consider an organization whose THI score falls in the strained health category com- pared to one in the optimal/ac- tive health range. e "Predicting productivity" chart above demon- strates the opportunity and ROI factors for consideration when committing to make an invest- ment to improve an organization's THI score. Bill Howatt, Ph.D. Ed.D., is the chief of research and development, workforce productivity, at Morneau Shepell in Toronto. For more information about the Total Health Index, visit www.morneaushepell.com. By registering, you'll get a unique perspective on the health of your workplace. The Employee Recommended Workplace Award looks at all four components of total health – physical, mental, work and life – and their impact on engagement and productivity. When you register, you'll receive: • The Employee Recommended Workplace Survey for your employees • An aggregated report that identifi es your organization's strengths and areas for improvement • Actionable insights into improving the total health of your employees • A chance to be named an Employee Recommended Workplace! You've worked hard to build a healthy workplace. Get recognized for it! Register now for the 2019 Employee Recommended Workplace Award. To fi nd out more visit employeerecommended.com M O R N E A U S H E P E L L T H E G L O B E A N D M A I L 20 19 Employee Recommended Workplace The Employee Recommended Workplace Award, developed by Morneau Shepell and the Globe and Mail, recognizes excellence in achieving a healthy, engaged and productive workforce. It is the only award of its kind that is based entirely on feedback from employees. Why register for the Employee Recommended Workplace Award? MS-HRReporter_1/4pg_ad_201803_v1.indd 1 2018-03-09 5:38 PM Predicting productivity using the Total Health Index THI profile categories Optimal / active health 78 13.1 78 75 66 37.4 63 67 56 74.5 44 62 45 129.1 29 55 Strained health Problem health At-risk health Average total health score Average days coming to work feeling unwell Presenteeism score Discretionary Effort (DE) score JOINT VENTURE BY: 12-PART SERIES This is the third of a 12-part series on total health that will explore the links between employees' health, engagement and productivity: 1. The total health framework 2. The 4 pillars of the Total Health Index 3. Senior leadership 4. Resiliency 5. Alcohol 6. A respectful workplace 7. Manager effectiveness 8. Financial health 9. Going beyond traditional engagement 10. Productivity 11. Mental health 12. Physical activity, nutrition, sleep

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