Challenge Series
Differentiators
Resources
Company
Executive Overview
In October of 2017, Lee County Schools purchased a 6-week A Step Ahead challenge with the condition that a follow up ROI analysis be conducted.
After completing their challenge, Lee County Schools conducted a thorough analysis of the health expense risk reduction as it related to formerly inactive employees becoming active as a result of the program using ROI methodologies adopted by Blue Cross and originally published in Ron Z. Goetzel’s 2012 study: Ten Modifiable Health Risk Factors Are Linked To More Than One-Fifth Of Employer-Employee Health Care Spending.
The results of the ROI analysis showed a 7:1 ROI with a cost savings of $132,108 for a 1,000 person A Step Ahead Challenge.
Client
Lee County Public Schools is the 9th largest school district in Florida, and 33rd largest nationally, educating over 90,000 students with a staff of over 10,000.
They have a robust employee wellness initiative that ranges from financial wellness, to education, to nutrition and activity challenges.
Business Challenge
While Lee County Schools already had an existing provider for health challenges, their existing platform was not meeting their needs.
While their existing platform allowed the wellness team to create and administer challenges, the platform was described to us as difficult to understand, very hands-on and time intensive, requiring extensive technical knowhow, and “nickel and diming” for support (including a mandatory $6,000+ training on the software).
For these reasons Lee County Schools chose to seek out a new, cost effective solution for an engaging fitness product that can scale, incentivise, and deliver an effective experience without requiring too much hands-on work to administer.
“Everything about it was fantastic. Everything was so easy and smooth. A ton of people want us to do another one.”
– Heather Parker, Employee Wellness Coordinator
Lee County School District
Program Details
- The challenge ran from October 9th, 2017 through November 17th, 2017.
- The pricing allowed Lee County to book out spots for 10% of their employee population, as opposed to the approximately 3% for other internal programs.
- 87% of the employees were active throughout the 6 weeks and completed the program.
- As a 10,000+ person employer, Lee County paid $18.95 per participant, for a total of $18,950.
Program Results
1000
Participants Started
87%
Completion Rate
217
Inactive Participants Became Active
$606
Per Participant Savings
$132,108
Health Risk Reduction
7:1
Client ROI
“We had people on our teams meeting before work to walk for an hour, and they’re still currently doing that and this is months and months after the challenge is over. People still walk in the halls, but they’re also still doing those things that they weren’t doing beforehand.”
– Heather Parker, Employee Wellness Coordinator
Lee County School District
Client-Calculated ROI
After their A Step Ahead Challenge concluded, Lee County Schools conducted the following ROI study:
Within Lee County Schools, 25% of the population is self-assessed as inactive. Using this figure as a baseline and combining with the 87% completion rate it was estimated that 218 participants transitioned from inactive to active.
Based on Ron Z. Goetzel’s 2012 study: Ten Modifiable Health Risk Factors Are Linked To More Than One-Fifth Of Employer-Employee Health Care Spending, the financial risk of a physically inactive employee is an additional $606 per year. This figure, applied to the 218 participants who transitioned from inactive to active, created a financial risk reduction of $132,108 (218 x $606). Applied against the challenge cost of $18,950 yielded a 6.97 return on the investment, or a 7:1 ROI. Lee County’s target ROI is 3:1.
Lee County’s future returns with A Step Ahead will be even greater, given that the one time set up fee has been paid. Future challenges will have an 8.28:1 return on investment.
Client Notes
In addition to 7:1 ROI, the client noted several areas of non-financial benefits for their A Step Ahead challenge.
Participation
Pricing for A Step Ahead was comparatively less expensive than many of Lee County Schools’ other wellness initiatives, allowing them to purchase services for a greater portion of their population, reaching 10% of their 10,000 employees, as opposed to 3% for other programs. The game-based design of A Step Ahead proved a good fit for the employee base, who used the entire allotment of 1,000 purchased challenge spots.
Behavior and Employee Feedback
Employee Wellness Coordinator, Heather Parker, noted in a post-challenge interview several positive impacts of A Step Ahead:
- A Step Ahead drew greater-than-historical participation from Lee County Schools’ C-Suite executives, driving employee engagement and satisfaction.
- Employees who developed healthy behaviors during A Step Ahead (such as early morning walking groups) continue to engage in the healthy behaviors months after the challenge has ended.
- A Step Ahead facilitated employees interacting with coworkers and executives outside of their immediate team, fostering team-building.
“It’s economical and easy to use. And so if it’s economical and easy to use then, why wouldn’t you? It’s a no-brainer. It’s easy to implement. All of us wellness coordinators never have enough time or enough money for anything, so it’s something you can set some funds aside for and something you don’t need to be on top of every second of every day, and it’s nice that it kind of runs itself.”
– Heather Parker, Employee Wellness Coordinator
Lee County School District