By Stephenie Overman  
08/08/2010  

It takes the right language to coach an employee in overcoming “lifestyle diseases” such as stress and obesity. In the case of multinational companies, it takes the right languages.

The key to success is to combine one overarching wellness philosophy with customized programs in the languages and cultures of local employees, said Barry Hall, a Buck Consultant principal. Hall directed Buck Consultants’ third annual survey, “Working Well: Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies.” He’s currently collecting information for Buck’s fourth survey.

Hall believes that “to some extent even the way you explain to employees how wellness is tied to business objectives and strategies is localized.” In the United States, employees expect their employers to have a say in health care because they are paying for it, but in other parts of the world, “the feeling is: Why is the company sticking its nose in my personal life? You need to tie it back to the business. Then employees can more readily understand.”

When coaching and training employees from different cultures about leading healthier lives, Hall said, “all kinds of cultural things come into play. You want to develop a curriculum [and] be consistent to leverage your investment.”

For example:

Unilever offers what it describes as a “bespoke” wellness program for its 163,000 employees in 170 countries. The “Lamplighter” program involves coaching employees individually on their exercise, nutrition and mental resilience, and monitoring their progress through an initial check-up and again six months later. The company has found that if it can keep employees motivated on a program of change for six months, the positive changes are likely to stay.

It’s perhaps no surprise to find that IBM takes advantage of technology to coach its nearly 400,000 employees in more than 170 countries in their languages.
Employees have on-demand access to health risk assessment tools and professional guidance to assist them in developing personal health improvement plans. A web-based platform provides access to flexible, behavior-based programming that helps employees determine their readiness for specific lifestyle changes, promotes resources to take action toward health goals based on the individual stage of readiness, and gives access to online communities and teams that provide social support.

Cerner Corporation, a health care information technology company, relies on technology to reach its approximately 7,800 employees working in more than 20 countries. All Cerner employees have access to common Internet tools that give them up-to-date information regarding their health plan benefits, and health and wellness tools.

Technology can be an inexpensive way of providing wellness coaching around the globe, according to Elizabeth Greenbaum, but “the big challenge is language.”

And, that doesn’t just mean translation. “It’s about enculturating your message, which is a much more difficult task. You have to know your audience and speak to what they understand. It has to be tailored to the population that it’s aiming to help,” said Greenbaum, a senior manager with the Global Health Benefits Institute.
For example, she noted that a nutrition program aimed at a U.S. audience might give guidelines about how many pieces of bread might be included in a diet. But in India the typical diet is very different and the nutrition coaching must reflect those differences. The term “physical activity” can mean different things to people in different cultures, Greenbaum said.

“You have to speak about health in terms they can understand. If a message doesn’t speak to the intended audience they won’t hear it. If you want to effect change it needs to be specific,” she said.

Stephenie Overman is a freelance writer and author of Next-Generation Wellness at Work (Praeger, 2009).