- McCormick & Company offers it employees care from an independent Health and Wellness Center close to their headquarters that employs a team of registered nurses, a physician, registered dietician, nurse practitioners, etc.
- In 2012, McCormick tested out its Living Healthy With Diabetes (LHWD) program in a small, preliminary group of 39 employees with type 2 diabetes. This program, which helped participants reduce their A1c and BMI, has enormous potential to be expanded to help McCormick’s ~8000 employees.
- Although these programs are interesting, they are currently only small-scale
Summary
In 2011, spices manufacturer McCormick & Company opened a Health and Wellness Center near its Maryland headquarters for its employees. The 4,600-square foot center employs a full-time physician, two nurse practitioners, a medical assistant, three registered nurses, a licensed practical nurse, an on-site Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counselor that comes in once a week, and a registered dietician that comes in two to three times a month. [1]
McCormick offers its employees an annual wellness screening and on-site weight management (e.g., Weight Watchers meetings, fitness classes, corporate fitness challenges, diabetes prevention). It also offers smoking cessation, health coaching, and even RN house calls. Through its partnership with the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, McCormick offers it employees the Patients, Pharmacists, Partnership (P3) program, which pairs a patient and pharmacist for regular face-to-face meetings to monitor and manage chronic diseases like diabetes.[2]
Notably, in 2012, under its then corporate manager of health and wellness, Joan Hovatter, McCormick piloted a program for employees with type 2 diabetes called “Living Healthy with Diabetes” (LHWD). The program consisted of 4 components: (1) nutritional education and support, (2) fitness and activity, (3) diabetes education, and (4) multidisciplinary coaching from the Health and Wellness Center team. As part of the 6-month program, participants also received a free 26-week Weight Watchers membership, access to a Certified Diabetes Educator, access to the P3 program, free laboratory and health screenings, and waived copays on diabetes medications and testing supplies. As part of the P3 program, participants met with pharmacists once a month for three months, and then quarterly, during which their A1c, blood pressure, weight, lipid panel, medical adherence, and attendance were recorded. Although the group was quite small, the 39 participants with type 2 diabetes showed significant improvements in multiple outcomes. By the end of the program, 53% of the participants reached an A1c of less than 7% (from the original 35%), and 38% reached an A1c of 6.5% (from the original 18%).[3] Average weight loss was 11 pounds, and significant improvements in HDL were also measured.
Under Hovatter, the company also initiated an employee health program called “S.P.I.C.E.” (Stretch your mind, prevent illness, implement healthy eating, change your knowledge, exercise).[4]
Why It Stands Out
McCormick & Company’s workplace wellness center takes a laudable holistic, culture-of-health approach. Not many companies have a specific center dedicated to employee health and wellness, and McCormick’s employees seem to be taking advantage of its services: 60% of employees complete the annual wellness screening. McCormick also places admirable emphasis on prevention. In 2013, McCormick reported that the number of employees with prediabetes decreased by 8% from the previous year.[5]
Besides the clinic itself, the initial pilot study of the LHWD program proved successful. As previously noted, the 39 participants with type 2 diabetes improved their BMI, A1c, and cholesterol, and lost an average of 11 pounds. That being said, the initial cohort of 39 employees is quite small, and it may be more difficult to scale the program to meet the needs of McCormick’s 3,500+ employees.
However, shortly after she left McCormick in 2016, Joan Hovatter wrote that an expanded LHWD could have a much greater impact. She estimated that the LHWD program could reduce A1c by 0.24 percentage points in 6 months for employees with baseline A1c greater than 6.0%. Based on analysis, she also stated that the LHWD could save the company from $235 to $794 per patient per year. In fact, separate analysis showed that the P3 program alone has a return-on-investment of $2.50 for every $1 spent.[6]
However, the LHWD program highlights the main limitation of McCormick’s employee wellness structure: scalability. As it stands, the Health and Wellness Center only provides its services to McCormick’s Maryland employees. How many companies can afford to set up multiple centers at every site? Given this, McCormick’s structure may benefit companies with the majority of their employees in single locations, or multi-site companies if they are able to employ telehealth. In addition, small businesses are unlikely to establish their own independent health centers, so adaptations to the model would be needed. However, if McCormick can implement LHWD beyond the pilot study with a greater number of employees, it would set a powerful example for chronic disease management.
- Joan McGarvey Hovatter, Catherine E Cooke, and Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, “Collaborative Employee Wellness: Living Healthy With Diabetes,” Benefits Quarterly 32, no. 3 (2016): 41; “McCormick Employees’ Health and Wellness Is a Top-Shelf Priority,” Mccormickcorporation.com, January 16, 2015, http://www.mccormickcorporation.com/News-Center/Flavor-Forward/Articles/2015/01/16/11/58/McCormick-Employees-Health-and-Wellness-Is-a-Top-Shelf-Priority.
- Hovatter, Cooke, and de Bittner, “Collaborative Employee Wellness: Living Healthy With Diabetes.”
- Ibid.
- “McCormick Employees’ Health and Wellness Is a Top-Shelf Priority.”
- Ibid.
- Hovatter, Cooke, and de Bittner, “Collaborative Employee Wellness: Living Healthy With Diabetes.”
