case Analysis

HEALTHY FOOD CORPORATION DATE: October 22, 2006 TO: Damon Moore, Director, Human Resources FROM: Diane Adams, Executive Assistant SUBJECT: MEASURES TO HELP EMPLOYEES STOP SMOKING How can we promote a healthier workforce and reduce health-related costs? At your request, I have examined measures that encourage employees to quit smoking. As company records show, approximately 23 percent of our employees still smoke, despite the antismoking and clean-air policies we adopted in 2003. Objective and Goal: Our objective is to reduce absenteeism by 25 percent during the 2007 fiscal year. Long term, we should reduce our health care premiums by 15 percent beginning with the 2008 contract. Significance of Problem: Health Care and Productivity Losses Employees who smoke are costly to any organization. The following statistics show the effects of smoking for workers and for organizations:

• Absenteeism is 40 to 60 percent greater among smoking employees. • Accidents are two too three times greater among smokers. • Bronchitis, lung and heart disease, cancer, and early death are more

frequent among smokers. Many companies have found that persuading employees to stop smoking was a decisive factor in reducing their health insurance premiums. Below is a discussion of two common stop-smoking measures tried by other companies, along with a projected cost factor for each. Alternative 1: Stop-Smoking Programs Outside the Workplace Local clinics provide treatment programs in classes at their centers. These behavior-modification stop-smoking programs are acknowledged to be more effective than distributing information in the workplace or offering incentives. However, studies of companies using off-workplace programs show that many employees fail to attend regularly and do not complete the programs. Cost: $750 per employee, three-month individual program $500 per employee, three-month group sessions

MCBE Writing Skills Assessment "A"-Level Example, BUAD 301

Linda Fraser, 8-20-09

Diane Adams 2 October 22, 2006 Alternative 2: Stop-Smoking Programs at the Workplace Many local clinics offer workplace programs with counselors meeting employees in company conference rooms. These programs have the advantage of keeping a firm‘s employees together so that they develop a group spirit and exert pressure on each other to succeed. The most successful programs are offered on company premises and also on company time. According to a study published in Management Review, employees participating in such a program had a 72 percent greater success record than employees attending the same stop-smoking program at an outside clinic. A disadvantage of this arrangement, of course, is lost work time—amounting to about two hours a week for three months. Cost: $500 per employee, three-month program two hours per week release time for three months. Conclusions and Recommendation If our goal is to reduce health care costs and lead our employees to healthful lives, we should invest in a workplace stop-smoking program with release time for smokers. Although the program temporarily reduces productivity, we can expect to recapture that loss through reduced absenteeism and reduced health care costs. Best of all, we will have healthier employees. Therefore, I recommend that we begin a stop-smoking treatment program on company premises with two hours per week of release time for participants for three months. Adapted from the following source: Guffey, M.E. Business communication: Process and product, 5th ed. Mason, Ohio: Thomson South-Western, 448-449.

MCBE Writing Skills Assessment "A"-Level Example, BUAD 301

Linda Fraser, 8-20-09