Being surrounded by calories all day, the restaurant industry is not typically associated with health and wellness. Hoss’s Corporation, a privately owned company that operates 36 Hoss’s Steak and Sea House restaurants across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, has successfully developed an employee wellness strategy, keeping them ahead of the health benefits curve and incentivizing employees to get and stay healthy.“We have hundreds of people in

multiple locations that face the typical struggles of restaurant work: hourly workers who are around food all day, making unhealthy food choices, not exercising and rarely going to the doctor,” says Brenda Oakes, Benefits Manager. “The managers don’t get to eat and when they do, it’s quick and on the go. Typical health issues that come with our industry are high blood pressure, heart issues and high cholesterol. We have employees with thirty to forty years of service and we want to do everything we can to help them avoid these health issues as they get older.” Phil Sukenik, Vice President of

Human Resources, was an early proponent of a wellness strategy.

Participation increased annually but not at the levels they wanted. As Phil recalls, “We brought in our broker, Seubert & Associates, because wellness was a primary part of their service and we knew they would have ideas and approaches to take us to the next level.” Seubert is a firm believer in health improvement programs, especially now. Brian Long, President of Seubert, explains that “at no other time in history have companies been able to change employee behavior and be supported by the law. With the Affordable Care Act, accountability is on the individual and employees are encouraged to make healthy use of the plan upfront, not after the fact. Instead of costing employers anywhere from 15-24%, the ACA can help employers save money by including results-based wellness and plan design in their employee benefit programs.”

“Guest satisfaction is our number one priority and the key to that is selecting the right employees and making them feel important and valued. Everyone on the management team and in the stores is involved in keeping morale high and employees motivated. We know that wellness helps with this so in 2007 we embarked on a wellness program to help employees improve their health.”

The ChallengeHoss’s started off using the

programs offered by their carrier, Highmark, and found the initial employee participation to be disappointing. According to Brenda, “When we first began, employees questioned our motives and thought we were trying to uncover confidential information about them. So we focused on areas that would not be viewed as discriminatory but positive steps to health, such as nutrition, exercise and water intake to gain their trust.”

AnswersA collaboration of ideas and design

from Hoss’s Senior Management and Seubert have led to establishing a baseline for benchmarking purposes and for the last two years the program has included biometric screenings, a wellness profile and annual physician visits. “We decided to make some program aspects mandatory in order to alert employees to potential health issues and hopefully correct them before they became serious. Our policy is that if they complete all three actions, they will have a premium holiday,” explains Phil. “If they don’t get it done within six months, they pay a penalty.” This year 91% of the employees

participated in biometric testing and various wellness programs such as health coaching, team challenges and social networking. Brenda, who has lost 50 pounds by participating in the program, is quite proud of their results. “Last year we had all but three people participate in the annual physical, which is terrific. When we first started, hardly anyone went to the doctor for a check-up because they thought they are healthy. Since the testing began, I’ve had so many people tell me that they didn’t realize they had high blood pressure or that their cholesterol was that high. These types of discoveries started to turn the curve on employee sentiment and the results of the screenings led

doing these things and the competition between the teams has helped us learn healthy habits,” says John Brown, President. “We give out prizes at the quarterly meeting to those with the most points. It’s a lot of fun and the employees know we are committed to sticking with it.” Hoss’s holds quarterly meetings with

managers to review health and wellness, discussing what has worked and what needs tweaking. The company felt it important that the program encompass all angles of health and employs a team effort with all of their benefit companies to cover everything regarding wellness. “We’re looking at all different avenues that employees have in their lives that cause stress and we provide the tools they need to live healthier lives,” states Phil. Early on they included Lytle, their Employer Assistance Provider, to treat employees’ mental and emotional needs and have

recently added in PSECU, their credit union, to help employees with their finances. In the next phase of the program, they will start communications about smoking, educating employees and giving them opportunities to make positive steps towards quitting.Mike Logut, Director of Strategic

Health Initiatives for Seubert, credits Hoss’s success to top-down commitment with C-suite management very much involved. “They have strong leadership, and are constantly reviewing everything to make sure they are on the right track. By educating the employees not only on health conditions, but on how these conditions affect their personal lives; we are able to form a general understanding amongst the workforce that positively impacts the budget in order to achieve our common goal.” Education is paramount to Hoss’s

program and the key to long-term change. “We spend a lot of time educating employees to get them to understand the big picture as to why we are doing this. We used to have a lot of non-users of the health program, which leads to health

issues. We also had our share of good and bad users and we want to improve the good usage to help employees get healthier,” explains Phil. “All of these efforts have an impact on the way our store managers and upper management view health and wellness and the impact these efforts have on the bottom line.”

ResultsHoss’s utilized existing programs

through their partners, so there were not a lot of out-of-pocket costs involved. And they made the connection between claims dollars and employee health early on, choosing to self-fund their insurance to help manage health care costs. According to Phil, “A wellness program is not a quick fix – it probably takes a good 10 years to see ROI. We’ve seen improvements in costs and health, productivity is up and it’s been a good claim year so far. This initiative will have an impact on the bottom line but it occurs over a long period of time.” Hoss’s is in it for the long haul. Phil

sums it up as, “We are very happy with the results, there is awareness now but not necessarily a change in behavior yet. That’s the hardest thing to change but hopefully we’ve altered their perspective from a health standpoint.” Changing behavior extends to those in a position to hire and Hoss’s takes hiring seriously.

“We have a lot of long-term employees so our hiring decisions have to be wise. When interviewing prospective employees, we want to question whether this is a healthy person that will perpetuate the culture of wellness we have embraced. If they become a full-time employee on a benefits package, will they be a good addition to our program in terms of costs?” Hoss’s President, John Brown,

agrees. “I feel good about the direction we’re heading to have the people who use the insurance the most, pay the most. If you or I make unhealthy choices, then we should pay for those and if we make healthy choices, we should pay less. In the end, it’s good for everybody because people who feel better about themselves will do a better job, treat their customers better and everyone will have an all-around better experience. And that’s what Hoss’pitality is all about.”

to us to finding a lot of underlying issues early on.” Echoes Phil, “Some of those who fought the program tooth and nail are now happily participating. It’s working so well because we use a carrot and stick approach and it is absolutely worth the reward and the penalty to participate.” The overall data from the biometric

screenings has been used to determine what the primary issues are and develop a plan to target them. “The data proved what we suspected: our big issues are high blood pressure, heart conditions, high blood cholesterol and smoking,” offers Brenda. “Prevention is the ultimate goal to keeping the majority of the workforce healthy but instead of trying to tackle everything, we chose to concentrate on the heart, cholesterol and blood pressure this year through healthy eating and weight management efforts.” To keep employees at 36 different

locations engaged, Seubert developed several challenges that encouraged teamwork and utilized Café Well, a social health network that combines social networking technology with health and wellness initiatives. “We’ve all gotten involved in the daily living challenges, where we’re divided up into teams and you get points weekly for completing healthy tasks like drinking water or eating vegetables. We’re now more aware of how often we should be

Hoss’s: Embracing a Culture of Wellness

Being surrounded by calories all day, the restaurant industry is not typically associated with health and wellness. Hoss’s Corporation, a privately owned company that operates 36 Hoss’s Steak and Sea House restaurants across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, has successfully developed an employee wellness strategy, keeping them ahead of the health benefits curve and incentivizing employees to get and stay healthy.“We have hundreds of people in

multiple locations that face the typical struggles of restaurant work: hourly workers who are around food all day, making unhealthy food choices, not exercising and rarely going to the doctor,” says Brenda Oakes, Benefits Manager. “The managers don’t get to eat and when they do, it’s quick and on the go. Typical health issues that come with our industry are high blood pressure, heart issues and high cholesterol. We have employees with thirty to forty years of service and we want to do everything we can to help them avoid these health issues as they get older.” Phil Sukenik, Vice President of

Human Resources, was an early proponent of a wellness strategy.

Participation increased annually but not at the levels they wanted. As Phil recalls, “We brought in our broker, Seubert & Associates, because wellness was a primary part of their service and we knew they would have ideas and approaches to take us to the next level.” Seubert is a firm believer in health improvement programs, especially now. Brian Long, President of Seubert, explains that “at no other time in history have companies been able to change employee behavior and be supported by the law. With the Affordable Care Act, accountability is on the individual and employees are encouraged to make healthy use of the plan upfront, not after the fact. Instead of costing employers anywhere from 15-24%, the ACA can help employers save money by including results-based wellness and plan design in their employee benefit programs.”

“Guest satisfaction is our number one priority and the key to that is selecting the right employees and making them feel important and valued. Everyone on the management team and in the stores is involved in keeping morale high and employees motivated. We know that wellness helps with this so in 2007 we embarked on a wellness program to help employees improve their health.”

The ChallengeHoss’s started off using the

programs offered by their carrier, Highmark, and found the initial employee participation to be disappointing. According to Brenda, “When we first began, employees questioned our motives and thought we were trying to uncover confidential information about them. So we focused on areas that would not be viewed as discriminatory but positive steps to health, such as nutrition, exercise and water intake to gain their trust.”

AnswersA collaboration of ideas and design

from Hoss’s Senior Management and Seubert have led to establishing a baseline for benchmarking purposes and for the last two years the program has included biometric screenings, a wellness profile and annual physician visits. “We decided to make some program aspects mandatory in order to alert employees to potential health issues and hopefully correct them before they became serious. Our policy is that if they complete all three actions, they will have a premium holiday,” explains Phil. “If they don’t get it done within six months, they pay a penalty.” This year 91% of the employees

participated in biometric testing and various wellness programs such as health coaching, team challenges and social networking. Brenda, who has lost 50 pounds by participating in the program, is quite proud of their results. “Last year we had all but three people participate in the annual physical, which is terrific. When we first started, hardly anyone went to the doctor for a check-up because they thought they are healthy. Since the testing began, I’ve had so many people tell me that they didn’t realize they had high blood pressure or that their cholesterol was that high. These types of discoveries started to turn the curve on employee sentiment and the results of the screenings led

doing these things and the competition between the teams has helped us learn healthy habits,” says John Brown, President. “We give out prizes at the quarterly meeting to those with the most points. It’s a lot of fun and the employees know we are committed to sticking with it.” Hoss’s holds quarterly meetings with

managers to review health and wellness, discussing what has worked and what needs tweaking. The company felt it important that the program encompass all angles of health and employs a team effort with all of their benefit companies to cover everything regarding wellness. “We’re looking at all different avenues that employees have in their lives that cause stress and we provide the tools they need to live healthier lives,” states Phil. Early on they included Lytle, their Employer Assistance Provider, to treat employees’ mental and emotional needs and have

recently added in PSECU, their credit union, to help employees with their finances. In the next phase of the program, they will start communications about smoking, educating employees and giving them opportunities to make positive steps towards quitting.Mike Logut, Director of Strategic

Health Initiatives for Seubert, credits Hoss’s success to top-down commitment with C-suite management very much involved. “They have strong leadership, and are constantly reviewing everything to make sure they are on the right track. By educating the employees not only on health conditions, but on how these conditions affect their personal lives; we are able to form a general understanding amongst the workforce that positively impacts the budget in order to achieve our common goal.” Education is paramount to Hoss’s

program and the key to long-term change. “We spend a lot of time educating employees to get them to understand the big picture as to why we are doing this. We used to have a lot of non-users of the health program, which leads to health

issues. We also had our share of good and bad users and we want to improve the good usage to help employees get healthier,” explains Phil. “All of these efforts have an impact on the way our store managers and upper management view health and wellness and the impact these efforts have on the bottom line.”

ResultsHoss’s utilized existing programs

through their partners, so there were not a lot of out-of-pocket costs involved. And they made the connection between claims dollars and employee health early on, choosing to self-fund their insurance to help manage health care costs. According to Phil, “A wellness program is not a quick fix – it probably takes a good 10 years to see ROI. We’ve seen improvements in costs and health, productivity is up and it’s been a good claim year so far. This initiative will have an impact on the bottom line but it occurs over a long period of time.” Hoss’s is in it for the long haul. Phil

sums it up as, “We are very happy with the results, there is awareness now but not necessarily a change in behavior yet. That’s the hardest thing to change but hopefully we’ve altered their perspective from a health standpoint.” Changing behavior extends to those in a position to hire and Hoss’s takes hiring seriously.

“We have a lot of long-term employees so our hiring decisions have to be wise. When interviewing prospective employees, we want to question whether this is a healthy person that will perpetuate the culture of wellness we have embraced. If they become a full-time employee on a benefits package, will they be a good addition to our program in terms of costs?” Hoss’s President, John Brown,

agrees. “I feel good about the direction we’re heading to have the people who use the insurance the most, pay the most. If you or I make unhealthy choices, then we should pay for those and if we make healthy choices, we should pay less. In the end, it’s good for everybody because people who feel better about themselves will do a better job, treat their customers better and everyone will have an all-around better experience. And that’s what Hoss’pitality is all about.”

to us to finding a lot of underlying issues early on.” Echoes Phil, “Some of those who fought the program tooth and nail are now happily participating. It’s working so well because we use a carrot and stick approach and it is absolutely worth the reward and the penalty to participate.” The overall data from the biometric

screenings has been used to determine what the primary issues are and develop a plan to target them. “The data proved what we suspected: our big issues are high blood pressure, heart conditions, high blood cholesterol and smoking,” offers Brenda. “Prevention is the ultimate goal to keeping the majority of the workforce healthy but instead of trying to tackle everything, we chose to concentrate on the heart, cholesterol and blood pressure this year through healthy eating and weight management efforts.” To keep employees at 36 different

locations engaged, Seubert developed several challenges that encouraged teamwork and utilized Café Well, a social health network that combines social networking technology with health and wellness initiatives. “We’ve all gotten involved in the daily living challenges, where we’re divided up into teams and you get points weekly for completing healthy tasks like drinking water or eating vegetables. We’re now more aware of how often we should be

Being surrounded by calories all day, the restaurant industry is not typically associated with health and wellness. Hoss’s Corporation, a privately owned company that operates 36 Hoss’s Steak and Sea House restaurants across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, has successfully developed an employee wellness strategy, keeping them ahead of the health benefits curve and incentivizing employees to get and stay healthy.“We have hundreds of people in

multiple locations that face the typical struggles of restaurant work: hourly workers who are around food all day, making unhealthy food choices, not exercising and rarely going to the doctor,” says Brenda Oakes, Benefits Manager. “The managers don’t get to eat and when they do, it’s quick and on the go. Typical health issues that come with our industry are high blood pressure, heart issues and high cholesterol. We have employees with thirty to forty years of service and we want to do everything we can to help them avoid these health issues as they get older.” Phil Sukenik, Vice President of

Human Resources, was an early proponent of a wellness strategy.

Participation increased annually but not at the levels they wanted. As Phil recalls, “We brought in our broker, Seubert & Associates, because wellness was a primary part of their service and we knew they would have ideas and approaches to take us to the next level.” Seubert is a firm believer in health improvement programs, especially now. Brian Long, President of Seubert, explains that “at no other time in history have companies been able to change employee behavior and be supported by the law. With the Affordable Care Act, accountability is on the individual and employees are encouraged to make healthy use of the plan upfront, not after the fact. Instead of costing employers anywhere from 15-24%, the ACA can help employers save money by including results-based wellness and plan design in their employee benefit programs.”

“Guest satisfaction is our number one priority and the key to that is selecting the right employees and making them feel important and valued. Everyone on the management team and in the stores is involved in keeping morale high and employees motivated. We know that wellness helps with this so in 2007 we embarked on a wellness program to help employees improve their health.”

The ChallengeHoss’s started off using the

programs offered by their carrier, Highmark, and found the initial employee participation to be disappointing. According to Brenda, “When we first began, employees questioned our motives and thought we were trying to uncover confidential information about them. So we focused on areas that would not be viewed as discriminatory but positive steps to health, such as nutrition, exercise and water intake to gain their trust.”

AnswersA collaboration of ideas and design

from Hoss’s Senior Management and Seubert have led to establishing a baseline for benchmarking purposes and for the last two years the program has included biometric screenings, a wellness profile and annual physician visits. “We decided to make some program aspects mandatory in order to alert employees to potential health issues and hopefully correct them before they became serious. Our policy is that if they complete all three actions, they will have a premium holiday,” explains Phil. “If they don’t get it done within six months, they pay a penalty.” This year 91% of the employees

participated in biometric testing and various wellness programs such as health coaching, team challenges and social networking. Brenda, who has lost 50 pounds by participating in the program, is quite proud of their results. “Last year we had all but three people participate in the annual physical, which is terrific. When we first started, hardly anyone went to the doctor for a check-up because they thought they are healthy. Since the testing began, I’ve had so many people tell me that they didn’t realize they had high blood pressure or that their cholesterol was that high. These types of discoveries started to turn the curve on employee sentiment and the results of the screenings led

doing these things and the competition between the teams has helped us learn healthy habits,” says John Brown, President. “We give out prizes at the quarterly meeting to those with the most points. It’s a lot of fun and the employees know we are committed to sticking with it.” Hoss’s holds quarterly meetings with

managers to review health and wellness, discussing what has worked and what needs tweaking. The company felt it important that the program encompass all angles of health and employs a team effort with all of their benefit companies to cover everything regarding wellness. “We’re looking at all different avenues that employees have in their lives that cause stress and we provide the tools they need to live healthier lives,” states Phil. Early on they included Lytle, their Employer Assistance Provider, to treat employees’ mental and emotional needs and have

recently added in PSECU, their credit union, to help employees with their finances. In the next phase of the program, they will start communications about smoking, educating employees and giving them opportunities to make positive steps towards quitting.Mike Logut, Director of Strategic

Health Initiatives for Seubert, credits Hoss’s success to top-down commitment with C-suite management very much involved. “They have strong leadership, and are constantly reviewing everything to make sure they are on the right track. By educating the employees not only on health conditions, but on how these conditions affect their personal lives; we are able to form a general understanding amongst the workforce that positively impacts the budget in order to achieve our common goal.” Education is paramount to Hoss’s

program and the key to long-term change. “We spend a lot of time educating employees to get them to understand the big picture as to why we are doing this. We used to have a lot of non-users of the health program, which leads to health

issues. We also had our share of good and bad users and we want to improve the good usage to help employees get healthier,” explains Phil. “All of these efforts have an impact on the way our store managers and upper management view health and wellness and the impact these efforts have on the bottom line.”

ResultsHoss’s utilized existing programs

through their partners, so there were not a lot of out-of-pocket costs involved. And they made the connection between claims dollars and employee health early on, choosing to self-fund their insurance to help manage health care costs. According to Phil, “A wellness program is not a quick fix – it probably takes a good 10 years to see ROI. We’ve seen improvements in costs and health, productivity is up and it’s been a good claim year so far. This initiative will have an impact on the bottom line but it occurs over a long period of time.” Hoss’s is in it for the long haul. Phil

sums it up as, “We are very happy with the results, there is awareness now but not necessarily a change in behavior yet. That’s the hardest thing to change but hopefully we’ve altered their perspective from a health standpoint.” Changing behavior extends to those in a position to hire and Hoss’s takes hiring seriously.

“We have a lot of long-term employees so our hiring decisions have to be wise. When interviewing prospective employees, we want to question whether this is a healthy person that will perpetuate the culture of wellness we have embraced. If they become a full-time employee on a benefits package, will they be a good addition to our program in terms of costs?” Hoss’s President, John Brown,

agrees. “I feel good about the direction we’re heading to have the people who use the insurance the most, pay the most. If you or I make unhealthy choices, then we should pay for those and if we make healthy choices, we should pay less. In the end, it’s good for everybody because people who feel better about themselves will do a better job, treat their customers better and everyone will have an all-around better experience. And that’s what Hoss’pitality is all about.”

to us to finding a lot of underlying issues early on.” Echoes Phil, “Some of those who fought the program tooth and nail are now happily participating. It’s working so well because we use a carrot and stick approach and it is absolutely worth the reward and the penalty to participate.” The overall data from the biometric

screenings has been used to determine what the primary issues are and develop a plan to target them. “The data proved what we suspected: our big issues are high blood pressure, heart conditions, high blood cholesterol and smoking,” offers Brenda. “Prevention is the ultimate goal to keeping the majority of the workforce healthy but instead of trying to tackle everything, we chose to concentrate on the heart, cholesterol and blood pressure this year through healthy eating and weight management efforts.” To keep employees at 36 different

locations engaged, Seubert developed several challenges that encouraged teamwork and utilized Café Well, a social health network that combines social networking technology with health and wellness initiatives. “We’ve all gotten involved in the daily living challenges, where we’re divided up into teams and you get points weekly for completing healthy tasks like drinking water or eating vegetables. We’re now more aware of how often we should be

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