Are employers doing enough to improve their workers' well-being?

That's the question attendees were asked at the annual Health and Productivity Forum of the National Business Coalition on Health and the Integrated Benefits Institute, held in at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco from Feb. 28 to March 2.

And the answer was, largely, no.

“We are in deep doo-doo,” Dr. Reed Tuckson, executive vice president and chief of medical affairs at UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest insurer, warned during a lively keynote speech.

Tuckson unleashed a laundry list of dismal health statistics: 27% of the population is obese, 67 million Americans are pre-diabetic and 60% of adults never exercise.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you think you can solve this by yourselves, you are in deep doo-doo,” Tuckson said. “Why are you all asleep during the stuff affecting your bottom line?”

He argued that employers are too focused on what's happening during the 9-to-5 hours that they are missing an opportunity to improve the overall health of their workers and their communities.

“The individual lives in the context of the family, which is in the context of the community,” he said. “We need you to be catalysts to get the community engaged in a data-driven conversation about health.”

To that end, Tuckson said the United Health Foundation is offering employers seed grants totaling $250,000 in community health planning, in conjunction with the National Business Coalition on Health.

Andy Webber, president and CEO of the NBCH, said in an interview that employers will see a return on investments in their communities.

“I can do everything right as an employer but if my employees live in an unsafe community and only have access to fast foods, my investment gets diluted,” Webber said.

Among large employers, there does seem to be an evolution going on from just trying to engage workers in disease management and healthy choices to more of a focus on workers' total well-being.

Caterpillar, for instance, has been doing health risk assessments, wellness and disease-management programs, on-site health clinics and other strategies to improve workers' health for years. But now, the Peoria, Ill.-based global manufacturer says it needs to do more.

“We know that if people have a better sense of well-being, they are more engaged and they will get more of our product out the door,” said Dr. Michael Taylor, medical director of health promotion at Caterpillar. “What's the next level of getting more productive employees? We are just starting on this journey.”

Taylor said the company is now focused on workers' total well-being. What is well-being? Experts define it as a good mix of daily life factors that include: physical health, emotional health, a positive work environment, basic access to healthcare, healthy behaviors and a happy personal life.

For instance, employers have found in surveys that workers who don't get along with their supervisors tend to have poorer health. At Caterpillar, a March 2010 survey showed that the business units that scored worst on overall well-being also scored poorly on leadership evaluations.

“If they felt poorly about their leadership, they scored worse on well-being,” Taylor said. “It all relates.”

Other workplace factors contributing to well-being include safety, teamwork and shared values, he added.

It's still unclear how much employer can do to improve all aspects of employees' lives, or how much workers want their bosses to stick their noses into their personal lives.

Still, interest in this topic among employers appears to be growing. About 420 people attended this year's forum, up from 308 last year.

Rebecca Vesely reports on healthcare payers and purchasers. She covers regional healthcare business news in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.