{"id":20496,"date":"2022-11-11T05:19:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T05:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/benefits\/pages\/business-collaboratives-help-build-cultures-of-health.aspx"},"modified":"2022-11-11T05:19:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T05:19:33","slug":"business-collaboratives-help-build-cultures-of-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/11\/business-collaboratives-help-build-cultures-of-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Collaboratives Help Build Cultures of Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An organization that adopts a culture of health can benefit by collaborating with other employers.<\/p>\n

A group of seven employers in the greater Philadelphia area are trying this out by undertaking a pilot project funded by the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit created by Congress to mobilize private-sector resources in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) critical health protection work.<\/p>\n

In the Greater Philadelphia Employer Culture of Health Collaborative<\/a>, participating companies use a peer-reviewed methodology created by consultancy HealthNEXT to assess their readiness to create a multifaceted culture of health within their company. They then share their results with the other collaborative members, under the aegis of the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (PBCH), an employers group, which is also funding the project.<\/p>\n

“We have all the employers using the same tools and processes,” said PBCH President and CEO Neil Goldfarb. “They are talking about going through the same [formal assessment] experience.”<\/p>\n

An important aspect of the Philadelphia initiative is ongoing peer support, said Bette Francis, SHRM-SCP, chief human resource officer for one of the project’s participants, the YMCA of Delaware.<\/p>\n

“The collaborative really brought like-minded people together,” said Francis, a former SHRM board chair.<\/p>\n

Ray Fabius, HealthNEXT’s president and chief medical officer, has published research<\/a> showing that large companies that invest in a culture of health outperform their peers. <\/p>\n

Francis agreed, noting that “by elevating the health and well-being of employees and their families, [we] start to make a significant contribution to the community’s health” overall.<\/p>\n

How It Works<\/p>\n

The collaborative’s assessment process begins with employers taking a standardized evaluation that gauges how ready they are to create a formal culture of health. Typical assessment questions include:<\/p>\n