Building a Business-led Culture of Health and Food Security

In today’s competitive business environment, investing in well-being helps to attract and retain top talent by addressing the flexibility, wellness, and development opportunities that professionals value. Well-being is important in a high-performance culture—which is why Deloitte invests in a holistic approach that empowers its people to focus on their well-being and supports them throughout their life journey. We care about our people and we want them to be successful in their professional and personal lives. At Deloitte, our people are our greatest asset, and we believe that the well-being of our people is the well-being of Deloitte.

We talked with our people to better understand their diverse well-being needs and learned that many want programs and resources to support them in work and in life. To better meet the demands of our evolving workforce, Deloitte developed and launched Empowered Well-being in 2015. This approach gives our people the support and flexibility to make daily choices that can enable them to be energized, confident, and aware. Empowered Well-being provides the opportunity for our people to personalize their experiences in the ways that matter most to them in body, mind, and purpose.

At Deloitte, well-being is a key priority of our talent strategy and a tenet of our inclusive culture. Empowered Well-being goes beyond traditional benefits to provide employees with programs and offerings that foster a culture of well-being, including:

• Programs and benefits: We provide comprehensive and flexible benefits to eligible employees that support their diverse needs. Some of these benefits and programs include generous and flexible paid time off (PTO), sabbatical options, flexible work options, a subsidy that can help cover the cost of well-being-related purchases, and well-being days that allow our employees to collectively disconnect. More recently we released the Family Leave program, which offers 16 weeks of paid leave to both men and women to care for a new child joining the family through birth or adoption or to care for an ill family member.
• Education: We offer in-person science-based energy management courses, online micro-learnings, and well-being guides on such topics as nutrition, movement, positivity, impact of technology on well-being, mindfulness, stress management, and more. Well-being is seamlessly integrated into Deloitte University, where guests have access to a state-of-the-art fitness center, wellness professionals, and nutritious food. Well-being offerings and energy breaks are incorporated into program agendas, resulting in participants who are energized, refocused, refreshed, and poised for optimal productivity.
• Leadership and networks: To reinforce its commitment to well-being, Deloitte named a well-being leader to create and drive the strategy of Deloitte’s well-being approach. But Empowered Well-being also involves leadership at all levels, including our CEO, in setting the example by recognizing well-being behaviors, sharing their own challenges and success stories, and actively discussing well-being with their teams. We also developed a network of well-being ambassadors and inclusion councils at Deloitte to help share and encourage well-being behaviors and activities in their groups, teams, and offices.
• Data: Our Vitals dashboard provides data to identify people at risk of burnout well before they crash. This dashboard leverages data from existing systems to help leaders understand workload, travel, and whether professionals are using their PTO, so they can engage in ongoing well-being-related discussions with their individual team members.
• Well-being behaviors: Empowered Well-being is driven by the motto that small changes can have a big impact, so we encourage well-being behaviors throughout our workday. For instance, we incorporate energy breaks—such as stretches, meditation, and games—into daylong meetings to help get people reenergized. We provide well-being activity baskets for project teams to keep in their conference rooms so they always have access to fun and engaging energy break activities. We also offer virtual chair yoga sessions to provide professionals an easy way to incorporate movement, stretching, and mindfulness into their day. And our client teams reinforce flexibility and predictability in employee work schedules by encouraging such project-based initiatives as reduced business travel schedules, consistency in business travel scheduling, identification of core work hours, and setting norms around evening and weekend email.

Each year, we conduct a talent survey to measure employee engagement around well-being, trust and integrity, future vision, and more. From fiscal year 2015 to 2016, our survey reported a double-digit jump in well-being, and our most recent survey continues to trend in the right direction. Employees indicated a higher rate of satisfaction with flexibility, predictability in schedules, stress level, and support, showing that continued investment and action has resulted in meaningful improvements across the organization. Additionally, our 2017 ranking for the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For jumped an astounding 26 points from last year.

At Deloitte, we see well-being as a journey. Empowered well-being is a step in the right direction for us. Over the next years, we will be developing more well-being educational programs to help our people learn and implement well-being behaviors, and we will continue to look for ways to innovate our well-being-related offerings to meet the evolving needs of our people.

Nestlé is committed to enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. As the world’s largest nutrition, health, and wellness company, and one of the leading providers of infant nutrition, we know the first 1,000 days—from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday—offer a unique window of opportunity to shape healthier and more prosperous futures.

Parental leave practices in the U.S. are still well below global standards. Conditions around parental leave, ranging from back-to-work strategies to leadership culture to length of the paid parental leave, may have a negative impact on health, the economy, and women’s advancement in the workplace.  

Supporting New Nestlé Parents

In January 2016, Nestlé launched the Parent Support Policy (PSP). Available to all Nestlé employees who have been with the company for six months and work at least 30 hours per week, the PSP is gender-neutral and open to biological parents, adoptive parents, or any primary caregiver of a newborn child. Under the policy, primary caregivers are offered up to 14 weeks of paid leave and an additional 12 weeks of unpaid leave following the birth or adoption of a newborn child. Parents also can return to work on a part-time basis during the 26-week leave window.

Nestlé also offers employees a broad network of parenthood support, including medical benefits and prescription drug benefits for infertility treatments, a free breast pump, 24-hour-a-day consultation with lactation specialists, children’s books, full-value coupons for Gerber formula or baby food, and a credit for other new parent essentials. 

Building a Strong Business Case

When we announced the new policy, we committed to collecting internal analysis with the aim of understanding the policy’s impact on female employee retention. We’ve since expanded the scope of our analysis to understand the impact on wellness, health behaviors, and health costs. We anticipate that the data will support a strong business case for paid parental leave and will serve as an effective advocacy tool to encourage other companies to adopt similar policies.

The policy took effect January 1, 2016, and the first employee began maternity leave under the PSP just six days later. One year after the policy’s launch, a total of 585 Nestlé employees had taken advantage of the program.

Over the first year of the policy, the average participant took 13 weeks of leave, slightly less than the 14 weeks of paid leave offered through the PSP. These numbers support what American workers have long reported—that the inability to afford unpaid leave is the most common reason for foregoing needed time off.

First-year data also hint at the importance of offering paid family leave to all employees—not just salaried or senior staff. A full 30% of PSP participants were hourly and commissioned workers. Hourly male employees were 40% more likely to take advantage of the PSP than men working in salaried positions. Nestlé is continuously working to make sure all employees understand and can take advantage of the policy.

Finally, the first year of data provided encouraging evidence that a flexible workplace fosters a committed workforce. In 2016, 97.6% of Nestlé’s U.S. employees who used any form of parental leave were still active within Nestlé six months after their return. We are optimistic about retention impact and will continue to track retention levels.

There is no better time to begin fostering a healthier future than in the first days of a child’s life. Paid family leave is an important part of supporting new families during that time. The PSP will help us recruit and retain a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce. While the data gathered so far offer encouraging evidence, the most convincing argument may come from employees

Join the Movement

Although quite a few companies have expanded their paid parental leave policies in recent years, parental leave practices in the U.S. are still well below global standards. Only 13% of workers have access to paid parental leave, and only 58% have access to unpaid leave. We encourage companies to provide paid parental leave. We are willing to provide counsel and lessons learned from our own experience. See nestleusa.com/parents for more information and how to contact us. 

Mark Twain once said, “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.”

We know smoking is bad news. It is the leading cause of lung cancer - the number one cancer killer of both men and women. Smoking also increases the risks of stroke, heart disease, and other types of cancers almost anywhere in the body. And there is even worse news:  Second-hand smoke can be just as bad, especially for children, who are at higher risk for asthma attacks, respiratory infections, and ear infections. Smoking-related illnesses cost the U.S. more than $300 billion each year - much of this straining the health care services that we, one of the nation’s largest health care companies, are trying to provide affordably for our customers.

At the Anthem Foundation, we believe that investing in the health of our communities directly contributes to our vision to be America’s valued health partner. To ensure we are not only improving public health broadly, but also meaningfully reducing health disparities, we created “Healthy Generations,” a multi-generational initiative focused on five focus areas:

1. Advancing healthy hearts,
2. Preventing cancer,
3. Advocating for maternal practices,
4. Preventing diabetes prevention, and
5. Promoting active lifestyles 

The Healthy Generations strategic platform guides us in identifying community partners that share our goals and commitment to creating a healthier generation of Americans. We also realize that poor health can’t be addressed in a silo. Our greatest successes have resulted from exceptional partnerships, proven program models and opportunities to improve health across multiple Healthy Generations focus areas.

One such success involves our partnership with the American Lung Association and some promising “good” news concerning the issue of smoking. Quitting smoking is not easy but smoking is the NUMBER ONE MOST PREVENTABLE cause of death and disease in the U.S. and individuals that engage with a proven effective, evidence-based cessation program are most successful in adopting a tobacco-free, healthier lifestyle. Through our long-standing partnership with the American Lung Association, we have identified and implemented powerful smoking cessation models that have reduced tobacco disparities for specific priority populations including pregnant women, veterans, and individuals with behavioral health needs. Most specifically, results from the Freedom from Smoking model have been impressive with more than double the individuals quitting smoking than anticipated.

In 2016, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a nationwide smoking ban in public housing that went into effect in 2017. Public housing residents include vulnerable and diverse populations, with 38% of them being children; 45% are African American; 25% are Latino; and 95% are in low to extremely low income groups. HUD has urged local public housing authorities (PHAs) to enforce the ban and provide solutions for residents who smoke within the next 18 months, yet has not provided additional resources for them to do so. The need for help is great.

The HUD ruling created a powerful and unique opportunity for us to leverage our strengths within a major community health partnership between Anthem, the American Lung Association, and HUD. As a result of Anthem Foundation’s funding, PHA staffmembers in 14 states are now being provided with American Lung Association expertise, resources and support to meet the need by:

• Making available the only proven-effective, evidence-based Freedom from Smoking program free of charge to residents;
• Training public housing staff to deliver cessation treatments, effective intervention with tobacco users, motivational interviewing techniques and the Freedom from Smoking program;
• Offering online and telephonic cessation services 24 hours a day.

With the ban affecting more than 1.5 million residents across 687,125 public housing units in 26 Anthem market areas, we were excited to step up for those who need the most help quitting and giving up the life-threatening habit for good. Our hopes are high for success as we have had more than four in ten individuals managing to quit smoking within this model in earlier campaigns.

This program exemplifies Anthem Foundation’s goals for improving community health by creating a powerful public/private partnership model, addressing four out of five of our Healthy Generations focus areas, building upon our past success with our national nonprofit partner and reaching low socioeconomic populations that are at the greatest risk. Even more importantly, there was no question which initiative we were most excited to highlight in this report as we work together to reduce or eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke for our most vulnerable neighbors - the children of the coming generation. 

In an effort to provide easily accessible play for all kids across the U.S., KaBOOM! launched the national Play Everywhere Challenge. Designed to spark creativity in the way cities plan for kids and families, the challenge received over 1,000 applications from people all across the country with ideas on how to incorporate play into everyday spaces—at bus stops, in laundromats and grocery stores, on sidewalks, and more. KaBOOM!, in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Target, Playworld, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and National Education Association, awarded 50 winners with $1 million to create their play installations and encourage kids to play “along the way,” and make time for outdoor physical activity throughout their daily routines. These projects were installed from late 2016 to mid-2017.

Despite a collective understanding that play is essential to healthy development, kids are not getting adequate playtime each day. In 2014, KaBOOM! partnered with ideas42, a behavioral research firm, to understand the barriers that prevent kids from playing and how communities could overcome these barriers.

KaBOOM! and ideas42 found that there is not a natural point in the day when parents or caregivers are faced with the choice of whether to play, unlike making healthy choices about eating, for example. Play is also not as easy and accessible as it could be: making play the easy choice requires integration into the daily lives and routines of kids and families. This is particularly important when thinking about equitable communities. Low-income kids spend 25% more time doing chores and running errands with parents than their affluent peers.

Playgrounds provide great oases of play for kids in urban communities, and play must be easily accessible at many points throughout the day, especially in such unexpected places as laundromats, grocery stores, bus stops, and sidewalks—places where kids are already spending time, most often waiting or in other unengaging activities. Thus, the challenge was also able to turn moments of frustration into moments of joy.

KaBOOM!, in conjunction with the five collaborators, launched the Play Everywhere Challenge (PEC) to address the need for play in cities by seeding ideas and helping to spread them across the nation. The PEC is an effort to help solve the issue of play accessibility within cities and ensure kids have easy opportunities to play each day, in everyday locations like bus stops and sidewalks. The effort was a challenge format, where people submitted ideas and competed to win implementation grants, to encourage rapid development of the best, most creative ideas.

The PEC was launched in 2016, and most projects were installed in 2017. The challenge recognized 200 finalists and awarded grants totaling $1 million to 50 winners across the United States.

The challenge served as an operational enabler by giving cities and communities urban planning tools and resources that result in better outcomes for how a city is formed or reformed.

Example project: Lexington Downtown Development Authority’s “BUSt! Boredom”

The Lexington Downtown Development Authority is part of an ambitious public-private partnership called the Town Branch Commons, which seeks to revitalize parts of downtown Lexington, Kentucky, with a trail system.

The goals of the project were to improve the public transit experience; provide opportunities for safe, imaginative play; encourage conversation and interaction among kids and caregivers; and serve as a demonstration project to show the value of kid-friendly design.

Hannah O’Leary, a project analyst with the Lexington Downtown Development Authority, said,

KB!_fullcolor_screen+digital_sm.jpg

Everyone knows that daily fruits and vegetables are essential to good health. But not everyone can afford them: 30 million Americans live in “food deserts” and twice that number struggle with food insecurity. Families in poverty often must rely on the most affordable choices, which means produce is often off the table—literally—leading to what has been called the hunger-obesity paradox. Diet has surpassed smoking as the leading cause of disease and death in America, as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol reach epidemic rates while disproportionately afflicting communities in poverty. And the resulting healthcare costs are staggering. Nationally, we spend $1.4 trillion annually in the treatment of these diseases and in lost productivity.

But at Wholesome Wave, the national nonprofit I founded, we see a solution: making produce affordable. Because when people can afford fruits and vegetables, they buy them. Diets change overnight and, over time, public health improves. That’s why we’ve been working since 2007 to make produce affordable for the people who need it most.   

In 2016, we reached over 500,000 Americans, but we’re particularly proud to have teamed up with Target, America’s sixth-largest national retailer, to change the lives of hundreds of families in Los Angeles. 

Wholesome Wave has been perfecting produce prescription programs since 2008, and this was our largest yet. Launched in June 2016 through an $800,000 grant from Target and a partnership with the Eisner Pediatric & Family Medical Center, our LA Produce Prescription (FVRx) Program provided 544 low-income patients with prescriptions their families could redeem for free produce at Target stores and area farmers markets.

A federally qualified health center, Eisner’s clientele fit Wholesome Wave’s target population: families that can’t afford fruits and vegetables. More than 98% of the clinic’s patients are below 150% of the poverty level. Patient families that qualify for FVRx earned less than $39,248 for a household of five. Prior to enrollment, most patients weren’t eating even half the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, and 65% of participating households were food insecure. Eisner’s pediatricians say urging parents to feed their children more produce can be futile—if they can’t afford it, their kids can’t eat it.

Enter FVRx.

Nelson Samayoa, caseworker at the clinic, explained, “The simple fact is that fruits and vegetables can be pricey, and most of our families cannot afford that. Now, with this program they can get fruits and vegetables and don’t have to worry, ‘If I get this [food], I won’t have money to pay my bills.’ A lot of parents are telling me, ‘Oh my gosh, this program is helping my kids a lot.’”

Paula, a single mom enrolled in the program, said grocery money was tight: “Budgeting, it’s very hard to be honest,” she explained. “Before, it was really hard for me to even get [my son] to eat anything healthy. But going to fast food and buying a burger for a dollar, in the long run, it’s just gonna mess up our health.”

Her eyes lit up when she raved about our program, saying that, thanks to the program, she and her son were able to eat lots of cucumbers; strawberries; jicama; lettuce; tomatoes; corn; carrots; and her new favorite, Brussels sprouts. All of which meant extra income for area agriculture. At a nearby weekly market, farmers took in an additional $70,000 through this program in just a few months. They made more money by selling more produce to the customers who need it most.

“It’s amazing,” said Samayoa. “Our families cannot believe what they’re getting. They tell me, ‘Before it was difficult to have the kids eat fruits and vegetables, and now they’re like, ‘Mom what are we having for dinner?’ It’s really making a big difference.”

Target went beyond the role of funder, also serving as a location for patients to redeem their fruit and vegetable prescriptions, resulting in 10-hours-per-day, seven-days-per-week access to healthy food for enrolled patients.

In just six months we reached over 500 pediatric patients and their families, who spent over $270,000 on fruits and vegetables (over $140,000 of it at Target), with nearly 60% of parents reporting improvements in their children’s health over the six months of the program. Ninety three percent of patients reported meeting fruit and vegetable guidelines at the close of the program, and of those who didn’t meet vegetable intake guidelines at the beginning of the program, there was a 206% increase in vegetable servings by the end. Participating patients also reported a 38% decrease in food insecurity.

And low-income families weren’t the only ones to benefit. For Target, this closed-loop program also drove brand loyalty, positive social responsibility, customer acquisition, and new revenue streams. For every $1 produce prescription redeemed at Target, customers spent an additional $1 of their own money on fruits and vegetables—a true win-win for both the customer and Target.

As Laysha Ward, chief corporate social responsibility officer at Target, put it, “Together, we will help remove barriers to wellness in our communities, working to increase the consumption of nutrient-dense food and physical activity of kids and families across the country.”

But don’t take her word for it—or mine. The program’s successful outcomes earned it a place on Fast Company’s list of 2017 World-Changing Ideas, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Health Means Business Partnership of the Year award.

And while we’re proud of these impacts, they’re just the beginning. Here at Wholesome Wave, we’re positioned to take this work to tens of millions of Americans, and to truly change the world—through food.

For more information and to contact us, visit wholesomewave.org.

People know how to protect themselves from disease, but what about bees?

Varroa mites are one of the most significant threats to honey bee health today.

If beekeepers do not manage their colonies to reduce mite levels, there is a 90 to 95 percent chance the colony will die within two years or sooner from the effects of the mites and the bee viruses they vector.

For National Pollinator Week, we’re featuring the fight against the mites in this video, which showcases the work of the University of Minnesota’s Bee Lab.

“Mites multiply quickly and spread bee viruses from bee to bee,” says Dr. Marla Spivak, professor of Entomology at the University of Minnesota. “The spreading of Varroa mites causes a pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry, greatly impacting agricultural production in Canada and the United States.”

Turns out, the bees need a little help. The only way to control the deadly effects of viruses is to control the mites.

Enter the Bee Squad.

That’s the name of the University of Minnesota’s program to help beekeepers and the community foster healthy bee populations and pollinator landscapes through education and hands-on mentorship.

In 2015, farmer, beekeeper and Bee Squad team member, Keith Johnson, developed a marketable mite testing kit based on the University of Nebraska’s non-destructive testing method called the “powdered sugar roll” to allow beekeepers to monitor their bees for mites.

Powdered sugar, you ask?

Believe it or not, powdered sugar dislodges the mites from the bees, allowing beekeepers to estimate the mite population present in a colony – without harming the bees

“We want happy, healthy bees,” says Johnson. “Beekeepers testing their bee colonies for Varroa mites will have a very positive impact on pollinator health.”

Volunteers from General Mills headquarters assembled more than 400 Varroa Mite Testing Kits during Earth Week in April, which will be distributed to beekeepers in the Bee Lab network.

“Bee health is extremely important for General Mills, as part of our effort to advance sustainable agriculture, which is why we support the University of Minnesota Bee Lab’s vast research and development efforts,” says Mary Jane Melendez, executive director of the General Mills Foundation.

General Mills and our brands have many efforts underway worldwide to increase biodiversity and improve pollinator health. We also partner with the USDA and the Xerces Society, the international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.

“Pollinators enable so many of the ingredients that go in to making food people love, so supporting bees and pollinators just makes sense,” said Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer at General Mills. “Partnering with organizations like the Xerces Society, USDA and the University of Minnesota’s Bee Lab allow us to do more work on behalf of pollinators across our value chain.”

It’s hard not to be intrigued by bees, especially since they are responsible for so many of our favorite foods – like fruits, nuts, honey and even vegetables. Bees and other native pollinators are instrumental in agriculture – 35 percent of crop production worldwide depends on pollinators.

Keeping bees healthy is a priority for General Mills which is why we fund pollinator research to better understand why bees are in decline, invest to conserve and expand bee habitats, and work with our suppliers to improve the health and effectiveness of bees.

“It’s wonderful to have a partner who cares about bee health, and one who understands the connection between bees, our food and food quality,” Spivak says.

Learn more about our work to protect pollinators in the Responsibility category here on “A Taste of General Mills,” or in our 2017 Global Responsibility Report on GeneralMills.com.

At Feeding America (FA) and Target, we envision a hunger-free America.

FA, through a network of 200 local member food banks, feeds more children, families, and seniors than any other domestic hunger relief organization—4 billion meals in 2016 alone. Target is a long-standing partner of FA, and in 2016 donated more than 51 million meals through store donations to food banks across the country.

Even as the FA network distributes more meals each year, research estimates that 8.7 billion more meals would be needed in a given year to feed every person facing hunger in America. In addition, people struggling with hunger are often at higher risk for nutrition-related illnesses. According to Hunger in America 2014, 58% of the households FA serves have at least one member with high blood pressure and 33% have at least one member with diabetes.

FA’s task is not only to provide meals for people in need, but also to provide nutritious meals that can help improve the health and well-being of people we help. Fresh produce provides a tremendous opportunity to both feed people facing hunger and offer nutrient-rich foods that can improve health outcomes. We know that an enormous amount of produce is wasted in the United States each year. In fact, 20 billion pounds of fruits and vegetables are discarded on farms or left in fields to be ploughed under before the following season, and that does not include produce lost at manufacturing and retail locations.

FA, with the support and partnership of Target,* has developed an innovative solution that will simultaneously decrease food waste and increase the amount of produce available to communities. Our vision is to create a coordinated model that optimizes the fresh produce opportunity across the nation for network food banks, regardless of location or capacity. To do that, we are creating seven regional produce cooperatives (RPCs) strategically located across the country that will centralize produce sourcing and distribution: Lower Midwest (Indiana), Upper Midwest (Minnesota), Southeast (Georgia), Mid-Atlantic (Pennsylvania), Northwest (Washington), Southwest (Texas), and West (California). The RPCs will enable the delivery of a greater variety of produce to partner food banks at a lower cost and with more consistency. In the past, each of FA’s 200 food banks identified the produce to be sourced and arranged for pickup and transport from growers to the food bank. Developing and implementing the RPCs creates an efficient and effective model to procure and process larger volumes while continuing to make it possible for food banks of all sizes to receive the products needed for their local communities.

Each RPC is member-led and operates one central processing facility to receive, store, and distribute large amounts of produce. By aggregating demand and centralizing the ordering and processing, each site can leverage the collective size of all food banks in its region to negotiate better prices for services, including transportation and lower the acquisition cost.

Furthermore, the cooperatives are able to accept more produce donations, thereby eliminating food waste throughout the supply chain. Currently, some food banks may not be able to accept large loads of produce because they will not be able to use it fast enough with their agency partners. This creates the potential for a load of oranges or a pallet of potatoes to become food waste instead of a healthy snack or dinner. Full loads of produce will be arriving at the RPCs, where each food bank can order a mix of different types of produce as well as smaller amounts to fit its unique needs.

Each RPC is at a different point in its formation, but FA has seen incredible success already. Since the Southwest location launched in summer 2016, 14 million pounds of produce have shipped through the facility to the 21 food banks serving Texas. The other RPCs, which are in earlier phases of operation, have shipped 4.5 million pounds since May 2017.

The RPCs are improving food banks’ efficiency and planning by helping to build the network’s capability to aggregate demand, expand the variety of produce available, and improve distribution of this healthy but highly perishable food. Most important, they are increasing the amount of produce available to families and communities served by the FA network.

*Cargill also is a funder of the Regional Produce Cooperatives.