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From page 53... ... 53 6.1 Introduction The case studies and analyses presented in this chapter introduce primary source employee demographic and wellness program participation data collected from five major metropolitan transit agencies: • The Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo) , in Indianapolis, Indiana; • The Regional Transit Service (RTS) Read the entire page →
From page 54... ... 54 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line the control/non-participatory group was based on a structural factor, such as whether an employee was insured or not (IndyGo) or worked at a remote location as opposed to working onsite (RTS) Read the entire page →
From page 55... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 55 6.2.3 Work Organization/Work Environment Like many other agencies, the majority of operators (approximately 55%) at IndyGo work split shifts. Read the entire page →
From page 56... ... 56 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line 6.2.6 Organization The human resources department oversees the onsite clinic and wellness program and all activities related to health program initiatives. IndyGo contracts with a third party that is staffed with two nurse practitioners, a part-time doctor, and medical assistants, and has a wellness committee composed of union and non-union employees that help design new activities and promote the program and initiatives. Read the entire page →
From page 57... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 57 On June 21, 2018, after a follow-up call with personnel at IndyGo, the project team sent an email requesting the following data: • Excel files (or tab-delimited files) with downloads of the number of personal days and number of sick days with employee names, gender, date of birth, occupational code, and date of hire for 2009–2018 (or whichever historical years were available) Read the entire page →
From page 58... ... 58 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line IndyGo had 333 frontline employees. Twenty-one employees were excluded for missing data required in the regression analysis, and 60 employees were excluded because their employment was terminated before the first complete year of the program. Read the entire page →
From page 59... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 59 (teal) , and for African Americans (blue) Read the entire page →
From page 60... ... 60 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line illustrates the variation from year to year in both the number of claims and the average dollaramount per claim. Figure 8 shows the percentage of (frontline) Read the entire page →
From page 61... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 61 Appendix C outlines some of the potential reasons for the lack of significance for the participation variables. In particular, Tables C-1 and C-2 present two regressions that are representative of the variations that were tested, and the corresponding text includes a discussion of the analysis. Read the entire page →
From page 62... ... 62 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line developed wellness program in 2013 and 2014, addressing a comprehensive set of goals that were defined in 2014. With healthcare costs skyrocketing and premiums rising both for the agency and the covered employees, RTS understood that it had an opportunity and an obligation to help employees. Read the entire page →
From page 63... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 63 6.3.4 Program Activities/Elements Healthy U has promoted healthier behavior and habits among RTS employees by providing a comprehensive set of new offerings and services and changing existing services to align with the goals of the program. Many of the adjustments have focused on food because this is an accessible way to build relationships with employees. Read the entire page →
From page 64... ... 64 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line 6.3.6 Resources The Healthy U program relies on third-party providers and community partners for many of the services offered. RTS funds the program through its operating budget. Read the entire page →
From page 65... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 65 among the frontline workers that were part of a more general health trend; however, lacking the necessary granularity in the data, that hypothesis could not be assessed. RTS continues to conduct ongoing review and analysis of the health claims data and monitor wellness initiatives against claims data (Rochester–Genesee Regional Transportation Authority n.d.-b) Read the entire page →
From page 66... ... 66 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line In the model, the dependent variable was a total of sick days, unpaid leave, and personal days. The key independent variable was participation in the health program. Read the entire page →
From page 67... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 67 populations of offsite workers (non-participants) and onsite workers (participants) Read the entire page →
From page 68... ... 68 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line Figure 11 presents the average annual total of absentee hours for RTS frontline employees for 2011–2017. On average during this 7-year period, onsite employees used fewer sick days then did offsite employees. Read the entire page →
From page 69... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 69 Total workers' compensation days were calculated based on the 2017 average wage for 731 RTS operators and maintenance workers of $24.32 and the workers' compensation payment of 66.67% of that wage to fully disabled workers in the state of New York. 6.3.13 Results Several variations of the linear regression were performed, the results of which are presented in Appendix A Read the entire page →
From page 70... ... 70 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line 6.4.2 Program Startup and Development The employee wellness program began in 2015 with the goal of changing workplace culture as prompted by an observed need for smoking cessation programs. The agency was further motivated to start a program that would reduce health insurance claims, which were relatively high. Read the entire page →
From page 71... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 71 Specific program activities include weekly yoga classes, 5K runs and participant preparation assistance, periodic weight loss/weight maintenance challenges, walking events, and bioscreenings. A point system for participation allows employees to earn small prizes, such as exercise accessories, gear, or gift cards. Read the entire page →
From page 72... ... 72 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line The project team selected these participation variables for analysis because they had the highest participation numbers of the numerous activities included in TARC's health program. Table 38 presents demographic characteristics for both the total population of TARC's frontline employees and for the agency's operators and maintenance employees in 2015. Read the entire page →
From page 73... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 73 these participants were younger on average (48.4 years) compared to employees who had a base (blue) Read the entire page →
From page 74... ... 74 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line Table 40 demonstrates a trend commonly seen across the case studies, which was that indemnity claims were variable and subject to fluctuation due to factors such as a few high claims. In the case of TARC indemnity claims, the table also shows that the number of unique claims is not much higher than the number of employees with claims, indicating that the instance of repeat claimants was not large. Read the entire page →
From page 75... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 75 6.5.1 Background DART is the first regional transit authority in Iowa created under state legislation and was approved in 2005. The agency operates the largest transit system in Iowa, providing more than 15,000 trips per day with a fleet of approximately 145 buses. Read the entire page →
From page 76... ... 76 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line the wheelchair securement stations so that they require less bending and stooping and allow more room to maneuver (reducing lower back pain) Read the entire page →
From page 77... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 77 instructor, two fixed-route operators, a maintenance employee, an operations supervisor, and a transit planner (McMahon, personal communication, 2018) Read the entire page →
From page 78... ... 78 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line problems of participation. Participation increased when incentives were offered, but the effect of the incentives dwindled over time. Read the entire page →
From page 79... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 79 and those who were recorded as having participated in no activities. The characteristics of these two groups are displayed in Table 42. Read the entire page →
From page 80... ... 80 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line Figure 15. Median annual total absentee hours of DART frontline employees by race and sex, 2016–2018. Read the entire page →
From page 81... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 81 used fewer sick days than did non-participating employees; however, because only 16 employees are recorded as participating in any activities, this is probably a case of self-selection bias. 6.5.12 Results A set of 115 observations were available to test for whether program participation had an effect on health. Read the entire page →
From page 82... ... 82 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line 6.6.2 Program Startup and Development In 2006, LA Metro piloted a health and wellness pilot program at two locations. The agency started the pilot to produce positive effects on absenteeism and workers' compensation claims. Read the entire page →
From page 83... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 83 health fair. Wellness activities occur mainly on Wednesdays and are scheduled to coincide with operator breaks between split shifts. Read the entire page →
From page 84... ... 84 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line SMART uses program data from its health insurance provider to tailor the program and counter cost trends. For example, high numbers of emergency room (ER) Read the entire page →
From page 85... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 85 of participants back up to 446. The pattern seems to be fairly stable and all other years were higher than the initial year of 2012. Read the entire page →
From page 86... ... 86 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line initial focus was on smoking cessation, but the program was expanded to include more general wellness goals. DART encouraged employees to take advantage of all existing employee benefit programs, including a health savings account, and implemented a comprehensive wellness program for all employees. Read the entire page →
From page 87... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 87 broadly follows the data presented in Chapter 4 regarding the most prevalent health and safety issues for transit workers, with other key conditions also represented. Given the variations in data-supported or perceived health and wellness concerns, program design elements such as activities offered, facility needs, incentives for participation, staffing, organization of committees, and selection of champions were distinct from location to location. Read the entire page →
From page 88... ... 88 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line DART's program did not focus on any one aspect of health and wellness but had a different theme each month that corresponds with the interests recorded by employees in the initial survey. DART has offered two to three workshops and one to three wellness challenges every month. Read the entire page →
From page 89... ... Case Studies: Health Promotion Programs 89 some places than others: DART, in particular, experienced such high rates that it is possible to suspect some data discrepancy may explain it, though our discussions with the agency did not suggest this. IndyGo experienced a fairly steady rise in absenteeism beginning in 2014, which might be attributable to a structural change. Read the entire page →
From page 90... ... 90 Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line effects that translate to quantifiable cost savings for agencies, the absence of concrete statistical evidence does not mean the cases lack substantial value. The data that was collected and analyzed adds a host of new information on employee patterns of absence/sick leave and how it relates to participation in health and wellness programs among different segments of the employee population. Read the entire page →

From page 53...

... 53 6.1 Introduction The case studies and analyses presented in this chapter introduce primary source employee demographic and wellness program participation data collected from five major metropolitan transit agencies: • The Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo) , in Indianapolis, Indiana; • The Regional Transit Service (RTS)