Reference no: EM132671638

Assignment: KPMG LLP is a large global organization that provides audit, tax, risk, and advisory services. Especially during tax season, stress and long hours are common for the majority of KPMG employees. In the United States, KPMG worked with two organi- zations, Ceridian and WellCall, to provide an integrated program dealing with employee assistance, work-life issues, as well as health and wellness issues. As Brian Kelly and colleagues write, "The goal was to organize a healthy workforce and to empower KMPG's workforce to maximize functioning in all four domains of well- ness: physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional" (p. 190).

A "Passport to Wellness" pilot program was created that included 20 to 30 activi- ties in each of the four domains (physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional). Barbara Wankoff, KPMG's Director of Workplace Solutions, states, "The program was run like a travel program that included mileage awards, and when participants com- pleted a pre-determined number of activities, they won bonus points. The program was a great incentive for many people to get involved in their own wellness" (p. 191). Employees could only achieve the status of "wellness athlete" after they logged activity across all four domains.

This program gave KMPG wellness data at the level of their individual offices for the first time. The goal was to target health management activities where they would be most effective. Through this program, KPMG saw a rise in the number of employ- ees who sought both preventive as well as needed care. "Our hopes are that some of our employees with high risk factors for disease might have caught it in time. The Wellness Pilot was a worthwhile initiative as well as exciting and rewarding on many levels," Wankoff stated (p. 192).

1. What do you like or find interesting about KMPG's efforts here?

2. What concerns or questions do you have about how KPMG employees might respond to this program?

3. Would you like to have access to a program such as this in your job (or in your next full-time job)? Why or why not?

4. If you were an HRD professional at KPMG working to expand the Passport to Wellness program to other parts of the organization, what issues or questions would you want to address?