A new tobacco-free hiring policy helps Medical Mutual take the next step in creating healthier, more productive employees.

In January 2007, Medical Mutual of Ohio began its policy of only hiring individuals who do not engage in the use of tobacco. As part of the policy, applicants are asked to confirm their non-smoking status on the employment application form and prior to hire will be tested for tobacco use as part of the Company's drug screening process.

As a health insurance company, Medical Mutual understands better than most the high toll tobacco use can have on a company, and this knowledge was the impetus behind the Company's decision to implement the hiring policy. However, the policy does not stand alone. Since 2003, Medical Mutual has been working on a comprehensive employee wellness program, and the decision to hire only non-smokers is the latest step.

"We believe that as an employer, we can have an impact on helping our employees become accountable for their own health. We can play a role in helping them change unhealthy behaviors and start making healthy choices to improve their overall wellbeing," explains Mary Wnek, Manager, Clinical Quality Improvement at Medical Mutual of Ohio.

Medical Mutual of Ohio was one of 33 companies to win the National Business Group on Health's Platinum Award in June 2006 for its employee wellness program. The program rewards employees for a variety of healthy activities, such as exercising, eating well, managing chronic health conditions, quitting smoking, or never smoking. Employees can use their healthy credits for a variety of awards, including earning a discount on their health insurance premiums.

Controlling tobacco use is obviously an important part of the wellness program. In addition to its hiring policy, Medical Mutual has taken many other steps to reduce the negative impact of tobacco-not just for its own employees, but for the many Ohioans the company insures. Medical Mutual was one of four insurance providers-and the only state wide provider-to form a partnership with the Ohio Tobacco Quit Line in July 2005. The partnership allows Ohio employees covered by Medical Mutual to receive free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) when they participate in the Quit Line's telephone counseling program.

"The Quit Line program has been incredibly successful with a 43.6 percent success rate for individuals who use the NRT," says Wnek. "When we saw the results, we decided to take the next steps in ensuring that our own employees had the resources they needed to be tobacco-free."

While employees covered by Medical Mutual could use the Quit Line's services, the company extended its cessation program to reimburse any employee for the cost of prescription medications for cessation. In addition, in 2006, Medical Mutual implemented a smoke-free campus policy prohibiting smoking on company property both indoors and out.

"Making it more difficult for people to smoke while at work and providing people who want to quit with the tools they need really does have a positive impact on cessation," says Wnek. "A survey of our employees who smoke showed that in 2005, about 42 percent intended to quit. By the end of 2006, that number jumped to 60 percent."

Even with the positive results generated by previous anti-tobacco efforts, some still had some concerns that a hiring policy might cause the company to miss out on qualified applicants.

"But that definitely has not been the case," says Wnek. "We feel confident that we're a great company with great benefits and that there are plenty of talented people who don't smoke who will want to work with us."

In fact, the policy, along with other efforts to improve employee wellness, has improved staff morale. Employees appreciate Medical Mutual's commitment to helping them take charge of health issues and manage their own risks.

For more information about the hiring policy at Medical Mutual, contact Sandy Opacich, Director of Human Resource Services, at sandy.opacich@mmoh.com. Or, for more information on how to create a comprehensive wellness program for your employees, contact Mary Wnek at mary.wnek@mmoh.com

Click here to learn more about creating your own tobacco-free hiring policy. Or click here to read how other employers are successfully addressing tobacco in the workplace.