34% of Americans over the age of 20 are obese. Should the workplace play a role in fixing this?

I wouldn't say it's an obligation, but it definitely an opportunity (non-obese people are generally happier, healthier & less costly). Especially with the research around the contagiousness of obesity.

I love this example (http://www.shapeupri.org/) of how competition + social can be used to take steps towards improved health. Interested to hear what others think.

I don't think the workplace should 'enforce' a program to reduce obesity, nor use penalties as motivation. I do think, however, that with increased helath care costs, they could/should provide incentive for healthy behavior that would limit obesity risks.

Business may not be obligated morally but finanically I'd say it's critical. First of all, many skilled workers are obese. Companies can't afford to lose them to disability, illness, or attrition. But it's also ironically fairer to all employees if comnpanies reduce obesity in the workplace. I have a post in my blog queue for later this week with 13 stats and facts about obesity. Here's a preview - after reviewing them, it's pretty obivous employers must do something even if it's not an obligation.

1. One in three U.S. adults is obese.
2. If the current trajectory continues, 50% of the population will be obese by 2030.
3. More than 60% of the United States population is overweight or obese.
4. $1,000 to $6,000 in added cost per year for each obese employee.
5. Total cost of obesity to U.S. employers — including lost productivity — at $73 billion a year.
6. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. corporate health care costs are due to obesity and its complications.
7. The overall, tangible, annual costs of being obese are $4,879 for an obese woman and $2,646 for an obese man.
8. The overall annual costs of being overweight are $524 and $432 for women and men, respectively.
9. The health care costs for a morbidly obese person are $2,845 higher per year than the health care costs for a normal-weight person.
10. Average annualized costs, including value of lost life, are $8,365 for obese women and $6,518 for obese men.
11. Obese employees are more likely to be absent from work as a result of illness or injury than normal-weight employees.
12. An overweight employee had a 26% increase in risk of a short-term disability event in comparison to a normal-weight employee. In comparison to a normal-weight employee, an obese employee had a 76% increase in risk of a short-term disability event.
13. Nearly 1 billion additional gallons of fuel are consumed annually because of average-passenger weight increases since 1960. Annually, it is estimated that for every additional pound of weight for all car passengers, an additional 39.2 million gallons of fuel are consumed.

Sources:

A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States
Workplaces Feel The Impact of Obesity (NPR)

Charlie,
My research indicates that highly effective health management/wellness strategies contain five elements:
- Education about the causes of health issues
- Nutrition and better eating habits
- Excercise and movement
-Ongoing communication and intrinsic reinforcement and motivation
- Financial incentives

60%+ of health issues and their related costs come back to lifestyle (they are preventable). Obesity is a big one that affects a lot of underlying conditions.
We spend trillions from the costs of not addressing these issues proactively and we pay that out both directly in health care expenditures and indirectly from depression and other issues.
Employers can play a key role in addressing at least 3 of the 5 criteria. Why would we not invest in the health of our employees and address something that impacts our competiveness and profitability?

I think that if you are a business owner and you truly care about your employees, you should offer some healthy alternatives to your employees. At the last company I owned, we had organic fruits delivered to our office once a week, replaced free pop with free fruit juices and purchased granola bars for employees free of cost. Our employees had a hard time with it at first since we used to offer free pop, but if we are offering these things for free I wanted to feel good about what we are offering to our employees. I consider our employees like family and I wouldn't want to give my family junk food and sugar laden cokes so why would I do that with my employees? Whenever I saw an employee walking around with an apple or a banana and fruit juice I felt good about our decision. And as an added bonus, it can potentially keep your companies health care costs down.

The workplace should not be "obligated" to have a role in helping to fix this. However, if the workplace can create incentives or some fun event/competition to help get employees to take steps towards losing weight and living a healthier live style, than it may help.

A few years ago, I had gain some weight due to some medical issues. I was shocked to learn that gaining about 25 pounds put me in the obese category. I knew I had weight to lose, but I didn't think I was obese! The fitness club I go to had Big Activity Challenge. We were judged on our diet, activity, weight loss change and BMI change. It was fun!

I just saw an article related to Americans being overweight and promised via my twitter post with the article to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year. But, we made this into a little office competition since everyone wants to lose some weight.

I think they should do it for competitive purposes. Provide a really good program that is supportive and not punitive. I suspect that as people become more and more aware over time that being overweight is a terrible drag on your health (no pun intended) it will influence people's decision on where to work and how hard to work.

The workplace can play a huge - pun intended - role by considering the cost and performance implications of taking on new hires that present risks, of all kinds.

The enlightened workplace can do itself a lot of bottom line good by providing programs, incentives, whatever works in its universe, for incumbent employees to lead healthy life styles in a number of dimensions.

However, the responsibility is ultimately the individual's. And, no enterprise is obligated to provide educational or remedial programs. Nor is one obligated to take on undue risk in it's hiring practices.

Admittedly, this could present a slippery slope, but if drug use (legal and otherwise) is a disqualified and tobacco use is being upheld as a legitimate screening criterion, excess weight could be next.

Employers should be obligated to allow desk-bound (sedentary) employees to take short breaks for getting up for a walk or other appropriate exercise. In fact, employers should encourage healthy habits.

There shouldn't be an obligation but it would surely be a great asset. This is a practice in place for decades in the Far East and as a result they have fewer health problems and health related costs (i.e. health insurance, etc) have been cut dramatically..something this country would surely benefit from...but then our doctors are the most overpaid in the world...and some of them may have to cut back on their yacht expenses if this were implemented.

Should they have an obligation....no! DO they need to become involved in order to keep health care claims/costs from skyrocketing even further...yes!