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Today, on September 3, Aflac launches its ‘Check for Cancer’ initiative, a campaign aiming to increase US cancer screening rates by 10% over the next decade.
Through a mix of billboards, event sponsorships, digital platforms, grassroots community activations, traditional media, and social media, the message urges people of all ages to drive action around the early detection of cancer, and to increase access to lifesaving cancer screenings. For every in-feed social media post using #CheckforCancer hashtag, the company will donate $5 to childhood cancer research and care, up to $1 million.
While the campaign undoubtedly has a public health mission at its core, the insurance company’s CHRO and CSO, Matthew Owenby, says this is also a workplace issue. Catching cancer changes outcomes not just for patients, but for teams and companies.
Owenby outlines how he has encouraged his own workforce to Check for Cancer, and has advice for his HR peers on supporting employees through high-stakes health events with both empathy and business acumen.
How Aflac encourages staff to Check for Cancer
Check for Cancer is a new campaign from Aflac geared at getting people to go out and get early screening for cancer. According to Aflac's Annual Wellness Survey, the vast majority of Americans (90%) admit they’ve delayed a checkup or recommended screening that could aid in early detection.
“We know that studies show that at least one in three Americans is probably going to experience cancer in their lifetime,” Owenby begins. “Early detection is key, so we are launching this Check for Cancer campaign to just get the word out… we want to make people aware that when cancer when detected early, there is an enormously better outcome. Survival rates go way up.”
The campaign is a timely one. In its own survey data, Aflac has seen rates of cancer diagnoses rising alarmingly across its population. One potential cause, the company suggests, could be post-COVID fatigue, with many people skipping preventive care, and fewer people having a primary care physician, instead relying on emergency or urgent care at their local hospital.
To kick off the national awareness campaign, Owenby is beginning by building momentum through his own workforce. “We just had a gigantic, company-wide tailgate celebration to kick off the initiative. Thousands of employees, all over our campuses, waving flags and banners.”
Aflac’s communications team is driving ongoing efforts to keep the initiative in front of people and top of their mind. “Even though we're in the health and life insurance business, we have people within our own employee groups who don't have primary care physicians and who don't go out and get screened,” the CHRO adds. “It’s not just a message for America, it's a message for our employees.”
So far, it’s working. Aflac has had an “enormous amount” of employees volunteering for the Check for Cancer campaign. “People are fired up about it,” Owenby says. “We’re taking advantage of the momentum of college football this time of year [with the tailgate], we’re linking everything together. There’s just a buzz in the air, and we’re only going to get more and more engagement.”
Benefits packages & beyond – what full workplace cancer support looks like
Aflac offers employees (and their beneficiaries) paid cancer benefits as a basic provision – but the company has also moved to bring “a full battery of healthcare support” to its campuses across the US, including physicians, nurses, and physical therapists.
“No employee can have the excuse of, ‘I can't make time.’ If you were to come in this morning and say you weren’t feeling great, within two hours you’d be seeing a physician on campus,” Owenby continues. “It’s really all about access.”
For those concerned about the cost of providing on-site care, the CHRO suggests that the return-on-investment is impossible to ignore: “When you look at the offsets of preventative care, and time away from work, scheduling wellness visits for your workforce literally pays the corporation back. It’s a great outcome for everybody, all the way around.”
That said, Owenby acknowledges that on-site health is unusual, and HR departments can also work with their communities and healthcare partners to make transactions easier.
“You don't have to have the brilliant HR approach we have here; you can do other things,” he notes, offering further advice for HR leaders eager to drive and maintain the conversation – especially given a broader challenge with engaging workers on healthcare.
“They don't understand their coverage options, and they certainly don't understand how their healthcare programs can be used preventatively,” Owenby explains. “Most people don’t want to talk about their health very often. It's about making the conversation safe. Make it safe to talk, drive awareness, and be empathetic with your solutions.”
With the Check for Cancer campaign gathering pace, Aflac’s CHRO is eager for other HR professionals to use the initiative as a timely starting point to begin those conversations.
“As we get into annual enrollment in the United States, this is a perfect opportunity for HR professionals to get out and do campaigns of their own – the benefits they offer, what to do when you need help, and how to access preventative care,” he says.
“I would just encourage HR people to think about what you could do to provide better access to healthcare, whether it's screenings, people coming on site, blood drives, and so on,” Owenby concludes. “It's really about access and awareness, and that’s why we think the Check for Cancer campaign is going to be massively successful.”
