A healthy bottom line: Wellness at work
| Sunday, Jan 04 2009 07:28 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Apr 07 2009 03:42 PM
The role of gyms
Since the early 1990s, 24 Hour Fitness has offered corporate wellness programs. It has more than 5,000 active workplace partnerships, mainly in the West.
Jad Attili, 24 Hour’s senior director of corporate sales, said the gym’s corporate partnerships component work with companies to reach and inspire employees who are not inclined to be active.
Companies that partner with 24 Hour have dedicated client service managers, and fitness staff go to businesses to lead nutrition classes and set up weight loss competitions with incentives. They can provide aggregate reports to companies about participation rates.
Costs are based on the number of employees and can be as low as $10 per employee for companies of 400 employees or more, Attili said.
Although some companies approach 24 Hour looking to offer discounted gym memberships to employees, Attili urges employers to do more.
“A discount doesn’t get you (participation), it doesn’t get you what you’re looking for,” he said.
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Yoga instructor Gloria Escover leads a class with employees at State Farm Insurance on Old River Road.
Gloria Escover, right, leads a yoga class at State Farm Insurance.
State Farm Insurance employee Haley Campbell practices yoga after work with an instructor who comes to her workplace to offer classes to employees.
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As a new year begins, people resolve to make positive changes: Exchange that bag of M&Ms for a banana. Exercise more. Quit smoking.
Now consider this: Helping employees make good on those intentions through wellness programs can boost your company’s bottom line.
Workers who exercise and eat right are likely to sleep better at night, making them more rested, less stressed and ready to take on work demands, health professionals say.
And employers who offer on-site wellness programs pay less in health care and workers’ compensation costs. A 2003 Department of Health and Human Services study showed return on investment ranges of $1.49 to $4.91 in benefits for every $1 spent.
Wellness program elements typically include lifestyle/health risk questionnaires, screening tests, “lunch and learn” educational programs, exercise — on-site and not — and motivation components, such as “The Biggest Loser”-style competitions.
Local expertise is available to start a wellness program. San Joaquin Community Hospital kicked off its own lunch and learn series in 2008 and plans to expand its efforts with the business community this year, said Danielle Zili, marketing communications manager.
Mercy and Bakersfield Memorial hospitals assist about 40 companies in Kern, wellness seminar coordinator Sean Kenny said.
First steps include figuring out what a company needs. Then come screenings; keep in mind wellness staff don’t diagnose conditions. Screenings can be done for blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and glucose.
Those results generate data for the company and tell Kenny where efforts should be targeted.
He leads lunchtime workshops or exercise sessions, and recently showed Standard School District employees how to use resistance bands for full-body workouts.
At Jim Burke Ford, Kenny said he discussed the benefits of walking, gave tips about three quick tests to pick the right exercise shoe and led employees on a brisk walk. He plotted the route on a GPS and shared it with the dealership so employees can do it on their own.
He recommends making wellness program participation voluntary. Mandate it and it will backfire, he said.
With the slumping economy, stress levels are high, and morale might be lower than you’d like. Chances are you might have fewer people to do the same amount of work.
“You sleep more soundly, you wake up more rested, you have more energy,” Kenny said. “If they’re not feeling their best, they’re not performing their best.”
Money matters often drive implementing employee wellness programs.
“Companies are desperately, and I mean that with a capital D, trying to reduce health care costs,” said Judi Ulrey president of Fitness Consulting in Corona del Mar. She’s beaten the wellness drum since 1985 and now offers online fitness and nutrition content employees can watch at work. She calls herself the coach for internal wellness coordinators, duties that often fall to a human resources professional.
Management support is key to wellness programs’ success, she said.
Executives should be out leading by example — participating in walks and health screenings. Starting and stopping wellness programs isn’t the best approach, either.
“(Use) baby steps and build on it instead of gargantuan steps and then nothing,” she said.
Wellness programs aren’t about getting employees ready to run marathons, Ulrey said, but rather to eat a healthful breakfast, walk regularly, stand up and take stretch breaks once an hour if they have desk jobs and eat “as many colors during the day as they can,” she said. No, not Skittles — fruits and veggies.
At Chevron’s Bakersfield headquarters, the fitness center manager shows employees how to stretch properly, and repetitive stress injuries can be treated with on-site massage therapy. At Kaiser Permanente, a physical therapist helps employees set up ergonomic work stations and gives tips about how to use keyboard shortcuts instead of a computer mouse.
WHAT KERN EMPLOYERS OFFER
Here’s a sample of what some Kern employers offer for wellness programs.
Chevronhas offered a wellness program in Bakersfield for about 15 years, said Patty Lucke, wellness coordinator and substance abuse administrator.
The company employs about 1,300 people in the San Joaquin Valley. Some 500 work in the headquarters on Camino Media, which has a staffed fitness center that employees pay $10 monthly to use. The company’s field sites, such as Coalinga and McKittrick, have free, unstaffed gyms.
On-site yoga and circuit training classes are available at the Camino Media office, and a massage therapist swings by several times a week. A Weight Watchers class has been in place for nearly two years, Lucke said.
The company has a team-based “Maintain, Don’t Gain” program to keep the pounds off during the holidays.
On the national level, Chevron rolled out an intensive cardiovascular health program that starts with an assessment. Folks whose results place them in a medium- or high-risk group are paired with a physical therapist, nurse or physician to receive one-on-one health advice, Lucke said.
State Farm Insurance’s“Live Well, Be Well” initiative kicked off last January.
At the operations center in Bakersfield, the 1,100 employees can do yoga, walk in indoor and outdoor programs and dine at a cafeteria that offers healthy options and half-orders. They can also meet privately to discuss their health issues/concerns with Haley Campbell, senior occupational health nurse. If employees or relatives age 18 or older want to quit smoking, Campbell can set them up with a program through the American Cancer Society.
Wellness initiatives can decrease absenteeism and “presenteeism,” when employees are at work but aren’t as productive, Campbell said.
Later this year, State Farm plans to roll out a comprehensive health risk assessment that would give employees information about their mental and physical health.
PCL Industrial Services Inc.’sBakersfield office has a half-mile walking track behind its fabrication yard. On the incentive side, employees may receive a $100 credit on insurance deductibles by participating in health evaluations and a $200 annual credit toward a gym membership. It offers monthly “lunch and learns” on health care topics.
“We’re a pretty strong believer when employees feel valued, respected and satisfied in their jobs, while working in a safe and healthy environment, they’re more likely to be more committed and more productive,” said Dawn Daurie, PCL’s Bakersfield marketing manager.
The company has 81 salaried and more than 500 hourly employees.
Kaiser Permanente,the health care provider, kicked off its wellness programs for its more than 900 employees in Kern a year and a half ago.
“The same emphasis we place on our members thriving, that emphasis needed to be placed on our staff so that they could model that inside out,” said Nicol Roemer, education development consultant. She oversees internal wellness programs.
Each month, a certified massage therapist provides five- to 10-minute chair massages, and staff may participate in weekly aerobics and yoga classes. The classes average 15 to 20 participants.
“In the scheme of things, that’s pretty good,” Roemer said. The exercise participants are dedicated, she said, and recruit and motivate co-workers to join. “And they’re asking for more classes,” she added.
During breaks, employees can walk 10- to 30-minute courses at Kaiser facilities.
