Got fitness?
Some companies train their spotlight away from weight and target fitness instead, with weight loss a by-product rather than a primary goal. This philosophy informs the wellness program at Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation in Saint John, N.B., where an annual Beat the Boss challenge pits employees against the CEO in a friendly competition for the highest activity output. “People don’t like to be told they’re fat, so we believe in addressing obesity indirectly through fitness,” says Jill Barton-McPhee, administrative director of medicine programs. “We use software that lets people enter points for various types of exercise, and the program includes monthly draws for fitness equipment.”
Fitness also takes centre stage at the corporate service organization Ernst & Young, where every employee in the firm can claim up to $1,000 per year for fitness costs. Currently, about three-quarters of employees take advantage of the claim, which can cover anything from standard gym memberships to golf fees, says Karen Wensley, the firm’s director of human resources. “One employee even used it for trapeze lessons,” she says. “It’s our most well-loved perk.” Weight loss programs don’t qualify, though. The reason? “We believe that fitness has benefits that include but go beyond weight management.”
Other firms aim to mesh fitness and weight-management initiatives into a synergistic package. The U.S. semiconductor firm Texas Instruments combines a 12- week 10,000-step challenge with an on-site weight management program. Linda Moon, manager of health and wellness promotion, says the weight-management arm includes “education about triggers contributing to [being] overweight, counselling and follow-up sessions, and software that people can take home to develop meal plans.”
The business case
All these programs cost money, of course. Does the outlay really pay off? The short answer is yes. Canadian research suggests that corporate wellness programs return a cumulative economic benefit of $500 to $700 per worker per year. In the U.S., investment in employee wellness gave the Bank of America a return of $5.96 on its dollar, while General Mills achieved a figure of $3.50. By the same token, employee retention seems to surge when companies invest in wellness. The Toronto Life Assurance company, for example, found that employees participating in its fitness program had a turnover rate of just 1.5%, compared to 15% for non-participants. The British Columbia Hydro company has reported a similar differential.
New wellness certification is also in the works. Called Entreprise en Santé in the province of Quebec, “the certification will position companies as better places to work, much as the ISO certification has done,” says Danielle Vidal, senior consultant at AON Consulting in Montreal. In other words, “a tool to attract and retain the best and brightest.”
A caveat for impatient financial officers: “You won’t see financial results before three years,” says Vidal. What you will see in the early stages is “an impact on the working climate,” which many employers come to see as a reward in itself. “One of our customers started a wellness program with a clear goal of getting a good ROI,” Vidal recalls. “They’re now on their third year of the program, and the company president recently told me that seeing all these happy employees is all the ROI he needs.”
Tips on helping employees get in shape The Canadian Council on Healthy and Active Living at Work and the human resources firm Braun Consulting Group offer a few informal ideas to get you started: • Allow longer lunches to enable exercise • Hold activity breaks during the day • Have bottled water on site and healthy snacks at meetings • Implement a healthy eating campaign, including healthy cafeteria and vendingmachine options • Make on-site programs, such as Weight Watchers, available at work • Sponsor or subsidize health-club memberships • Offer incentives such as discounts on health premiums As to the best “carrots,” research from the U.S. healthcare information and research firm Ingenix suggests that cash rewards (ideally in the $100 range) work better than incentives such as merchandise or days off. If you’re developing a more comprehensive weight-loss/fitness program, Kevin Kwan, founder and president of Edmonton-based Kwantum Inc., cautions against using a generic template. “You have to match the program to the people,” he says. For instance, “younger people in the dot.com crowd will likely prefer a dodge-ball tournament over a sit-down seminar.” Also consider your staff’s level of expertise. “Many of our employees have a background in health, so we have to make sure our health messages don’t talk down to them,” says Bruno Allary, senior manager, Pfizer Canada. Finally, “you’ll only get buy-in if senior management leads by example—by walking the talk.” |
Gabrielle Bauer is a freelance writer in Toronto.
For a PDF version of this article, click here.
© Copyright 2008 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the May 2008 edition of WORKING WELL magazine.
