Striving4Zen

WITH EYES ON THE BOTTOM LINE, COMPANIES TRY TO GET WORKERS TO SLIM DOWN AND SHAPE UP....

Across the city and beyond, a growing number of companies are trying to similarly open their employees' minds and otherwise encourage them to eat better, lose weight, exercise, tend to dormant medical issues - in short, to be healthier.

In recent years "wellness" has become quite the corporate buzzword: The magazine publisher Meredith Corporation is one of a rising number of firms with a "wellness manager." UPS employees can volunteer to be "wellness champions" and inform colleagues of company resources; Scholastic has an on-site "wellness center" in its SoHo offices.

Other increasingly common initiatives include smoking-cessation and weight-loss programs, on-site gyms and exercise classes, and health screenings in which employees fill out questionnaires about their lifestyles and take blood tests to determine risk factors. More than two-thirds of companies now offer such programs, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

"At first it was just something a few large workplaces were doing," says Marilyn Helms, a professor of management at Dalton State College in Georgia who's studied corporate health programs. "Now, with rising healthcare costs, the tide's kind of turning."

As Helms' words suggest, there are financial reasons for all this get-well gusto. Having healthier workers cuts down on health-care costs, as well as reducing sick days and medical leaves.

But the rationale goes beyond cutting costs. There's growing appreciation for the notion that healthier employees are happier employees - and more productive ones. "People do a better job when they feel good about themselves," says Deborah Musso, director of Sea Change New York, a wellness company that works with firms around the city. "This is what companies are getting to understand."

Tim O'Neil, the Meredith wellness manager, sees creating a healthier workplace as part of building a better business culture. "Anytime the company can help an employee feel better, enhance their level of energy and help create a fun atmosphere at work, it's mutually beneficial," he says.

Some employers are offering another incentive besides convenience: cash, vacation days or prizes. The Boston-based Tangerine Wellness has built a booming business setting up incentive-based plans that reward employees for shedding pounds or maintaining a healthy weight. At some companies, colleagues team up to compete in weight-loss contests, and the winners split a cash award or donate it to charity. Tangerine CEO Aaron Day compares the incentives to stock options. "People are used to rewards for measured results," he says.

Events like contests figure into other initiatives. At XMPie, a division of Xerox, 22 staffers teamed up for the Eat Well Live Well Challenge, which required colleagues to walk 10,000 steps and eat five cups of fruits or vegetables each day.

In addition to fostering healthier habits, the contest - which required workers to wear pedometers around the office to log their movement - was "a great morale booster," says marketing director Kimberly Meyers.

In addition to health coaches, the SoHo-based publisher Scholastic has an on-site wellness center staffed by a doctor and nurse practitioner - a perk 13% of companies offer, according to SHRM.

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Labels: Corporate Wellness, eating healthy, health trend, wellness, workplace