Workplace Workouts: Combating Employee Obesity

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity in the United States has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades. Obesity, which can lead to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease or other ailments, can affect someone's well-being both at home and on the job. While some employers attempt to combat obesity by hosting weight-loss competitions — many based on the NBC hit show, Biggest Loser — the solution to helping workers get (and stay) in shape goes beyond a simple contest.

Companies like Canton, Ohio-based Arthur Middleton Capital Holdings Inc. understand that obesity can have a significant impact not only on a work force's health, happiness and productivity, but also on the corporate bottom line. Kimberlea Guerra, Arthur Middleton human resource benefits manager, suggests corporate wellness initiatives can improve productivity, morale and a company's fiscal health.

“If you don't incorporate it in the company, then you're going to be paying for it in the back end from the health care premiums,” she explains. “If you're successful, hopefully you obtain a healthier work force. It makes [employees] more productive, it makes them happier, it makes them more energetic.”

When Arthur Middleton held a Biggest Loser contest for its employees last year, it wasn't a last-ditch effort to create a slimmer work force. True, the 200 employees who participated lost a total of 703 pounds, but the contest's real purpose was to get employees thinking about their lifestyle choices. In the end, that can spell happier, healthier workers.

TEAMWORK

To help employees stay fit, Arthur Middleton maintains an onsite, 24/7 wellness center that features treadmills, elliptical machines, bicycles, weights, blood pressure monitoring and more. Two full-time wellness center instructors help guide Arthur Middleton workers through exercise programs. Employees needn't carve out a large period of time to work out, either; the company's “10-in-10” options allows workers to visit the wellness center during a 15-minute break for a guided exercise session.

“After the workout, they feel less stressed,” says Deena Beke, wellness instructor at Arthur Middleton. “Just being out of the workplace for 10 minutes or a lunch hour [results in] an overall positive increase in their attitudes.”

That change in attitude, Beke says, can be contagious, which is all the more reason why workplace wellness initiatives can benefit the company as a whole: They promote teamwork. Arthur Middleton's Biggest Loser contest, for example, gave employees the opportunity to compete as teams, which helped build camaraderie.

Simonton Windows, a vinyl window and patio door manufacturer, also embraced teamwork when more than 300 employees lost a collective 1,470 pounds during a 6-week weight-loss contest last summer. Simonton workers participated in teams of two and created fun names to lighten up the contest — names like Fat Blasters, Tons of Fun, Baby Got Back and Thin to Win.

“When I spoke with teams afterward, I learned from most of them that having a team made all the difference,” says Kathy Ziprik, Simonton public relations representative. “Instead of grabbing a fast snack for lunch, they went out and they walked the track together. It was definitely a smart thing to do in teams.”

INCENTIVES TO LOSE

While many companies offer cash prizes, gift cards, time off or other awards to weight-loss contest winners, Guerra and Ziprik both stress that achieving health improvements is the true reward for employees.

“I think any of them would tell you that the overall prize was meeting their personal goals and doing something that made a lot of sense and was good for them,” Ziprik says of Simonton employees. “And these people served as inspiration for others. Since the contest ended, we've seen an accelerated interest in wellness and taking care of themselves.”

David Brock, Ph.D., assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Vermont and director of the Physical Activity Laboratory, argues that incentivizing employees to get fit is a successful strategy. Brock recently conducted a 16-week pilot study of obese, sedentary employees. The study offered generous incentives — approximately $1,200 if all requirements were met — to the 20 participants if they increased their physical activity levels.

Brock describes the study as “wildly successful” and said that every participant met the goal. By the end of the study, participating employees were walking about 35 miles a week — up from only 1-2 miles a week. This shows, he explains, that significant financial incentives can help workers become healthier, which in turn is a victory for employers. In addition to reducing health care costs, these programs can increase worker productivity, reduce costly sick days and help employees be more focused and “present” (and as a result, perhaps, safer) on the job.