Employers fighting the battle of the bulge - economic and health aspects of employee-sponsored weight reduction programs - includes related article on wages and benefits

Business & Health, Nov, 1991 by Stanley Siegelman

Many companies are making Hamlet's fervent wish come true for their overweight employees.

Employers are doing so with weight management programs that are usually part of an overall effort to improve the level of fitness among all employees.

Such programs obviously benefit employees. But the employer reaps advantages as well: lower health care costs, reduced absenteeism, better job performance, increased loyalty to the company, improved morale, and higher productivity. Or, at least, that's the theory.

According to the Wellness Council of America, a nonprofit organization that promotes healthy life styles--especially by means of health promotion activities at the worksite--employers are aiming at specific objectives: overweight employees, now 26 percent of the workforce, could be reduced to 23 percent by 1995 and to 20 percent by the year 2000, WELCOA maintains. These goals appear so modest that the charge of reductio ad absurdum would surely not pertain! WELCOA believes companies can reach the objectives by offering employees educational programs and weight management classes.

Workplace weight control

Today, obesity is socially unacceptable. And when management perceives that it interferes with job performance or increases the company's health care costs--well, the fat is really in the fire!

Liz Claiborne Inc., a major force in the fashio field, where slenderness is a "must," probably has fewer obese employees than most companies. For the past four years, the New York City-based company, which has some 6,000 employees in the United States, and about 1,200 overseas, has nonetheless offered on-site weight-control instruction to workers who want to eat better and lose some pounds in the process.

Lynn Archer, R.N., Claiborne's manager of health services, is in charge of the weight-loss program and of administering employee benefit plans. She finds that lunch-time sessions, to which employees bring their own food, yield the best results. During a recent 10-week period, she points out, 20 participants in a Weight Watchers program held during the lunch hour lost 550 pounds--an average of about 27 pounds per person.

Archer and her assistant, also a registered nurse, signed up themselves--primarily to get a "feel" for the program from the standpoint of the enrollees. Archer enjoyed the experience and easily achieved her modest goal: a five-pound weight loss. But more important, she reports higher morale and lower absenteeism among enrollees.

Team spirit

Bethlehem Steel Corp. conducts an employee weight-loss program dubbed "Pounds Away" at selected locations among its widely dispersed facilities. The company is particularly pleased with results obtained in its Bethlehem, Pa., headquarters, says benefits representative Myrna Rivera.

Participants in a 10-week company-paid program are encouraged to lose no more than two pounds a week--a goal considered both safe and practical. On-site seminars are held, usually during lunch time. Teams of weight-shedders compete to see which group can lose the most over eight weeks.

Individuals receive points for attending meetings and for doing demonstrably well on the scales.

Reflecting the spirit of fun that animates the weight-loss contests are some of the team names selected in the past by Bethlehem employees: for instance, the legal department chose to be known as "Habeas Corpulent"; the benefits department became "Benefats"; and the accounting department, "Apounds Payable." (A rumor that a team of doubting Thomases chose to be called "Fat Chance" could not be verified.)

Anecdotal reports suggest that Bethlehem Steel is reaping financial benefits from the program. "For example," says Rivera, "a participant will tell us her doctor has taken her off medication for hypertension because her blood pressure became normal as the result of weight loss. Well, the company had been paying for that medication. Now the outflow has been curbed." The company has not yet tried to measure savings.

Rivera believes that working in teams gives employees a strong incentive to stay on their diets: "It's one thing to cheat on your own diet, but it's entirely another to let down your team."

Bethlehem's on-site weight-loss program is administered by an outside consultant, dietician Denice Ferko-Adams of Coopersburg, Pa. She calls it "Winning by Losing," and has packaged it for use by other interested parties. The team-contest approach appeals especially to men, who generally resist participating in weight-reduction programs, she observes.

Winning by Losing involves exercise, sensible nutrition, and behavior modification and is delivered in a fun atmosphere. At the opening weigh-in session, for example, Ferko-Adams unveils a five-pound slab of beef fat (from a supermarket) to illustrate what avoir-dupois looks like--meeting the "enemy in the flesh," so to speak. Someone who loses 20 pounds is apt to receive a gag prize--say, 20 pounds of birdseed or another substance humans presumably don't eat.

Winners bask in peer recognition. Depending on the particular employer, they could receive a fruit basket, or even have lunch with the CEO. Competition among teams is so intense that some participants try to sabotage those in the lead by anonymously leaving chocolates at their desks. About 86 percent of enrollees complete the program, and the average amount of weight lost per individual is 9.5 pounds, says Ferko-Adams.