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

Chewing the fat

Three months after the course ends, Ferko-Adams returns to "chew the fat" and follow up: a weigh-in is held to determine which employees are still losing weight, which ones have plateaued, and which onces are gaining. Presumably, those who have succeeded in the struggle of the flesh have no beef coming.

But the concept of pitting weight-losing teams against each other is dubious because the scope is too limited, says Ronna Kabatznick, Ph.D., a psychological consultant in Oakland, Calif., for Weight Watchers International. She explains that weight management must be a lifelong process, not just a short-term goal.

Kabatznick sees great value in group-support, rather than a competing-team, approach. She prefers a setting in which an overweight person overcomes feelings of isolation and gains encouragement from others in the same situation.

Practicing what it preaches

Another Ferko-Adams client is Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa., publishers of Prevention magazine and other health information periodicals. Rodale is an extremely health-oriented company--especially where its own employees are concerned. Its 1,000 workers are entitled to participate, at no charge, in a wide variety of wellness programs; weight control is one of them.

Rodale's fitness director, Budd Coates, likes the team-contest approach because it generates healthy competition. Winning teams receive plaques, plus the acclaim of colleagues. Actually, the company has had some form of employee weight-reduction program for some 10 years. All food dispensed in the cafeteria is perpared daily under the supervision of dieticians, who enforce high nutritional standards.

Coates says it's impossible to determine if the various health plans reduce absenteeism because sick days, as such, no longer exist. Instead, Rodale workers receive a number of personal days, which they can use for any reason.

But one thing is sure, according to Coates: thanks to the firm's unflagging concentration on employee welfare, its health care costs this year have actually declined (although Rodale would not to say by how much), in contrast with the trend almost everywhere else.

As in Rodale's case, a dietician's advice is important at The Progressive Cos., insurers in Cleveland. Here, a dietician is on the premises 20 hours each week. She counsels weight-troubled employees individually and holds group sessions as well, often as part of the Weight Watchers at Work program.

If an employee chooses to participate in a weight management program, he or she is obliged to purchase it privately, at some offsite location. But if a participant loses 25 pounds, and keeps them off for a full year, he or she is reimbursed for 50 percent of his or her weight program costs up to $250.

For its 7,000 employees, the company makes available an array of peripheral activities, including organizd exercises, walking, and smoking-cessation programs. An employee who engages in these and other healthful pursuits accumulates points that can be traded in for gifts at year-end. Top prize, for example, might be an 18-speed bike; at the opposite end of the scale, athletic socks.