Vought Wins Multiple Awards as One of Nation's Outstanding Companies for Health & Wellness

Business Wire, Jan 22, 2009

Institute for Health and Productivity Management and Champions in Health in Dallas/Ft.Worth Recognize Corporate Wellness Program

DALLAS -- Vought Aircraft Industries' wellness program, LiveWell@Vought, received awards from both the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM) and Champions in Health for its work developing and implementing an employee wellness program.

The IHPM Corporate Health and Productivity Management Award is a national award presented to organizations of different sizes that have realized measurable gains in business productivity and competitiveness from efforts to improve the health of their employees. IHPM has a four-person committee of medical professionals who look for clearly demonstrated results in enterprise-wide employee wellness programs.

Champions in Health is a collaboration of government agencies, health organizations, academia, businesses and health professionals who recognize exemplary wellness programs in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. With criteria similar to IHPM, Champions in Health recognized Vought's facilities in Dallas for how LiveWell@Vought meets the unique needs of its workforce, how outcomes are measured and the stability and sustainability of the program.

LiveWell@Vought has achieved notable gains in employee well-being in just 19 months since being launched. Company-wide results include reducing BMI (body mass index) in almost two-thirds of employees enrolled in the weight management program. LiveWell@Vought offers annual health screenings for employees and their families, in addition to numerous health education and prevention programs.

More than 50 percent of Vought's 6,600 employees participated in the screenings. As a manufacturer of airplane structures, the Vought workforce skews to a mature population. Almost 90 percent of the screened population at Vought had multiple risk factors common to the nation as a whole including obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and glucose levels. The number of employees with four or more risk factors declined 5 percent in the first year alone.

"We recognize companies that have taken concrete steps in wellness and have measurably improved employee performance on the job," said Deborah Love, executive vice president of IHPM. "Vought Aircraft's program is an excellent example of how promoting health has a positive impact on the bottom line and provides real value for the health benefit dollar."

"We are proud to have helped many of our employees make significant strides in regaining healthier lives and reducing their risks," said Kevin Meiners, wellness director for Vought. "We offer the facilities and information for people to exercise more and practice better nutrition at home and on the job. But of course, all the credit is due to the individuals who take the necessary and sometimes tough steps, whether it's smoking cessation or simply wearing a pedometer to measure increased activity. We have some tremendous success stories."

Vought is committed to employee health and wellness by making these initiatives central to its business philosophy and strategy. Employee wellness is not only a sensible direction in helping limit corporate health care costs, but is critical to the vitality and productivity of the organization. It was unique for the IHPM to grant an award to a company with only one year of data and is a testament to the success of instituting a national program in a short amount of time.

"In another two years we hope to have reduced the health risk factors by 50 percent," added Meiners. "We also hope to see our screening participation rates increase to 65-75 percent."

Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. (www.voughtaircraft.com) is one of the world's largest independent suppliers of aerostructures. Headquartered in Dallas, the company designs and manufactures major airframe structures such as wings, fuselage subassemblies, empennages, nacelles and other components for prime manufacturers of aircraft. Vought has annual sales of approximately $1.6 billion and about 6,600 employees in nine U.S. locations.