Employee fitness: boosting the bottom line

New Mexico Business Journal, Feb, 1994 by Kathleen Park

National health insurance or not, Americans are using the workplace to stay healthy. You see it on company bulletin boards, in company newsletters, on recorded company telephone messages as events of the day.

There are enthusiastic announcements of classes and seminars in aerobics, on body-building and weight reduction; how to stop smoking, kick drugs or alcohol or reduce stress; how to develop self-discipline through martial arts.

Everywhere you look, it seems, the work place is becoming the workout place.

Companies in New Mexico are beginning to shell out serious money to provide state-of-the-art gyms, exercise consultants, scenic jogging or walking trails marked at intervals by instructional stations to show you how to firm up your muscles, improve your balance or lung capacity.

Other firms contract with hospitals and behavioral health services to deal with a wide array of both physical and psychological problems affecting employees. Big companies, medium-sized companies and even smaller firms are adopting an attitude that spending dollars to keep their employees healthy is a lot better than later doling out many times that amount in lost time, lost wages and health care costs.

Company executives are beginning to sing from the same sheet of music from which Lovelace Inc., New Mexico's pioneering HMO, was singing more than a decade ago. Other HMOs in New Mexico and standard health insurers promoting preventive medical costs are a vital element of the chorus today -- and employers are listening.

It pays to keep employees healthy, corporate decision-makers are learning.

Whether your company is located in Roswell or Gallup, Santa Fe, Albuquerque or Las Cruces or points between, problems do exist within the work force.

The good news is that employee problems can and are being dealt with in a fashion undreamed of a decade ago.

Employers lose as much as $120 billion a year to problems caused by drug-using employees alone, says The American Journal of Insurers.

The losses take the form of theft, lower productivity, injuries, equipment damage and higher medical costs. As much as 20-30 percent of employees in the nation, for instance, show up to work impaired by drugs or alcohol.

The average cost of replacing an entry-level employee is about $3,000, according to the Chicago Tribune; it can be hundreds of thousands to replace an executive in a major corporation.

Among the state's corporate leaders in employee fitness is Intel in Rio Rancho, the world's largest computer-chip plant.

The grand opening last October of a gleaming, 24-hour-a-day Intel gym says a lot about corporate commitment to workers, according to Emily Padilla, coordinator of the Intel Fitness Center.

"You might call it a reopening," says Padilla. "We've actually had a place for about five years, but it was small. Just a temporary metal building.

"But this is a real center, and we can offer the employees a lot more."

Intel's fitness program was born in the ranks, not as a policy from above, says Padilla.

Although the program in its embryonic stages was employee-motivated by lunch-time joggers, cyclists and exercise enthusiasts, somewhere along the line executives saw the benefits of a wellness program.

Intel today offers not only free use of the gym, basketball court and jogging trail, but also has classes that employees pay for, such as tai kwan do and aerobics; a massage therapist is also available.

"Our objective is to get as many employees as possible exercising, and exercising safely and effectively," says Padilla. Intel has hired Langford Physical Therapy to oversee the program. Langford is the same company providing return-to-work programs on site for employees who have been injured on the job. Langford exercise technologists are available to Intel employees free to teach them how to use equipment and set up individual fitness programs.

A fitness center user's group made up of volunteers from different areas provides input on the type of fitness programs employees want, whether it be weight-lifters or aerobics.

Some classes are being planned to include workers on the night shift.

About 30 percent of Intel employees currently participate in fitness programs, says Padilla, whether it be physical exercise or recreational activities, including corporate-sponsored softball, basketball or soccer teams.

Beginning this month, Intel's Health & Safety Office will sponsor what it calls "brown bag specials," short seminars on nutrition, smoking cessation and stress management.

Hospitals or health centers throughout New Mexico are also offering Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) by contract with employers -- and those aren't restricted to major companies in major cities in the state.

Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital at Gallup serves about 16 client companies through its Behavioral Health Services (BHS) division, according to coordinator Peter Procopio.

Drug and alcohol abuse, problems with spouses and adolescent children and on-the-job conflicts with co-workers or supervisors are the most common troubles bringing workers to the program, says Procopio.