With health, firm is stronger

ACTIVE, HEALTHY AT WORK, HOME: Wright-Pierce employees are encouraged to exercise, including at the office. Here, doing yoga are Ymane Galotti, left, project engineer, and Holly Finlay, office manager. Keeping to work in the background is Christine Sexton, project engineer. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
ACTIVE, HEALTHY AT WORK, HOME: Wright-Pierce employees are encouraged to exercise, including at the office. Here, doing yoga are Ymane Galotti, left, project engineer, and Holly Finlay, office manager. Keeping to work in the background is Christine Sexton, project engineer. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

CEO (or equivalent): John W. Braccio, CEO and president Number of employees: 203

Employee wellness has always been big business at Providence engineering consulting firm Wright-Pierce.

“A strong company cannot exist without healthy employees,” said Connie Taggert, director of human resources. “Our employees are the heart of our business. To help them achieve optimal well-being – both at home and at work – Wright-Pierce provides all employees the ability to participate in our comprehensive wellness program, Wright Way to Wellness.”

The voluntary program aims to help Wright-Pierce employees maintain and/or improve their personal health through a wide array of educational offerings and activities, including an online health assessment, health challenges, health coaching, health screening and a tobacco affidavit.

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The plan appears to be a success, with more than 60 percent of the company’s 203 employees taking advantage of a health benefit program or offering.

“Our president runs at lunch every day,” said Christine Kurtz, a Wright-Pierce project manager. “I walk at lunch every day. Some offices have basketball teams or go canoeing. Other employees run marathons, hike together or go skiing. And some employees even invite clients to join them.”

Kurtz says the wellness program is one example of how the company reaches out to all of its employees at once.

“The program also provides incentives and prizes for those that chose to participate in the contests or events,” Kurtz said. “A recent contest required us to record our steps in a four-week period. An indirect benefit of these contests is that they promote bonding within each office.”

Employees are encouraged to provide feedback to wellness champions – the people in each office that manage the program. Changes are made based on that feedback.

As a result of the Wright Way to Wellness program and the feedback the company has received from employees from its annual Health Interest Survey, Wright-Pierce learned that 84 percent of respondents said the program encouraged them to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

“This is significant and upholds the mission of our program,” Taggert said. “In addition to these results, we observed reductions in employee costs versus our dependent costs by as much as 13 percent from the previous year.”

Although she says that spouses are not eligible for participation, the company is seriously considering adding them to the wellness program. Wright-Pierce does offer a fitness and reimbursement policy that supports employees and their families up to an annual limit of $700.

This year, the company began sending customized education newsletters that included a monthly health quiz. Participants who complete the quiz each month earn points toward the annual wellness rebate. The goal, Taggert says, is to improve employee awareness in an effort to promote primary prevention. Health quiz topics included allergies, emotional health and weight management.

Wright-Pierce also works hard to accommodate the demands and desires of each employee’s personal life to help with work-life balance. The company offers part-time or flexible hours for stay-at-home parents; telecommuting opportunities as needed; permanent modification of a workweek to allow for employee participation in a religious organization; and short-term absence to volunteer in developing nations.

In addition to offering partial reimbursements for more traditional things such as gym memberships, Wright-Pierce keeps up with trends, such as working while standing up. To that end, the company will purchase an employee a desktop unit that raises the computer and keyboard up for working while standing and lowers them while sitting.

“The programs that have been put in place are promoted companywide,” Kurtz said. “Promoting an employee to be healthy has returns on the bottom line of the business. This is absolutely a priority. The healthier an individual is – physically and mentally – the more productive they are in all of the environments where they exist. A healthy, confident person interacts with their co-workers and clients well, performance increases and the quality of work is better.”

Taggert feels one thing that really sets Wright-Pierce apart when it comes to promoting employee wellness is that when the company says it is going to do something, it does it.

“We just do not talk the talk, we walk the walk,” Taggert said. “We know healthy employees are happier employees who will then be committed to the work and clients we service daily.

“If our employees are internally feeling engaged and supported on all levels, it brings a different energy and commitment on a daily basis when being asked to problem solve and support our external clients,” she said. •

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