PAWTUCKET – In an e-mail message sent last week to all 225 employees at 12 different locations of the Pawtucket Credit Union, Anne Lafleur, vice president of human resources, reminded everyone to keep up with their personal participation with the wellness program in the new year.
“I told them, ‘Really water those seeds, otherwise they’ll fall to the wayside,’ ” she said. “We try and keep communication open and constant, every two or three weeks, reminding them to think about making a brown-bag lunch or eating a healthier lunch.”
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
For the company – one of several local firms to push wellness on their employees at the onset of the new year – the theme is “The real you is healthy and fit; find yourself in 2011,” suggested by Mike Jordan, a marketing executive and member of the credit union’s wellness committee.
The 10-year-old wellness program features regular monthly talks, suggestions on what to make for brown bag lunches, opportunities to participate in yoga and kick-boxing classes, and even a “biggest loser” contest to reduce weight.
The credit union has also changed the kind of food available in its snack machines, now favoring fresh, seasonal fruit and products that are high in protein and low in fat.
To make it more fun for employees, the credit union’s wellness program also sponsors a monthly quiz about health, with the winner getting a gift card for CVS/pharmacy, according to Lafleur. The credit union also has an onsite fitness center.
“We are targeting things that are universal to most companies – lack of exercise, stress, people who are overweight, things like that,” Lafleur said.
The employer-sponsored wellness program, she continued, has been encouraged by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. “We like to think we are preventative by presenting all these programs, so that we’ll get fewer high expense claims,” she said. “We can’t pinpoint that, we can’t say that claims were reduced by a million dollars.” But, she added, “we do know that it’s working in making it a better place to work where employees feel better about themselves.”
On a personal level, Lafleur said, “I notice in myself I’ve made a lot of changes for the better.” She praised the corporate leadership at the Pawtucket Credit Union for its support. “We wouldn’t be able to do anything unless we had buy-in from the top, from our executive management and board of directors. They have been so encouraging, they have been our cheerleaders.”
Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co. Ltd., an accounting and business-consulting firm with 160 team members and offices in Providence, Boston, Waltham and Newport, also puts an emphasis on its wellness program for employees, according to Steven Loffredo, Human Relations manager for the firm.
KLR has been named one of the Best Places to Work for five years in a row by the Providence Business News, in part because of its wellness program.
“We’ve begun laying out our wellness program calendar for 2011,” Loffredo said, which will include a number of employee teams participating in Shape Up RI, with about 45 employers participating in four teams – two from the Providence office, one from Waltham and one from Newport.
KLR’s program, also conducted with encouragement from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, has featured flu shot clinics, skin cancer and blood pressure screenings as well as talks on eating habits, sleeping well, and stress management. “Once a year, we try and scheduled a health and wellness clinic,” he said.
For Loffredo, the accounting firm’s return on investment is measured in more than dollars and cents.
“The true return on investment is … the employees that participate in the program will, in the long run, lead a healthier life … that will translate into a reduction in our premium costs down the road,” Loffredo said. “I see it as an excellent employee benefit.”
