Employers Learn Fiscal (and Physical) Fitness Go Beyond Pushing Paper

Two years ago, Karen Lewis, a employee at Home Federal Savings & Loan, weighed 170 pounds. Her cholesterol level and blood pressure hovered in the danger zone. She decided then that it was time to get back into shape.

But Lewis didn’t head for a nearby health club. Instead, she reported to work. Lewis walked into Home Federal’s fitness center, stocked with state-of-the-art exercise equipment at the work site. Home Federal had hired Corporate Fitness Resources, a Del Mar-based firm, to run its on-site facility and to prescribe for employees like Lewis individual fitness regimens.

“I feel more productive, confident that I can deal with work’s problems,” said Lewis, who today is fit and 40 pounds lighter. “As a matter of fact, I feel like I have a surplus of energy at the end of the day.”

Home Federal is just one example of how corporate America is shelling out big bucks to build work-site exercise facilities and sponsor fitness activities. Home Fed and other local companies, including Foodmaker, Imperial Savings and Solar Turbines, invest in employee fitness expecting that the programs will pay dividends in improved morale, fewer sick days and reduced health costs.

Proper Program Essential

Raising employee fitness levels, however, requires more than buying a stationary bicycle or inviting an occasional luncheon lecturer to preach the benefits of good nutrition. Management officials say that, to get the most out of fitness programs, companies must provide employees the proper environment and encouragement to stick with their exercise regimens.

As a result, Corporate Fitness Resources and other consulting businesses that design and manage exercise programs at work sites are flourishing, rushing to meet the needs of companies that have incorporated wellness into their corporate vocabulary.

Since use of comprehensive fitness programs in most companies is still in a fledgling state, few studies exist showing that healthier employees indeed make more productive workers. But results from those studies that have been done by individual companies have piqued management interest.

For example, an evaluation of employees who went through the wellness program at Houston-based Tenneco found that their average annual health care claims--$562 for men and $639 for women--were about half those submitted by non-exercisers.

Similarly, a recent study by the Assn. for Fitness in Business determined that companies that run active wellness programs reduce annual health care costs by $400 to $1,000 per employee. Workers who participate in fitness programs report one to four less sick days annually, said Jim Clayton, executive director of the AFB. The Indianapolis-based association promotes fitness regimens and provides educational material about wellness.

“As insurance costs increase, as employees stay off work because of illness, as poor fitness leads to early disability and retirement, companies have begun appreciating the fact that they can save money by paying attention to employee health,” said Dr. Guy Curtis, a cardiologist at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla. “That’s why they’ve been aggressively entering the prevention programs.”

Such corporate interest also has boosted the American Heart Assn.’s “Heart at Work” program, Curtis said. The program is instituted at the work site and covers topics such as smoking cessation, exercise, nutrition and weight control/cholesterol reduction.

Among the Most Aggressive

Home Federal is among the more aggressive local firms in promoting employee fitness. Since building its first 2,500-square-foot fitness center in Sorrento Valley in 1987, nearly 30% of Home Federal’s 2,000 employees have participated in the company’s wellness program, said George Cramer, vice president and general services manager at Home Federal.

Such success recently spurred Home Federal management to open a second fitness center in its downtown office. Home Federal deducts $5 to $10 from participating employees’ biweekly paychecks to offset the program’s cost by 60%. “This is an investment that we think benefits both the employees and the company,” Cramer said. “If we make it a good place to work, we believe the employees will reciprocate and work harder.”

Bob Jones, vice president of human resources at Foodmaker, the San Diego-based operator of Jack in the Box fast food restaurants, said his company spends nearly $50,000 annually to run its wellness program.

“We’ve gotten tremendous feedback from our employees,” Jones said. “They (our workers) really interpret this as a sign that we care about their well-being.” Nearly half of Foodmaker’s 452 employees regularly use the fitness center, which is available to all workers for free.

Foodmaker and Home Federal credit Corporate Fitness Resources personnel with motivating high numbers of their employees to join the fitness programs.

Originally called Corporate Aerobics, Corporate Fitness Resources was founded in 1982 by a Beverly Hills doctor who sold the company in 1987 to David Kabaker, now CFR’s president. Kabaker, 28, joined the company in 1984 after a stint as plant manager at a commercial bakery.

“I wasn’t sleeping well or eating well and my workouts were being neglected,” Kabaker said. “When you work full time you realize that you hardly have any time for yourself.

“So when I heard about Corporate Aerobics it struck me that the concept--making fitness programs available to employees at work--made a lot of sense,” Kabaker said.

Kabaker began Corporate Fitness’ San Diego operations out of his Del Mar garage in January, 1984. “When we started out we were holding aerobics classes in conference rooms, in parking lots . . . wherever we could hold them,” Kabaker said.

As public awareness about the benefits of exercise and good nutrition increased, so too did Kabaker’s business. In 1984, Corporate Fitness had one management account. During the last two years, clients have more than doubled from four to nine. In addition, the company has 12 consulting contracts.

According to Anne Henning, vice president of operations, the fitness company has 13 full-time employees, who serve as program or assistant program directors and are responsible for managing work-site fitness centers. Another 50 part-time employees help run exercise classes.

All full-time employees are certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and have at least an undergraduate degree in exercise physiology, kinesiology--the science of how the body moves--or physical education; a third of the full-time staff has a master’s degree in one of the above fields.

Besides prescribing an individual physical fitness program for each participating employee, Corporate Fitness program directors conduct “fitness assessments” four times a year. During such testing, employees’ cardiovascular fitness, blood pressure and other fitness criteria are checked.

“Our program directors have a lot of one-on-ones with the employees,” Henning said. “We find out how they’re doing, how they’re feeling, how their program is working. If they’re not making necessary changes, it shows up on their fitness assessments. That’s when we try to correct their mistakes.”

Follow a ‘Wellness Calendar’

Corporate Fitness program directors cater to meet employees’ specific needs and to guide them through a “wellness calendar.” Each month, company directors focus on specific health topics, such as cardiovascular fitness.