🔒As Maine businesses grow, so does the prevalence of wellness programs

Whether a Maine company has a dozen employees or hundreds; operates locally, nationally or internationally; or is primarily desk or physical work, increasing numbers are offering employee wellness programs.

These include a range of offerings, from fitness classes to gym memberships, health risk assessments to health coaching, on-site Weight Watchers meetings to nutritious food available in the break room. Good health, according to those in the wellness field, is good not only for employees, it's good for employers, who save on medical plan costs and absenteeism, and find that these sorts of programs help foster a positive workplace culture and serve to attract and retain employees.

Here's a sampling of employer-based wellness programs:

• CES Inc.: In Brewer, the engineering, environmental sciences and surveying company, has a “Taking Shape” program that offers employees gift card incentives to participate, and pays for entry fees for athletic activities such as golfing, biking, running, triathlon and skeet shooting events.

• Cianbro: In Pittsfield, employees of Maine's largest construction company do team stretches at least twice a day to warm up their muscles, whether at the headquarters or on the job site. A private wellness health coach and full-time strength and conditioning coach, paid for by the company, is available for employees and their families to help them achieve personal health goals. The company holds a variety of physical fitness events each year that encourage the team to educate and influence each other while becoming physically active. And no more vending machines: the kitchen at the corporate office provides only healthy snacks such as fruit, nuts and bottled water.

• Diversified Communications: This Portland company has a two-story fitness center available for employees and their families to use any time. Free classes include spinning, zumba, cardio classes, circuit training and yoga. Employees can use the space to exercise to their own as well. The center also houses cardiovascular and strength-training equipment. Diversified also offers noontime fitness/relaxation classes, health screenings, free flu shots, wellness lunch-and-learns, onsite massage therapy and secure storage for bicycles. There are printed trail maps of bike and running routes, and various exercise and wellness challenges. The Color Challenge, for example, encourages employees to eat at least five servings of produce each day, with a minimum of three vegetables in various colors.

• Sebasticook Valley Health: This Pittsfield-based company's offerings include Move and Improve, an exercise program originated by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Virgin Pulse. It has an on-line wellness initiative offering rewards. A wellness coach offers one-on-one health coaching. SVH's wellness team delivers fruit to all employees once a month, while offering education on a health/wellness topic. Employees can use exercise equipment in the Rehabilitation Practice at certain times of the day. There are stretch breaks, various fitness programs and challenges, an on-site Weight Solutions Program, health risk assessments, and goal-setting.

• Machias Savings Bank: The bank offers annual biometric health screenings/exams with a registered nurse, for both employees and spouses. Employees with certain risk factors are offered free health coaching. At various times, an onsite fitness instructor offers group sessions of yoga, strength and toning, and aerobic exercise classes, and the company negotiates discounts at local fitness centers while also reimbursing employees up to $100 for gym memberships. The company bought Fitbits for employees who didn't already have one, and is currently hosting Fitbit challenges, with employees competing to see who has the most steps or active minutes.

Growing trend

It's uncertain how many Maine companies offer wellness initiatives, but it's clearly a growing trend, says Roxane Dubay, executive director of the Wellness Council of Maine. She spoke by phone before excusing herself for her daily lunchtime group walk.

The Wellness Council has seen the interest in wellness initiatives in its own membership: today the nonprofit has 80 member companies across the state. That's up from 60-plus at the end of 2014. Dubay predicts the number will grow.

“Nationally, more than 70% of companies have a wellness program in place. So I don't think we're alone,” she says. However, “I think the challenge in Maine is with the predominance of small companies, and helping those companies have a program that's affordable and meaningful.”

Wellness programs differ among companies, in ways that depend on each one's needs, goals, and existing benefits and programs. Among survey responses on this topic for Best Places to Work in Maine 2015, employers often mentioned fitness, weight loss, smoking-cessation, and biometric monitoring initiatives, but also discussed a holistic approach for a healthy work/life balance — initiatives such as flex scheduling, education opportunities, and employee assistance that help reduce stress, thus enhancing overall health and well-being.

Dubay says the concept has lately evolved into financial wellness.

“We know financial worries and stress are a huge component employees deal with,” she says. “Years ago, when we were asked to do stress management, a company typically was looking for someone to come in to do a chair massage once a month, or something like that. Now they're realizing that, unless they help employees manage where the stress is coming from, a chair massage is a temporary fix. We help employers look at what is causing stress. Are there job shifts or layoffs? Have jobs changed and employees aren't sure what they're supposed to be doing? Something as simple as reviewing a new job description alleviates a lot of stress.”

Because of the range of company sizes and types, and the disparate nature of needs and goals, Dubay declined to cite average or range of costs for implementing a wellness program. However, she says, costs are often minimal. For example, as a consultant, Dubay reviews programs already in place, but perhaps underutilized. In one case, “This group had a wonderful employee assistance program no one knew about. If your washing machine died, they'd get repair quotes for you, so you're not stressing about not having a washer. If you had an elderly parent who needed a ride to an appointment, they'd arrange it. It was an extensive program and the company was already paying for it — but nobody knew about it. So a big part of what I do is try not to have a company incur more costs. We look at what you're already paying for, and you build from that. It flows into a template that looks at goals and measures outcomes.”

Ultimately, she says, “The goal is to help employers have employees at their best.”

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