| Inc. magazine
Jun 8, 2010

The Price of a Healthy Staff

Three companies share their employee wellness budgets.

 

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Top workplaces keep morale high and blood pressure low with robust wellness programs. Eighty percent of the top workplaces offer such programs. Some companies splurge on in-house workout facilities and basketball courts. Others keep costs low by bartering for healthy snacks. Here are three companies' annual wellness budgets.

Dealer.com
Total cost per employee: $3,385

Wellness seminars: $26
These cover such topics as nutrition, exercise, posture, and stress management.

Food: $839
Includes subsidized meals, with organic and locally grown food, at the in-house Dot Calm Café and a subsidized program that delivers food from local farms to employees.

Wellness perks: $1,235
Includes chair massages, tennis clinics with local pros, bike rentals, discounted access to a certified trainer and wellness coach, and stainless-steel water bottles.

Exercise: $1,285
Includes Ping-Pong tables, tennis and basketball courts, and an on-site fitness center. Also covers costs for company sports teams (among them: softball, volleyball, soccer, bowling, flag football, and dragon-boat racing) and half the cost of corporate ski passes.

Honest Tea
Total cost per employee: $211

Wellness intranet: $5
An internal site with advice on exercise, nutrition, and staying healthy on the road

Health advocate: $14
Helps employees and families choose the right health plan or doctor. Assists in insurance claim disputes.

Biker/walker subsidy: $16
Employees who bike or walk to work get an extra $27 a month.

Flu shots: $26

Healthy snack packs: $60
Distributed quarterly. These also contain sundries such as sunscreen and lip balm. Honest Tea keeps the cost low by bartering with companies such as Clif Bar and Burt's Bees.

Wellness coach: $90
Provides monthly and quarterly counseling on a variety of issues.

Bicycles: $0
Honest Tea is a promotional partner with Jamis Bicycles. As part of that arrangement, Honest Tea employees can buy bikes at cost.

Wellness awards: $0
Employees volunteer to set goals for personal fitness. Those who meet or exceed those goals are honored at the annual meeting.

Dixon Schwabl
Total cost per employee: $881

Flu clinic: $2

Company sports: $46
Includes equipment for the company bocce, softball, and soccer leagues. Covers uniforms and postgame refreshments for the bowling league.

Yoga: $74
An on-site weekly class

Charity walks: $100
Sponsorship of employee charity walks and fun runs

Healthy eating: $227
Includes a weight-loss program, Eat Well Live Well nutrition kits from Wegmans supermarkets, pedometers, wellness prizes, and fruit and other healthy snacks for the office.

Ski passes: $432
Unlimited guest passes to a ski resort


Leigh Buchanan is an editor at large for Inc. magazine. A former editor at Harvard Business Review and founding editor of WebMaster magazine, she writes regular columns on leadership and workplace culture. @LeighEBuchanan