When managers and supervisors at Heavy Construction Systems Specialists Inc. (HCSS) schedule meetings, they have more location options to choose from than in the past. In addition to conference rooms in the new 45,000-square-foot facility that opened in August 2009, there is an outside courtyard and a 600-meter walking/jogging trail where meetings often take place.
Culture of Wellness
Since 1998, wellness has been part of the culture at HCSS (www.hcss.com), an employee-owned company that develops estimating, field entry, dispatching, and related software for the heavy/highway/utility construction industry. When it started designing its new facility, it saw an opportunity to provide more fitness activities for its 105 employees and enhance its efforts to promote wellness.
At the previous facility, employees could take lunchtime exercise classes 4 days a week in a room that doubled as a conference room, according to Sebabi Leballo, organizational development manager with HCSS. About 9 miles from the old facility, the new Sugar Land, Texas, location has a bigger exercise room—with more workout equipment.
In addition to the exercise room, showers, and the trail, the new location features several outdoor amenities that promote health and wellness, including a 200-meter running track; a soccer field (where the company-sponsored soccer team can practice); a covered basketball court, which can also be used for volleyball, tennis, badminton, and indoor soccer; and a Wi-Fi enabled courtyard that is equipped with power outlets, phone connections, and barbeque pits, where employees can grill individual lunches or group meals. “People are barbecuing almost daily,” he says.
Employees typically use the exercise room and outdoor fitness facilities during lunch, but “we also have a lot of flex time,” so some employees exercise before, during, and after work, Leballo says, adding that fitness classes are offered during lunch.
Rising to the Challenge
During the design phase, HCSS asked employees in weekly company lunch meetings what types of fitness facilities they would like at the new location. HCSS also encouraged employees to post their ideas on an intranet forum, Leballo says. When employees are part of the planning process, “you really don’t have to sell it” to them once the facilities are available.
Use of the facilities is encouraged through a monthly “wellness challenge,” such as walking around the trail once a day in November and a challenge in December for each employee to walk 12,000 steps per day (as measured by a company-provided pedometer) on the trail, throughout the corporate campus, and outside of work, he says.
The expanded fitness offerings helped HCSS strengthen its wellness program, according to Leballo. He reports that participation in fitness classes and monthly wellness challenges has doubled—with about 80 percent taking part in the pedometer challenge, achieving a “combined total of 8.1 million steps taken” in the first 2 weeks alone. He attributes increased participation to the convenience of on-site fitness facilities.
Over the years, HCSS’s culture of wellness has resulted in healthier employees and lower health insurance premiums. Since 2008, there has been a 6.2 percent drop in the number of people in high-risk health categories, according to Leballo. In addition, health insurance premiums declined from $2,950 per participant in 2004 to $2,200 per participant as of July 2009, he says.
Recently named a Top Small Workplace by The Wall Street Journal, HCSS has also been recognized as a top employer by the city of Houston and the state of Texas, and was awarded the Innovations in Employee Ownership Award in 2008 by the National Center for Employee Ownership.
Lead by Example
For a wellness program to be successful, management has to not only express its support but also demonstrate it by participating in wellness activities, says Leballo. “If they’re not doing it, how can you expect others to participate?
“HR needs to be an example, too,” he says. If managers and the HR staff exhibit healthy habits, employees will be more likely to get involved in wellness activities.
Providing fitness opportunities does not have to be an expensive endeavor, Leballo says. For example, it costs about $50 per session to bring in an instrucµtor to lead a fitness class, which “is dirt cheap.”
Companies that do not have on-site exercise facilities might want to consider sponsoring a corporate soccer or softball team or pay the entry fees for employees to run in a local 5-kilometer race or a marathon, he says, noting that that is an inexpensive way to support employee wellness.