Workplace wellness surge: health-care costs spur companies to invest in preventive programs, lifestyle guidance.

• Author: Marshall, Lisa

When the clock strikes 8 a.m. for employees, of PCL Construction Enterprises, don't expect to find them huddled around the coffee and doughnuts in the break room.

Instead, the company's 165 full-time Denver employees start their day with a 15-minute group stretch, aimed at promoting circulation and preventing injury. At lunchtime, a nutritionist comes by for free one-on-one consultations. In the afternoon, when that sugar craving kicks in, there are fruit baskets--not candy dishes--on office desks and dried fruit and nuts in the vending machine.

For those wishing to slim down, PCL will kick in $200 for a gym membership. And for those who want to kick the habit, the company will not only foot the bill for smoking cessation programs, it will also slash 150 bucks from the employee's health deductible.

"On the selfish side of the equation, anything we can do to lower medical claims saves us money," says Denny Dahl, director of human resources for PCL, an employee-owned company with 3,300 full-time employees in the United States and Canada. "But it's also just the right thing to do."

PCL, which implemented its sweeping wellness program in November, is among a growing number of companies taking a greater interest in the health of their workers in order to control health-care costs and improve their bottom line. According to a survey this year by the nonprofit National Business Group on Health (NBGH) and consulting firm Watson Wyatt, 83 percent of large companies now issue annual health surveys to their employees, up 65 percent from 2006. Seventy-four percent offer weigh management programs; 60 percent provide health coaching; and 29 percent offer onsite health centers.

Smaller companies are also getting into the game. A survey of 1,100 companies of all sizes, by Chicago-based Aon Consulting, showed that 42 percent now have weight-management programs; 45 percent offer smoking cessation programs; 60 percent have disease management programs; and 47 percent offer the biometric screenings (things like cholesterol, blood-sugar and blood-pressure tests).

In Colorado, where a healthy lifestyle is a major selling point for companies wishing to recruit quality hires and wellness programs tend to be better received by employees, the trend is even more pronounced, with an estimated 40 percent of companies (slightly higher than the national average of one-third) offering some form of workplace wellness plan. With annual health-care costs rising 8 percent to 12 percent annually, those that don't have one already are probably considering it, says Michael Faughnan, Aon Consulting's Denver practice leader for health and benefits.

"Employees are realizing that by promoting...