OMRF goes the distance for employee wellness
By adding an onsite fitness facility, health savings accounts, an ongoing lunch-and-learn seminar series and regular fitness challenges, OMRF has built its employee wellness programs in recent years. These initiatives are a key reason OMRF has been able to keep health-care costs flat for three years running—savings the foundation has been able to pass on to employees by keeping health insurance premiums unchanged in a time of skyrocketing rates elsewhere.
This past summer, OMRF added to these efforts with an expanded menu of subsidized “green” items in its cafeteria and new healthier vending machines stocked with offerings like dried fruit and bottled water. Free biometric screenings offered OMRF staffers a quick snapshot of their health through measures like cholesterol, blood pressure and body mass index. And a new fitness portal, LifeLab, gives employees a tool to track daily exercise, diet and other wellness activities. It also allows them to earn points toward an annual cash bonus.
“It sounds kind of crazy, paying people to exercise and eat right,“ says Courtney Stevens, OMRF’s vice president for human resources. “But by investing in our employees’ health, we reduce sick days, boost productivity and keep our insurance premiums low.” Plus, for an institution like OMRF, says Stevens, wellness just makes sense. “OMRF’s mission is to help people live longer, healthier lives. We wouldn’t be walking the walk unless we made that same commitment to our employees.”
