By KIM J. GIFFORD

During a slumped economy when many people are primarily concerned with finding or holding onto jobs, it may seem strange to talk about employee perks like gym memberships and weight-loss programs.

However, it can be argued that employee wellness programs are most important during these stressful times. Not only can they help employees handle stress, but many companies also are finding that wellness programs as a form of preventative care can save money – not only in terms of insurance costs, but also in reduced employee sick days.

President Obama’s recent gathering with leading employers and labor unions to discuss workplace wellness underscores the importance of this topic in the current economy. Obama met with representatives of companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and Pitney Bowes in May to discuss their best practices in terms of employee wellness.

According to a recent Examiner.com article, Microsoft has instituted a program that encourages employees to make personalized health goals, and has a staff of doctors who make house calls in order to cut emergency room visits. Pitney Bowes runs both an onsite health clinic and fitness center.

Similar practices are underway in the Upper Valley, with many employers initiating creative programs to encourage wellness. Insurance companies have also embraced the concept to urge employers to institute wellness programs to reduce costs.

Robert Gaydos, president of The Benefit Group of New England, a benefit consulting firm and a group insurance agency, summarized the current situation: “If you avoid large claims, doesn’t that improve productivity? And, isn’t employee morale a wonderful side effect that creates more productivity, even though the original task was to reduce costs?”

Gaydos explained the current position of insurance companies is based on theories of Dr. Dee Eddington of the University of Michigan, who performed a 15-year study that showed 50 percent of all large claims are preventable if one intercedes approximately five years before the event.

“If you look at the math, you can see you don’t even need to have a 100-percent success rate,” said Gaydos. “If you get even 10 percent to turn around, you will lower the rate of health insurance in the United States.”

Eddington, according to Gaydos, made the further point that “5 percent of the people you interview think they are healthier than they are and, as a result, insurance companies are now encouraging employers to have their employees participate in wellness assessments.

“Our big message to employers is you have to have a strategic plan in place,” said Gaydos.

Locally, The Benefit Group of New England has been serving as a consultant for The Rutland Herald, which took on MVP as its insurance carrier in January 2009. As part of its package, MVP includes a wellness program that encourages employers to have their employees participate in an annual health assessment. The program suggests that employers initiate incentives for their employees that reward them for their efforts.

“It can take a smoker four to eight times to quit,” Gaydos offered as an example. “You have to provide ongoing incentives to keep them engaged. In other words, I’ll give you a reward if you enter the program, and if you fall off the horse and have to get on again, no problem, we’ll reward you again.”

Wellness programs are a good way for a company to encourage healthy workers while potentially saving money in employee claims, said Deborah Morse, the human-resources contact person for The Rutland Herald.

“The goal is to keep employees healthy before they develop issues that could become more costly down the road,” Morse said.

Under The Rutland Herald’s MVP plan, employees can go online and fill out a health assessment, earning up to 300 points that can equal up to $300 per year in reimbursements.

Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, VT also offers an employee assistance program that allows employees to take a health risk assessment, which then points them toward online resources they can use to work on their high-risk areas.

Common wellness perks include fitness and weight loss programs. For example, Gifford Medical Center offers employees the opportunity to participate in Weight Watchers and receive a health club discount at the nearby SHAPE facility at Vermont Technical College.

Dartmouth College offers special fitness classes for employees as part of its campus fitness and lifestyle improvement program. The college also instituted a Weight Watchers program on campus in September 2008, said human resources representative Melanie Elliot.

Other common wellness opportunities at area companies include smoking cessation programs, flu shot clinics and blood pressure screenings. Creare Inc., of Hanover, NH offers a flu vaccine clinic to employees every year.

However, not all employee wellness perks have to be part of a formalized program, said Christopher Lackney, Gifford Medical Center’s human resources director.

Some of the best ones, said Lackney, occur naturally within an organization. For example, he cited Gifford Medical Center’s well-publicized cafeteria, which is noted for the quality of its food. Healthy eating obviously contributes to the overall wellness of Gifford employees, he suggested.

“I look at some of the things that you wouldn’t think of as wellness, as potentially wellness,” he said. “I’m doing a lot of training with managers on how to be better with their interaction skills, and that’s going to make the relationship with their employees that much better and that much less stressful. Is that wellness? It makes things better.”

Lackney has also encouraged workshops at Gifford to deal with issues, such as finances, that can lead to employee stress. Recently, a retirement provider held workshops and discussions and offered individual financial counseling.

“Here’s where we said: there is a mental health issue around finances, let’s see if we can do something about that,” said Lackney.

Dartmouth College too, has shown concern for the mental health of its employees, instituting programs such as After Hours, which offers employees networking activities and the opportunity to get together and participate in activities such as biking, rowing, skiing and snowshoeing as part of an organized program. Dartmouth has also offered wellness expos in the past, as well as spirituality conferences.

At The Rutland Herald offices and that of its sister company The Times Argus in Barre, VT, employees are also offered 20-minute workplace massages once a month.

“Everyone really seems to enjoy it,” said Morse. “So many people are tensed up now. Years ago, you wouldn’t be staring at a computer screen at such a steady pace.”

Hypertherm, an Upper Valley company, has received a great deal of publicity recently for announcing a new wellness center through its partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. The wellness center, which launched in February, is located at Hypertherm and staffed by two nurses from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

That’s not the only initiative at Hypertherm. For example, it runs a 10,000 steps program, which involves handing out pedometers to all of its participating employees and setting up team competitions.

“It’s a gimmick, but if you raise awareness and it motivates people to change their behavior, it’s worth it,” said human-resources representative Barbara Couch.

Hypertherm also works with area farmstand Edgewater Farms to provide healthy food to employees. “They come once a week and sell fresh produce, fruit and vegetables to our associates, many of whom wouldn’t buy it if it wasn’t made easy,” Couch said.

“We are all reacting to problematic health care issues, so we are getting in front of it and doing what we can as a population to improve the health of our workforce. The more we can do to contain health care costs, the more profitable we’ll be overall.”