Wellness: Arrival of the Fitness

Community Comments

More companies are creating employee wellness programs. But cost effectiveness remains a question mark.

By Mark Barna
Photos by Greg Rihl

OFFICES typically are places to work. Not work out. But for employees like Jason Caron, that's changing, as businesses devote time and money to improving something as intangible as their workers' health and well-being.

It's not that companies suddenly have gone all warm and fuzzy. Ballooning healthcare costs and an eye on the bottom line drive the trend.

Caron, a 31-year-old service specialist at USAA in Sacramento, has shed 20 pounds in five weeks by participating in the company's Take Care of Your Health employee wellness program. Caron takes the stairs at work, walks on a treadmill, does yard work and dines on healthful dishes in the company's cafeteria.

He says he's turned his newfound fitness awareness into a bona fide lifestyle thanks to USAA, an international financial services company based in San Antonio, Texas. USAA's Sacramento office recently won two awards for its emphasis on healthful living in the workplace.

Exit the Couch Potato

Before his participation, Caron was a 328-pound couch potato who'd rather chill playing Xbox with his 10-year-old son than venture outdoors with the boy to play ball, as he does now. Without the USAA programs, the Vacaville resident says he'd be parked on the couch indulging in greasy entrees.

• Share
  • Digg This
  • del.icio.us
  • Newsvine
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Furl It
  • !Y My Web
  • Google
• Email
• Print

Recommend This

Community Comments