Truth Staff
ELKHART -- With its lifestyle program in its third year and a new fitness center open to employees, ASA Electronics leads Elkhart County businesses in its employee wellness initiatives.
"In the first year, this program lowered our health insurance costs by about 60 percent," said Tom Irions, owner of ASA Electronics, which employs 105 people in the greater Elkhart area. "We had four or five people that had lost 80 to 90 pounds in that year.
"We have educational programs for people on how to eat better and we've even had some financial management classes so it's a total betterment program. We're seeing the energy levels in our company rising."
Walk into ASA's corporate headquarters and this high energy level becomes very apparent in the people who work there.
"A lot of us opt to participate in our wellness program because our insurance premium is cut in half," said Renee Bartels, receptionist. "But everybody soon becomes so motivated. I really like working here."
"We encourage people that this is a lifestyle choice," said Michelle Fioritto, human resources manager. "A wellness program is not about losing weight, it's not about employees lowering cholesterol or getting employees to stop smoking or convincing them they need exercise. It's an initiative to educate employees on how to choose healthy lifestyles, which ultimately are going to lead to weight loss and to overall good improvements in one's life."
Added Fioritto: "I can go over to the fitness center and do my 45 minutes of exercise, feel good, but then go home, eat my bag of potato chips, have my Diet Coke, maybe a cookie before I go to bed -- and that defeats the whole purpose. So many people do that. But it's really about changing your whole lifestyle, living a healthier life."
Executive assistant Monica Dorries lost 70 pounds last year.
"The employees around you help keep you motivated, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to do it," said Dorries. "I feel so much better now. The weight loss has taken a lot of stress off my back.
"We've had incentive programs that are fun -- a day off, a half day off, a certificate to a spa or to Applebee's Restaurant. But the best incentive is losing. If you lose any weight -- even if it's a pound -- that's a pound you won't have anymore."
Both Goshen General Hospital and Elkhart General Hospital have wellness programs that they're offering to the business community at large and three other companies in Elkhart County have taken them up on the offer.
"No other company is doing a wellness program to the extent of what ASA is doing now," said Tiffany Kenyon of Elkhart General Hospital. "Since ASA has been at it for three years, they've taken it to a whole new level."
"We started in 2005," said Fioritto. "With the high increase of insurance costs, we thought 'what are we going to do?'"
The company partnered with Elkhart General Hospital and the hospital did a health risk assessment of all employees.
"We began teaching people, based on the appraisals, on how their lifestyles were affecting their health," said Fioritto. "In the first year we experienced over a 60 percent reduction in health-care claims costs alone. We also had a 22 percent reduction in health-care costs. And that's not just premiums. That's all the other things that are associated with health care," she said.
And Fioritto added that, since then, "the number of claims had gone down tremendously at a time when the number of our employees went up slightly.
"We had nine people who were rated in an excellent health category a year ago and now we have 21 people. That's tremendous," said Fioritto. "We just started our on-campus fitness center last fall and now that we've got that, our improvements ought to skyrocket."
Irions added, "There are residual benefits that I didn't anticipate. We're finding that our wellness program is a great recruiting tool for getting good quality employees."
At ASA the program is not directed just at hourly workers but at everyone.
"Employees will hear the management team say we need to change," said Kenyon. "But at ASA I've seen the owner and everyone participate in everything."
"Last night I attended an aerobics class and I was the only male there," said Irions. "There were 11 girls and most of them I don't work with so it was fun for me to interact with them."
Fioritti added, "If you don't go you'll feel like you're going to miss out on something and when you go it's intense but you have fun. We all giggle, laugh, have fun.
"At the same time our health-care claims are going down. We've got a healthier work force. The sick days have dropped. This is a benefit to any company."