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V O L . X X I N O. X V I I I H E A LT H Y B U S I N E S S 6 L ike a lot of companies, the accounting firm BerryDunn for years offered its employees free routine health screenings to assess their risk for chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pres- sure and cardiovascular disease. ough the screenings were free and offered on-site, four years ago just 27% of employees completed them. en it switched to a high-deductible plan linked to a health-savings account, offering each of its 280 employees a significant incentive to complete the screenings. Participation shot up to 63% and 176 people were screened. BerryDunn, which is based in Portland, is one of a growing number of companies that are investing more heavily in wellness and seeing these invest- ments pay off — not only in the form of lowering the firm's cost of providing health insurance, but also by boosting recruiting power and worker morale. "If we can keep employees healthy and out of the doctor's office, it's going to affect our bottom line," says Debra Genender, director of human resources for BerryDunn. "And the feedback we get from employees, is that they really feel like the firm cares about them. And when employees feel like they're supported by their employer, and their employer is helping them be healthy, that has a lot of added value." Nearly three quarters of all companies now offer at least some sort of wellness benefit, such as health risk assessments, health coaching, web-based tools for healthy living, discounts on gym member- ships or on-site fitness centers, according to Kaiser Foundation's 2014 Employer Health Benefit Survey. Many firms are paying employees in some way to take advantage of those benefits — with incentives like smaller premiums, smaller deductibles, greater contributions to health savings accounts or cash. According to the Kaiser survey, 36% of firms with 200 employees or more offer these incentives. "More forward-thinking companies are saying 'is is something we need to do,'" says Mark Holmes, owner of Health Coaches Inc., a Portland provider of on-site coaching, health screening, fitness and wellness center design. "ey're asking, 'How can we prioritize it and fit it into ever-tightening budgets?'" Employers are finding that the most important thing is to tailor their wellness benefits to meet the unique needs of their workforce, and the work that they do. Incentives aren't for everyone; often the highest return can be in investing those wellness dollars elsewhere. At Baker Newman Noyes, a Portland-based accounting firm with 250 employees in six offices, the number of employees who complete their annual physicals and preventive health screenings is 87.5% higher than other financial services firms in New England, says Jennifer Harnish, director of human resources with the firm. "It's the culture here," says Harnish. "People are invested in their health and feeling good and we do a great deal to promote and encourage our employ- ees to get involved." In addition to hosting health fairs and health screenings on-site, all year round, the firm has tar- geted its investments in wellness to benefit employ- ees when they're likely to be logging the most hours at work, and most likely need the health boost the most — between January and April. e firm brings in chair massages and fresh fruit, stocks the vending machines with healthy options and drops the prices of all the snacks and drinks to 25 cents. e firm has a culture of people who like to race in events like the TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race, and participate in firm outings like overnight hiking trips to Flagstaff Lake and community recreation teams like floor hockey. While premium expenses in the market for firms like theirs have gone up by as much as 15%, at Baker Newman Noyes increases are in the single digits. "We have not seen the huge spikes in health-care costs that we've had to pass on to our employees," says Harnish. "So that's a good indicator." Companies assessing risk e screenings are particularly useful, companies say, because they help employees understand any health risks they may have. And they allow manage- ment to tailor wellness programs to meet the spe- cific needs of the workforce. It should be noted that individual test results are confidential; management gets an aggregate report. e tests measure factors like blood pressure, triglycerides, blood sugar, cholesterol and body mass index. In turn, they help show how much an individ- ual is at risk for chronic health conditions like cardio- vascular disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Younger employees, in particular, sometimes neglect routine physicals and screenings. During the health screenings, there's also an opportunity to discuss lifestyle changes employees can make to improve their health. "Some of the barriers are broken down," says Holmes. "You can have simple conversations about what they're bringing for lunch and how they can increase the amount of exercise they're getting." At BerryDunn, employees who in their health screenings find that they are in the high-risk cat- egory for at least four of the six chronic disease measures are offered six health-coaching sessions, which the firm pays for. BerryDunn's 'kickin' asphalt' members, left to right, Karyn Scovill, Carole Ann Cole, Melissa Kilton and Meridith Salvas walk along the waterfront in Portland. The voluntary walks are just one example of the accounting firm's focus on wellness programs. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Investing in employee health pays off Wellness benefits a growing part of compensation packages B y J e n n i f e r V a n A l l e n C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 8 »

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