Indiana Wesleyan Helps Employees Stay Fit and Well Fed

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By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE

Employees at Indiana Wesleyan University who can't seem to get around to food shopping can turn to their employer for help. The college has arranged for a company that delivers frozen, prepared meals to bring its products right to employees' offices.

The institution also offers other concierge services to soothe the frazzled nerves of workers: a dry cleaner to pick up and drop off clothing, and a pharmacy that delivers medicine.

"We really try to focus on the whole person" when it comes to balancing work and life, says Neil A. Rush, director of human resources. The Christian university closes its offices once a month, for instance, so professors, staff members, and students can attend a special chapel service.

Among the institution's other work-life efforts is a wellness program that offers employees and their spouses a cash incentive to exercise. For those who burn calories three times a week, the payoff is $150 a quarter per person — and, of course, better health. A couple could bring home $1,200 extra a year, or participants can take one and a half paid "wellness days" off per quarter in lieu of the cash. Employees at the institution's main campus in Marion, Ind., use the college's recreation center without charge.

"I'm a big fan of the wellness program," says Ronda Smith, a benefits specialist at the university. "Whenever you get that feeling like you don't want to exercise, you just think about the incentive and say, I've got to get three times in this week." Meanwhile, with gas prices at record levels, the university is trying to provide "as many alternative work arrangements as possible," Mr. Rush says, with compressed workweeks and job sharing joining a long-offered option to telecommute. Flexible schedules are also available.

The key to offering work-life benefits that match the employees' needs is simply to ask questions about their experiences. Surveys over the years have produced their share of perks at Indiana Wesleyan, including a recent questionnaire that brought about a new benefit: up to $4,000 in adoption costs, with a cap of two adoptions per family. 

"If you can't offer some type of flexibility," says Mr. Rush, "people are going to go where they can get that."