Thursday, September 10, 1998

Recruitment exercise

The new company gem? It's the company gym.

By MARGRET BRADY
For The Financial Post

NEPEAN, Ont. -- About 35 men and women step up and down on platforms, moving rhythmically to beat-enhanced top-40 music. They are trying to keep pace with Marla Ericksen, the lithe blonde instructor at the front of the class.

Group fitness is just one of the many activities provided at Northern Telecom Ltd.'s impressive fitness club here. At 20,000 square feet, it's the largest corporate gym in the Ottawa area. Smaller activity centres are at other Nortel locations.

The telecommunications giant believes its lifestyle program is a huge drawing card in the recruitment process. "At recruitment fairs, potential employees are extremely impressed by the scope of what Nortel offers," says Pamela Davis, senior advisor to Nortel's lifestyle balance program. "They look beyond the pay cheque and see this is a great place to work."

Nortel's various fitness facilities are part of a much broader "wellness program," known as "Aralia," launched in 1995. Lunchtime cooking demonstrations are part of the message to eat healthily. A parenting program for employees with children includes lectures on how to handle sibling rivalry. In other sessions, financial experts provide advice to workers on registered retirement savings plans.

"People are trying to balance work and home," says Davis. "It's a big component of everyone's life."
Nortel's fitness facility fees of about $150 per year are about half those of non-corporate private membership clubs. It's also a family club, open to employees' spouses or partners and dependent children over the age of 18 and offering inexpensive child care for parents using the club.

Nortel promotes its Aralia programs actively. When the physical activity recreational centre known as PARC was upgraded a couple of years ago, employees were invited to "Saturday in the PARC, which consisted of tours, demonstrations and meals of tofu dogs and veggie burgers.

More than one-quarter of Nortel's 12,000 Ottawa staff use the facility and other worksites in the city.

"Companies are becoming more aware of daily, active living," says Ericksen, coordinator of the group fitness program for Ottawa-based Strength Tek Fitness Consulting & Management, which operates the Nortel fitness program on contract. "Many companies that haven't bitten off a piece of the apple are still toying with the benefits of these programs."

The number of high-tech companies with lifestyle and fitness programs is growing partly because they are valuable recruiting tools, says Ericksen. "Job hunters are looking for companies that will look after them and their families better," she says. "That's what Nortel does and offers," she adds.

Ericksen co-coordinates the Aralia active living program. Activities range from tai-chi to ballroom dancing, and include ice-fishing, scuba-diving, rock-climbing and kick-boxing.

Lifestyle programs give companies a decided competitive edge in attracting and retaining staff, says Lorne Goldenberg, president of Strength Tek, a large fitness consulting business in Ottawa. In-house fitness programs may attract more healthy employees in the first place.

At Nortel, the average age for an employee is about 30. "The high-tech industry is recruiting from universities," says Goldenberg. "Recent university graduates are used to a campus lifestyle, including fitness facilities," he says. "Many graduates want to continue that healthy lifestyle."

Ottawa region's burgeoning high-tech sector has a healthy appetite for university graduates with specialized computer skills. Indeed, it is expected to gobble up at least 20,000 new employees over the next five years.

Firms with fitness programs benefit in the productivity, health and stress levels of their employees, says Goldenberg.

Studies conducted in recent years have established a positive correlation between fitness and low absenteeism.

Canada lags behind the U.S. in corporate fitness programs in part because of national differences in health care. "Fitness programs really affect insurance premiums with HMOs (health maintenance organizations), says Goldenberg, "When the workforce is healthier, there are fewer insurance claims."

Nortel is not alone in its fitness and lifestyle programs among corporations in Canada. In 1994, Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. opened the Spectrum Fitness Centre at its head-office in Mississauga, Ont. Over half of the 800 staff based there are members of the club.

Employees find the club is less intimidating to people than a regular gym setting, says Cheryl Bouzide, program director for the centre. Staff members pay a modest monthly fee which is subsidized by Hewlett-Packard.

In British Columbia, B.C. Telecom operates the largest corporate fitness program in the province, including eight staffed centres and another five activity centres. More than 2,000 of the 13,500 employees are members of the program.

"Time is the main crunch in double-income families," says one high-tech employee who works-out regularly at a corporate club. "Having a fitness facility conveniently located and easily accessible makes a big difference to me and my quality of life," he says. "Because it helps reduce back injury, it also reduces the time away from my desk. It helps us do our work and feel better about doing it."

Taken from www.canoe.ca