An employee demonstrates planks, an exercise he learned during the 90-day wellness challenge. (Credit: KDKA)

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — At the insurance office Simpson and McCrady, all the employees are taking part in a corporate wellness program on the bosses’ dime.

“I was fearful there would be some resistance to it,” Clay Saftner said. “The dynamic that I think took over was the team aspect. So we broke into two teams and the competition portion of the wellness challenge really took off.”

For 12 weeks, the 32 employees on randomly assigned teams wore pedometers to count their steps, used the gym in their building, worked with a trainer or took exercise classes and had seminars on good nutrition.

Every week, points were turned in for prizes. There were two team captains.

“It was inspiring to watch people that had never done exercise a day in their life, be able to do push-ups and planks by the end of it,” Nicole Trombley, a personal trainer at the Grant Club, said.

“We’re not going to say how much in total cost, but it was worth every penny, and we’ve gotten more back in spades,” Saftner said.

The idea isn’t weight loss, per se, but to keep workers healthy and more productive and to save on health care premiums. But will the employees continue their healthy habits even without supervision?

“My 90-day goal was to run a 5K, which I had never done and I did it. I ran. I wasn’t first, but I wasn’t last, either, so I’d like to do another 5k at least,” Kathy Lafon said.

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