Fit factor
One law firm makes its employees’ health a top priority
Healthy living equals increased productivity and potentially lower health-care costs. That’s the credo at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone plc, a 340-lawyer Michigan-based law firm with an office in Windsor, Ontario.
The firm has instituted a health promotion program called MC Fitness throughout all its offices. It has earned Miller, Canfield a number of awards, including a Healthy Workplace Platinum Award from the Michigan Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports. The Windsor office has received a local Workplace Health Promotion Gold Award.
When a writer calls the Windsor office close to noon to interview Jerry Goldberg, Director of the firm’s Canadian operation, she’s told he’s out at the gym playing basketball. She asks to be put through to Controller/ Administrator Patricia Mayea, who’s on her way out the door for her regular 45-minute lunchtime aerobics class.
“This is a totally voluntary program, but the rate of participation has been steadily growing,” says Mayea. “In Windsor, 44 people out of 60 participated in 2003, when the program really got rolling, [followed by] 52 people out of 60 the following year.”
In 2004, Miller, Canfield’s Windsor office spent approximately $4,000 on MC Fitness programs, rising to $7,000 just in the first three months of 2005. Many employees experienced health benefits, including two heavy smokers who quit and one staff member who lost 68 pounds.
“What really pleases me is that people who really weren’t interested in exercise or eating properly have learned a lot and started to give more thought to their health,” says Goldberg, who has always been an athlete. “We’ve even put together co-ed teams comprised of lawyers, paralegals and secretaries all together and competed against other companies, such as the Royal Bank, for charity.”
The program offers incentives and works primarily on the honour system. So walking the dog for a half-hour before work, or playing pickup basketball with friends, garners an employee points towards MC-branded exercise apparel, or exercise mats and health videos. The firm also reimburses up to $100 a year toward gym memberships and chips in toward the cost of some weight loss, stop-smoking or stress reduction program.
After all that exercise, the firm’s employees head homeward, refreshed yet hungry. That’s why members of the firm are working on the soon-to-be-produced MC Healthy Choices Cookbook.
Adapted from National magazine, July/August 2005.
