DENVER - One by one, a few dozen employees stepped outside of their building at 1515 Wazee Street and walked into what's turned out to be one heck of a fall day in Colorado.
At the front, the company's CEO walks at a brisk pace knowing full well that the people behind him will spend the next half hour doing nothing that even remotely resembles work. And he's totally fine with that.
"We're away from the computers and away from the phones," Michael Van Gilder, CEO of Van Gilder Insurance Corporation, said. "We're getting a breath of fresh air."
The strange thing is, he will tell you, is that all of the numbers his associates have given to him tell him that this is actually helping his business save money.
"Our health care costs have been absolutely flat per employee for four years," Van Gilder Vice President and Senior Underwriter for Employee Benefits Steve Purkapile said. "The average [national] increase is near 9 to 11 percent per year."
Purkapile, himself an avid enthusiast of the company's workplace wellness program, helped craft the program five years and 50 pounds ago.
"It's now part of the culture here," he said.
"We didn't feel like we could go to our clients and ask them to walk down this path if we weren't already engaged in it," he added. "We've become our own guinea pigs in many ways."
There's a lunchtime yoga class taking place on the second floor. There's a seemingly constant supply of fruit in the kitchen. An ergonomics consultant periodically checks in on employees' postures, chairs and desks.
There's a gym that always sees a good crowd right around noon as well.
Purkapile is well aware of the costs associated with the program. Any upfront cost these days isn't an easy sell. But national studies have determined that, if run successfully, every dollar spent on the program ultimately results in three to four dollars in health care savings.
Van Gilder's execs figure this program is saving close to $3 for every $1 spent.
This week the Denver Business Journal honored the healthiest employers in the metro area. Van Gilder made the cut.
As the Wednesday walk headed toward Confluence Park, one of the employees said it was just the beginning.
"A bunch of us are training for a half-marathon together," Betsy Campbell said.
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