By Peter Wolchak

VETERAN TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT KEVIN CHRIST HAS A VERY successful career.

But until recently, Christ, who regularly jets off to advise many of the world’s largest companies, was also a man with a problem: he was overweight, rarely exercised and his lifestyle—driven by fast food, midnight flights and too little sleep—certainly wasn’t helping.

So when his employer, Deloitte Consulting (recently renamed Braxton), announced a new Americas-wide program designed to ncourage staff to balance their personal well-being with their work lives, Christ jumped in.

It was a propitious decision. “My favourite foods were pizza and Mexican, and anything that was deep-fried or chocolate. And I was not doing any real exercise,” Christ said from his office in Atlanta. “I was being pretty hard on my heart. This program may have added some years to my life.”

Entitled Live Well, Deloitte’s program was designed by wellness expert Peter McLaughlin and encourages employees and their families in North and South America to exercise, eat properly, sleep regularly and drink lots of water.

Work/life balance is critical in any profession but it looms larger in highly demanding careers. “There are lifestyle and
fitness challenges that our profession doles out,” said Steve Baldwin, a Deloitte partner in Atlanta and the organizing force
behind Live Well.

“Two or three nights a week we’re away from our families, we’re sleeping in strange beds; you sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and have to remind yourself which city you’re in.You get six-hour delays and you sit in an airport and you miss meals and hours of sleep.”

As part of the ongoing Live Well program, Deloitte also sponsored a 100-Day Challenge, in which points were awarded for wellness actions—exercising, eating right—plus such activities as reading health-related articles. Results were tracked through a private Web site, and employees were encouraged to engage in friendly competition.

The challenge ended in June. About 2,500 people in eight countries joined in, and while that’s a participation rate of only 30 per cent McLaughlin said it’s a good turnout relative to other companies. But even with only one in three jumping on-board, the 100 days ended with a total of 241,991 points earned. That’s almost a quarter-million healthy food choices, jogs, early nights or litres of water.

On a personal level, the challenge was also a success for Christ. He was selected as one of the Fab Five, a lucky group of participants whose progress was tracked online for all to see. “With 6,000 witnesses you are motivated to deliver.”

And he did. While Christ committed to dropping 24 pounds, “I ended up losing 47 pounds in 100 days,” he said. “I have continued with that and I am now down 70 pounds. And I am still eating healthy, picking restaurants where I can get fish instead of Mexican food.”

He even enjoyed much of the exercising. “I had a lot of fun just going for walks with my kids. It’s a great chance to talk to them, to open up—it’s quality time we didn’t have before.”

Why Deloitte did this
Although this program has done wonders for Christ, it also cost Deloitte time and money to design. McLaughlin estimates such
a program costs a 1,000-person company between US$40,000 and US$100,000 for the first year. That includes presentations, a comprehensive Web system branded for the company, education materials and ongoing program management.

Deloitte wouldn’t incur that cost for purely altruistic reasons,would it?

It turns out that both altruism and profit played roles in the decision.

“One aspect of our HR policy we take very seriously is work/life balance,” said Ron Factor, a partner in the Toronto office and the Live Well coach for his area. “Consultants—who are by nature workaholics and obsessive about our work—tend to get that balance out of synch, and emphasize more on work.

“We wanted to do something that was fun and would benefit our people.”

Christ echoed this sentiment. “Deloitte cares about me as an individual, and it cares about the other folks here. This
program is a demonstration of those values.”

And the dollars spent did generate measurable health benefits. McLaughlin conducted fitness assessments with the participants in which 12 health and lifestyle risk factors were measured at the beginning and end of the 100-day challenge.

“All the numbers on the medical risk factors—how many people over-consumed fat and calories, had a totally sedentary lifestyle, ate the recommended numbers of fruits and vegetables per day—all those numbers moved in the right direction,” he said.

But Deloitte also believes that wellness helps build bottomline profit statements, although it admits it’s tough to assign a
monetary value to this factor.

“We’re owned by the partners, so when we do something it’s because the partners are looking to get a return,” Baldwin said.

“The returns we sought were from both personal productivity and retention points of view.”

So are Deloitte offices now happier, more efficient places?

“The results really exceeded our expectations,” he said.

“Eighty-four per cent of the participants told us they had established better health habits and were seeing higher energy and
higher personal productivity levels at work as a result.”

For Christ, it’s a simple question of garbage in, garbage out.

“If you eat the right level of protein and the right kinds of carbohydrates you’re going to have more energy than if you
start the day with a donut. My energy is now greatly improved, and it was greatly improved two or three weeks [after starting
Live Well].”

W e b w e l l n e s s
CIBC http://www.cibc.ca
Deloitte Consulting http://www.braxtonglobal.com
Richard Ivey School of Business http://www.ivey.uwo.ca
Peter McLaughlin Co. http://www.petermclaughlin.com