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LifeCare’s CEO Helps to Nominate 10 Healthiest Companies for Women

LifeCare co-founder and CEO, Peter G. Burki, recently joined eight other experts from the fields of work/life and health as part of an exclusive panel formed by Health magazine to nominate the nation’s top 10 healthiest companies for female employees. The July/August issue of Health lists the winning companies along with details of the programs and practices that helped them to make the list. The top 10 companies are:

1. Clif Bar Inc.
2. Bristol-Myers Squibb
3. SC Johnson
4. Arup Laboratories
5. Genentech
6. New York Life Insurance Co.
7. Roche
8. Verizon Wireless
9. Green Mountain College
10. Guidant Corp.

“These companies are trailblazers,” says Burki. “They're leading the way in creating healthier and more supportive work environments—not only for women but for everyone. I believe employers everywhere will turn to these 10 companies for inspiration as they design their own support programs and practices.” Burki went on to say how encouraged he was after participating in the panel. “A decade ago, there were just a handful of companies that truly understood the bottom-line value of building supportive work environments. That's no longer the case. Innovative work/life programs and health benefits are now gaining the recognition they deserve for raising employee productivity and decreasing absenteeism and turnover.”

The names of the companies competing for a spot on this list were not revealed to the judges until after their voting was complete. Judges chose the winning organizations strictly on the merits of their programs and practices to support working women.

The companies that made the list offer a wide variety of programs to support their female employees, including on-site fitness and exercise classes, free corporate health clinics, company-sponsored child care, and fully covered prenatal care. But they also offer many unique programs as well. For example:

	Clif Bar Inc. provides a meditation tent (equipped with reclining seats, stereo headsets, CDs, and reading lights) and massage tents where two therapists help employees relax and eliminate stress.
	At Bristol-Myers Squibb, expectant parents are given free pagers through the company’s Baby Beep program; 470 employees used these beepers last year to stay in touch with their spouses and child care providers.
	Arup Laboratories sponsors a corporate health clinic, which handles routine physicals, well-child checkups, vaccinations, Pap smears, blood work, allergy shots and more—all for free—while an on-site pharmacy helps employees reduce their trips to the drug store.
	At New York Life Insurance Co., the Maternity Transition Program gives new mothers three weeks of child care at the company’s day care center for just $30 per day. This gives parents time to research long-term care options.
	Roche’s Employee Health Services center is staffed by three full-time physicians, four registered nurses, a lab technician, and an X-ray technician. The center offers a wide range of services, including estrogen-replacement therapy and menopause counseling, pelvic and breast exams, and Pap smears.