General Mills, Sodexho Link for Employee Wellness

Wellness programs are at the top of Corporate America’s agenda. See how one firm helped blaze the trail.

Many companies large and small accept the notion that healthier employees are more productive and cost-efficient—not to mention simply happier. So, they are increasingly offering employees tools and resources to guide them toward living healthier lifestyles.

Employee wellness programs are incorporating a bevy of support services to employees across the country who are looking to lose weight, quit smoking, reduce their cholesterol, manage diabetes or other medical conditions, or simply live healthier lives. And reports of companies taking extra steps in this direction continue to crop up in the media.

General Mills, headquartered in Minneapolis, is not jumping on this bandwagon; it has blazed the trail. "General Mills has had health and wellness programs (for) decades," says Kirstie Foster, manager of corporate public relations. So, it’s fitting that the cafeteria at General Mills’ headquarters would offer a nutrition-conscious line of menu items supported by nutritional information and other tools customers can use to watch their waistlines and eat more healthfully.

All bases covered: The cafeteria offers all the elements that can be found in a popular foodcourt: a pizza and pasta station; Asian, Mexican, and classic entrée stations; as well as a grill, a deli and soup and salad bars. No one particular area is devoted to what are considered healthful items, but customers will find items that fit a healthier profile at each station. Each boasts items that add a nutritional punch to any meal, such as whole-grain breads at the deli and low-fat liquid egg substitutes at the grill for breakfast.

Stations also serve entrees designed to meet the dietary needs of those looking to eat more healthfully or shed pounds. Yet very often, according to Robert Horrocks, general manager at this Sodexho account, these items are sought for their flavor as well as their nutritional content.

"We have a development team which tests and benchmarks our products against what you would find in restaurants," says Leslee McGovern, RD,  Sodexho’s sr. director of brand management for wellness. "The flavors really deliver and they’re healthy."

"The two most popular items are the sesame-crusted salmon and the shredded barbecue chicken," adds Horrocks.

Setting the standard: The 880-seat facility serves about 1,500 people daily for lunch and about 600 for breakfast. Certainly, only a percentage of those people, and probably not the majority on any given day, are looking specifically for meals that have 600 calories or less, with 30% or less of calories from fat, with 3 grams or less of saturated fat, and with no more than 1,000 grams of sodium. But for those who are looking for meals that meet those criteria, the cafeteria delivers.

The healthful meals are part of Sodexho’s Your Health Your Way program, which the General Mills team rolled out a little over two years ago. The wellness program offers healthful menu items, nutritional information at the point of sale and online, and other resources such as interactive Web tools and access to dietitians.

But General Mills, a manufacturer of many items known to be healthful available on supermarket shelves, has its own employee wellness program dubbed Total You. It boasts a number of tools, resources and services such as an on-site health clinic that offers preventative and as-needed medical care and an interactive Web site providing up-to-date health-related information and weight management and weight loss programs.

"In the café, the two programs, Total You and Your Health Your Way, are seamless," says Horrocks. Grab-and-go menu items may bear logos of both, for example. "Customers understand that they work together," says McGovern.

"There are the meals and the healthy options, and all conform to what Total You subscribes," adds Horrocks. The Total You Web site, in fact, provides a link to Sodexho’s Your Health Your Way site.

The menu items are supported and marketed with POS signage that includes a photo of the entrée with nutritional info. "This sends a message that these recipes are researched and developed and not just (conceived) at the unit level," says Horrocks.

The foodservice team’s commitment and the Your Health Your Way program also extend beyond the cafeteria walls into vending, where customers can find healthful options when looking for a quick mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.

At the slots: Healthy items are strong performers in vending, according to Jon Sage, vending manager at General Mills. Last year, the team introduced the vending segment of Sodexho’s program, stocking snack machines with only healthful alternatives to the usual vending fare for a month. Sales jumped by about 18% initially, but quickly dropped. Sales fell to about 20% below average after the initial craze for the month.

Sage put some of the usual goodies back into the mix and now stocks about 20% of the vending slots with Your Health Your Way items—about nine out of the 45 items in each machine. "People still want to treat themselves," he says, so offering a mix of choices from the truly low-calorie to the delectably high-calorie options is necessary. "But we definitely did get some converts," he adds.

Sage says that the most popular items under the Your Health Your Way banner are the animal crackers. Next in line are the 100-calorie snack versions of popular branded crackers and cookies; and cashews and smoked almonds. The product mix also includes General Mills’ Nature Valley granola bars, a variety of pretzels and baked chips. A static cling banner on the machines explains the program to customers.

Sage predicts that the combination of choices may ultimately be good for the bottom line as well as for people’s fitness and health goals. "We may even see an increase of 20%," he says.