A hands-on approach to employee health

Apr 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By M. Richard Vinocur

Vinocur’s Perspective

When AMERICAN PRINTER approached me nearly 20 years ago about writing a column, I asked, "What do you want me to write about?"

"Anything you want," was the reply.

My AP affiliation is a personal record for me—every other organization with which I’ve worked has realized after 20 years that I’m tough to control. With that in mind, this month’s column will deal with "something completely different," as Monty Python might put it. It’s something I’ve been known to cause a great deal of: stress.

Massage is the message
At the Top Management Conference the National Association of Printing Leadership (NAPL) recently hosted in Phoenix, my wife and I decided to relieve the stress of being married nearly 48 years by treating ourselves to "hot stones massages." They must have worked, because we’re still together.

If you’ve been reading this column for awhile, you know I had back surgery nearly three years ago. As part of my recovery, my surgeon prescribed physical therapy. In a conversation with Matt Gavzy, one my therapists, I learned that many corporations are offering employees "massage breaks" to relieve the stress of the sometimes hectic pace of work.

As a result, Gavzy has launched a company, Body Workings Massage Therapy, LLC (bodyworkings.com), which employs a string of massage therapists across the country. Gavzy currently lists about a half-dozen Fortune 500 companies as clients. (You can consider this month’s article a commercial for this nascent company and all others that perform the same kind of services.)

Gavzy’s brochure promotes onsite chair massages (like the ones you see offered at trade shows to relax attendees), as well as table massages. The chair massages can last from 10 to 30 minutes, a short break that leaves employees feeling relaxed, refreshed and ready to return to work.

The benefits add up
When you consider the results of recent studies appearing in the mass media, you can see the benefits of relieving stress. Consider the possibility that up to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints; up to 80 percent of industrial accidents are due to stress; more than 50 percent of lost workdays are stress-related; and 14 percent of workers say stress has caused them to quit or change jobs. Another study reveals that stress on or off the job costs U.S. companies an estimated $200 billion a year in reduced productivity, accidents, compensation claims, absenteeism, employee turnover, health insurance and medical expenses. An article in the Spring 2004 issue of Massage Therapy Journal cites that Working Mother’s 18th annual survey of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" reports 77 percent offer therapeutic massages. Additionally, the Society for Human Resources Management Foundation’s "Benefits" survey found 11 percent of all companies offer massage benefits, and that figure jumps to 18 percent for larger firms with more than 500 employees.

In Massage Therapy Journal’s survey, 10 percent of respondents said they offer daily massages, about 10 percent offer massages twice a week, and 48 percent offer them weekly or monthly. Nearly all respondents outsource the service, turning to companies like Body Workings.

According to the article, more managers are recognizing the benefits of offering massage to employees and are picking up half the cost. Tamara Olivero, a communication specialist for Livonia, MI, printing firm Valassis, said, "Not only does workplace massage help relieve stress, but it also helps our employees focus and do a better job." Valasis splits the cost 50-50 with employees and schedules onsite independent contractor massage therapist visits twice a month.

For big companies and small ones, massage therapy can relieve the stress caused by tight deadlines, too much overtime and cantankerous equipment. Corporations are increasingly incorporating massage into their benefits packages, and human resource managers are delighted with the results. So are the employees. Believe it or not, employees are lying down on the job and their employers are happy.

I love the 1980s: a clarification
In his February 2005 column, Dick Vinocur wrote that when GASC was formed in 1982, NAPL and PIA owned Graph Expo, while NPES controlled the Print shows. But according to GASC president Regis Delmontagne, although PIA was a co-sponsor, NAPL owned Graph Expo.

Vinocur further indicated that when the joint venture was formed, "NAPL (which managed Graph Expo for a fee) took a financial hit."

Delmontagne responds: "In 1983, NAPL and PIA split 90 percent of the planned distribution, and NPES received 10 percent. If, in 1983, Graph Expo was organized by NAPL on behalf of itself and PIA, they would have split (minus an administrative fee) 50 percent."

Delmontage notes that in 1984, NAPL and PIA received 42 percent of the distribution with NPES receiving 16 percent. "A drop from what would have been 50 percent distribution to 42 percent does not qualify as a ‘financial hit,’" he writes.
—Katherine O’Brien, editor

M. Richard Vinocur is president of Footprint Communications. E-mail him at mrvinocur@aol.com.

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