Dealer's wellness program cuts benefits costs by incentivizing health

A wellness program implemented in 2021 by Friendship Family of Dealerships is helping the retailer lower its benefits costs for employees.

The program at the Bristol, Tenn., dealership group encourages healthier lifestyle choices and is delivering improvements in team morale and increased productivity, said Alana Wilson, Friendship's human resources director.

Wilson created the wellness program as the coronavirus pandemic shifted people's focus to personal and global health, she said. She also was motivated to try to reduce the cost of benefits, which were marked as a concern in a 2020 employee survey.

"We had to come up with a way to get people a little bit healthier," Wilson told Automotive News.

The program focuses on four areas of employee health: physical, financial, environmental and emotional. Team challenges are intended to motivate employees to practice healthier habits, such as drinking water, exercising and spending time outside, she said.

For instance, Friendship's monthlong hydration challenge provides employees with reusable water bottles and encourages them to drink more water, Wilson said. Each week, employees turn in a water consumption tracking sheet, which doubles as a raffle entry. At the end of the challenge, employees win prizes such as gift cards.

"Our mantra oftentimes is, 'Activity breeds activity,' " Wilson said. "You see other people doing things, and it makes you want to do things, too."

Since the program started, one of the group's health insurance plans has dropped in cost for employees by 26 percent, and the amount that Friendship's medical plan paid out per employee dropped by 23 percent, she said. The savings comes from a combination of fewer health maintenance prescriptions, fewer overall claims and a decrease in cost per claim.

Friendship CEO Mitch Walters said the dealership group banned smoking from its properties after his brother, who was a smoker, died of small cell lung cancer. Being tobacco-free and nicotine-free is required to participate in the wellness program.

"I can't control everything in everybody's lives, but we do try to discourage it," Walters said. "We educate everybody to make their own smarter choices and healthy choices."

The company offers to pay half of the cost, or up to $175, of smoking cessation programs or other wellness-related expenses such as gym memberships, Wilson said. Friendship also requests that each employee gets a preventative health screening each year.

The commitment extends to dealership activities, too. For example, employees are offered healthier food options at team meetings, Walters said.

Friendship represents 11 brands across its 14 dealerships in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Georgia. The group, which retailed just over 11,000 new and used vehicles in 2022, is a perennial honoree on Automotive News' annual list of the 100 Best Dealerships To Work For. In 2013, Friendship Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram of Bristol topped the list.

Of the 490 full-time employees at the dealerships, 81 percent participated in the wellness program in 2021, Wilson said, and that rose to 84 percent in 2022.

Friendship spends about $4,000 annually to run the program, with the only costs being the prizes, Wilson said. The insurance savings, lifestyle improvements and cultural impact have made the program "worth every dollar."

Said Walters: "There is awareness, and it's changed people's lives, and for the good. They are more productive, and they're more loyal and happy and healthy."