Area company rolls out inventive wellness benefit

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The 93 employees at EMC Precision Machining in Sheridan will be riding high after the company gives each of them a bicycle Friday for exceeding cost-cutting goals.

The incentive is part of a larger campaign the company adopted this year to promote both employee and company health and fitness.

Scores of companies in recent years have adopted wellness programs in an attempt to trim insurance costs by having healthier employees. But what EMC is undertaking goes beyond what’s considered typical within the wellness arena.

The bikes are a reward to employees for submitting ideas approved by the company that should result in annual savings of $300,000—double the goal set by EMC.

The company spent about $30,000 to purchase the bikes and to throw a cookout Friday to celebrate the occasion.

EMC's next big perk has workers wearing pedometers to track their number of daily steps. Those who log 10,000 steps per day will be entered in a drawing to win a new iPad. The company plans to give 20 of them away.

EMC, a precision machining company headquartered in Elyria, Ohio, adopted a wellness plan a few years ago. But it upped the stakes in 2012 as part of its “Get Healthy and Be Lean” campaign that targets both employees and the company.

“I’ve been a big fan of wellness-related company focuses,” EMC President Brad Ohlemacher said. “But, there aren’t a ton of things you can do out there.”

The bike model the employees will receive is what’s considered a hybrid between a mountain and road bike. Every bike is the same, sporting a company logo and its red and gray colors.

EMC originally wanted a model manufactured in the United States and priced under $500. But the company encountered a challenge when it couldn’t locate anything in that price range featuring more than a single speed.

So, it shopped overseas and had the bikes shipped partially assembled to the company.

EMC was founded in Ohio in 1925 and opened its Sheridan location in 2009 after purchasing Biddle Precision Components.
 

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