Live Your Best Life, Rio-Style

When Albuquerque Business First, a local business journal, named Rio Grande New Mexico’s Healthiest Mid-Sized Employer for the third year in a row, associates were honored and humbled—but not surprised.

Since the company first implemented its wellness program in 2006, upwards of 200 Rio employees and their families have worked to maintain healthier lifestyles, make better choices, and become more informed about physical activity, diet and nutrition, and preventive health care.

"Americans as a whole are becoming less and less healthy due to lack of exercise and poor eating habits," notes Lisa Johnson, one of the leadership team members serving on the Rio Grande wellness committee. "And that means rising health care costs, which isn’t good for our company or our customers."

After learning that wellness programs save an average of $3 for every dollar spent on the program, Rio Grande’s leadership instituted a company-wide initiative to provide associates more information and company-sponsored activities such as power walks and health & wellness fairs.

It paid off. Within five years, the company realized a return on its investment of $5 savings for every dollar spent.

Michael Harrison, videographer, joined the wellness program in 2012, but says he dramatically ramped up his level of participation this year.

For instance, he’s downloaded a couple of apps to help in his effort to kick up his fitness level. His current favorite is Fooducate, a scan feature that’s useful when grocery shopping.

"Say I’m looking at whole wheat bread," he says. "Fooducate tells me if there is a healthier option, and provides information on what makes a healthier choice—less sodium, perhaps, or more fiber. So it educates me on what to look for in all my food decisions."

Michael also notes that he’s taking advantage of everything Rio’s wellness program offers associates.

"I’m more focused on the comprehensiveness of the program," says Michael, the man responsible for nearly all of the YouTube videos that help Rio customers hone their craft and build their jewelry-making skills. "I now take advantage of the articles that are posted, the company 5K runs and the monthly challenges. Even my wife, Jackie, gets involved by tracking her cardio and exercise logs."

Michael also enjoys an ongoing, friendly competition with co-worker Jamie Gros, one of the company’s web programmers. The two view it as a way to keep them both motivated.

"Rio’s wellness program encourages us to make time to get to the gym," Jamie agrees. "We both have young children, so it’s important to set a goal to be healthier. Otherwise, we would get busy with our families and our jobs—and not work out. We keep each other on track."

Associates such as Michael and Jamie are the reason Rio Grande was awarded top honors in the mid-sized (100- 499 employees) category. It’s an important business focus for Rio.

"Our goal is to have a healthier, happier, more productive, and successful workforce while controlling our health care costs," says Lisa.

Comment on this article

---

Inside Rio: I Want to Be a Part of It!

Mark Shipman has written several posts for The Studio about various aspects of our unique corporate culture here at Rio Grande. Over this time, a number of readers have asked him what participative management is really like at Rio. Take a look at today’s post to learn (one of the reasons) why Rio is SUCH a great place to work.

...Read the Rest

---

BOO! Halloween at Rio Grande!

We take Halloween seriously at Rio Grande! Take a look at our contest winners!

...Read the Rest

---

To Your Health: Rio’s Health and Wellness Fair

Here at Rio, we’re pretty big on healthy living. We’ve got a gym on site, we have an in-depth wellness program to help keep us in good shape, and we even host events like our annual 5k run. This year marked the eleventh annual Health and Wellness Fair, and we were happy to welcome representatives from all sorts of health-oriented organizations to our front courtyard to help us out!

...Read the Rest

---

Epilogue: Rio’s Spencer Baum Embarks on Life as a Novelist

Our very-own Spencer Baum leaves a sad but supportive Rio for the life and career of a full-time novelist! Way to go, Spencer!

...Read the Rest

---

Home-Grown Jewelry Design

Dozens of talented jewelers and metalsmiths work here at Rio Grande and even though many of them would love to participate in the Saul Bell Design Award Competition, they are not eligible because they are associates of the company. The solution? Our very first ASSOCIATE Saul Bell Design Award Competition! In today’s post take a look at some of the outstanding winners of this inaugural, in-house design competition.

...Read the Rest

---

Running ‘Cross the Rio Grande: Rio’s Wellness Program in Action

Rio Grande’s Wellness Program has been so successful, that the New Mexico Business Weekly recently named us the winner of New Mexico’s Healthiest Employers for the second year in a row! On top of a 5K every season, Rio offers health fairs, an on-site gym, monthly wellness classes (on topics like heart health and stretching at work), on site Zumba and Yoga classes, and bi-annual health risk assessments including blood pressure screenings. We take wellness seriously! Read today’s post to see our Wellness Program in action with highlights from our recent company-wide 5K run.

...Read the Rest

---

Inside Rio: Machine Operators Read Product Reviews Too!

Recently our website underwent a complete makeover, and one of the coolest updates, in my opinion, are the product review tabs! As a member of the machine operator team, I make some of this stuff, which means that you, the customer, have a direct line to me, the operator. Your product reviews are a powerful and valuable source of information!

...Read the Rest

---

Inside Rio: 11 Techniques for Effective Feedback with Framing

Here at Rio, we’ve created an empowered workplace operating within a common set of principles. So we’ve got a challenging yet supportive environment sharing a common set of values, but what about the tools that make our culture work? Effective feedback is among our most useful (and most used) tools around here. In today’s post, Mark shares 11 framing techniques for giving feedback. Try them and tell us what you think!

...Read the Rest

---

Rio Associates: Not Just Order Takers!

Here at Rio Grande, there is a lot of enthusiasm for and support of lifelong learning – especially when it comes to learning as much as possible about the products and processes that make our industry ‘tick’. . .

...Read the Rest

---