“They started having a yoga class in a conference room, where they'd move the tables to one side,” she explains. “One of our employees was certified in yoga and would run these classes on a weekly basis; she had great attendance.”

When CEO Bill Oesterle saw the group practicing, “he thought if it was helping the employees, he should make it grow,” Taylor says. “He went out and purchased some equipment and dedicated some space to the class.”

The Angie's List employee wellness program has expanded beyond one weekly yoga class to encompass 30 different programs — including what Taylor terms a “fiscal fitness” class, which focuses on financial health.

“A few years ago, we were still using a prenatal program through our insurance provider,” she says, “and that program worked on a call-in basis. Our average employee age is about 34, so we have a lot of new mothers and fathers, and we were paying per employee, per month, and we weren't getting a lot of return on that.”

So Taylor found a childbirth educator, and, instead of calling in to a prenatal program, employees and partners attended classes on-site at Angie's List.

“It was personalized, and it was exactly what our employees wanted—they didn't want to be on the phone,” Taylor says. “They wanted to look at and talk to someone about this child they were bringing into the world.” Taylor says that one couple affiliated with Angie's List was adopting and arranged for the birth mother to attend the classes, too.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a core value at Angie's List, Taylor says. There's a garden club, an on-site fitness center with scheduled classes, relaxation rooms and a massage area.

The SharePoint employee intranet regularly features stories about Taylor's assorted wellness activities — deadlines to sign up for races or biometric screenings, profiles of employees who've changed their lifestyle. There's a graduation ceremony for the tobacco-cessation program that Angie's List offers, and Taylor says Angie's List employees work out together on a regular basis.

Another Healthiest Company in America, Maui Jim, shares some of these wellness goals.

One of its most important features is an on-site gym, says benefits administrator Ben Tilly.

“We have trainers here at the on-site gym, and we put on around five classes a day at various times throughout the day to keep people motivated and involved,” Tilly says. “We have a nutritionist who comes on-site from a local hospital who's really motivated and passionate and consults with employees.”

Other on-site offerings include making fresh fruit available for employees and running regular challenges, like “Slimmest Jim,” a weight-loss competition that sometimes includes incentives like paying the employees $5 per pound lost. “We have walking programs and cooking demos, too, to give people healthy recipe ideas,” Tilly says.

Maui Jim also offers employee discounts for events that the company sponsors, such as the Maka Maka annual run.

And Tilly notes that the Maui Jim culture goes a long way toward helping employees stay focused on wellness.

“There's a lot of benefit to the family culture we have here — even if it's not physically related, it's mentally related,” he said. “It's one big family.” Tilly notes that the biometric screening (which includes a financial incentive) has become more popular since adding the financial component.

“The thing that's hardest for us but that we do pretty well is probably just trying to keep things different and fresh as much as we can,” Tilly says. “Nobody has a ton of resources to throw at a wellness program, but I think just keeping it different and engaging is the biggest roadblock that we've overcome.”