Healthy employees = healthy production.

When one thinks of a mining supply and service company, images of aerobies classes and weightlifting do not usually spring to mind.

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At North Bay-based Redpath Group, however, this is exactly what they have created in order to produce a work environment that helps its employees stay healthy.

A fully equipped gym is just one of the innovations the company has introduced as part of its employee benefits package.

"Not all companies are capable of offering that," says Theresa Coates, the marketing co-ordinator for Redpath Group.

The gym, she says, offers a fitness program at lunchtime and the company brings a qualified trainer into the gym twice a week. When staff are not involved in organized activities, they have ample opportunity to take advantage of ball hockey games or individual floor exercises.

From its inception, the company has emphasized programs that help improve the livelihood of not just employees, but their immediate families as well. The idea behind the approach, says Coates, is that assisting the employee's family helps the employee do a better job.

"For the company to be strong, the employee needs to have his family taken care of," she says.

As such, she says, the work year is peppered with a number of family picnics, curling and golf tournaments for employees and their families, as well as parties on holidays like Christmas and Halloween. The Redpath Group also invests in local children's sports leagues.

"Wherever Redpath has an office or is contracting a project, we support the community and get involved," Coates says.

Redpath, she says, is not only involved in helping families in their social lives, they also make sure that the family is taken care of financially. The introduction of a generous profit-sharing program set aside, after taxes, for full-time staff helps employees see the fruits of their hard work.

The Redpath Group is also heavily involved in helping staff improve themselves professionally, she says. Through the human resources department, the company provides constant upgrading and training to its workers. Redpath has helped staff in the administrative division of the company to obtain their chartered accountant certification, as well as allowing all levels of workers to attend seminars to improve their skills. In a highly skilled environment like mining engineering, providing these skills, Coates says, helps go a long way towards making the worker more competitive in the rapidly changing economy.

Beyond staff development, The Redpath Group is also heavily involved in improving the working environment. As a company dealing with many workplace hazards, Coates says she is proud of the fact that Redpath takes the time to give out safety awards and long service awards as a way to show the company's record and the care it invests in its workers. Many staff, she says, have been with the company for more than 30 years, not a common occurrence in today's job place. For her, however, it comes as no surprise.

"A lot of us believe we work as a family," she says.

www.jsredpath.com/groupe.html

BY JOSEPH QUESNEL 

Northern Ontario Business