The 17-year-old Epistar has eight production units across the Hsinchu and Southern Taiwan Science Parks, employing 3,900 people with an average age of 31 years. Despite both staff and management being in the flower of youth, though, they have suffered the same problem as much of the rest of the high-tech sector: high body mass index (BMI). Year after year, over half the staff have recorded BMIs above the “normal” range.

“Weight loss is a common goal among many companies in the science parks,” says Epi­star’s head of environmental safety, Eric Lin. The core competitive asset of any company is its staff, and only if they are energetic in both body and mind can a business really succeed.

Epistar has gone full steam ahead in promoting health and fitness among its staff, from conducting health checks and providing weight-loss advice to encouraging everyone to be more active. As a result, many staff members have succeeded in shedding the pounds.

Staff physical examinations in the years since have shown that maintenance staff responsible for energy systems (gases, water and electricity) in the company’s manufacturing facilities suffer from the worst problems with weight. “In high-tech manufacturing, energy systems are something you always need to be on top of, which makes working on them a high-stress job,” says Lin, “and some people deal with that stress through eating.”

When the Department of Health’s Bureau of Health Promotion launched its weight-loss initiative in 2011, Epi­star as a company leapt at the opportunity, promoting weight loss and exercise across its plants. Thanks to this, some 60% of the staff got on board, and the results have been astounding: in 2011, 613 people reached their target weights, and that figure almost doubled by 2012, with 1,170 people shedding the pounds. These results earned Epi­star the National Workplace Weight-Loss Excellence Award.

Forty-seven-year-old Zhu Zheng­dao was one of last year’s success stories. Not only did he quit smoking, he also got into the habit of jogging and taking yoga classes, and even took part in a round-Taiwan bike ride. Thanks to all this hard work, he dropped four kilograms, going from 81 to 77 kg, reduced his BMI from 27.47 to 26.1, and got his cholesterol and triglycerides back into the normal range. “I feel so much lighter, in body and spirit,” says Zhu. He also wrote up a report of his experiences, sharing what he’d learned in his weight-loss journey with his colleagues.

Recognizing that engineers working in the Hsinchu Science Park often stress-eat, the Epistar Corporation is using peer power to encourage employees to move more on the way to losing weight.

While the company couldn’t force its staff to get on the weight-loss train, it employed an aggressive promotional strategy, leaving no options off the table. It launched an email list providing regular weight-loss tips, and held cycling, hiking, and walking activities, as well as starting on-site yoga classes. Staff were even given reminder cards, helping them remember to get up and get moving from time to time.

In addition to exercise, diet is a crucial factor in weight loss, and as such one of the most crucial elements of the company’s success was the change in the lunches provided to the staff.

Erin Hsu, head of the Health Management and Promotion Office, explains that providing healthy meals requires considering the feelings of those who will be eating them. The staff can’t be made to feel compelled to eat them, nor should the administrative staff be blamed for a lack of menu choices. This meant that all the company could do was move toward low-fat, low-starch, high-fiber meals with an emphasis on fruit and vegetables.

But even with the change in the lunches, there was still another threat lurking. “Afternoon tea is the real danger weight-wise around the parks,” says Ma­ruko Chen, assistant manager with the company’s Safety and Health Integration Department I. Every day at about 3 p.m., the parks are filled with the smell of sausages, chicken cutlets, and other savory snacks, along with deliverymen zipping around the parks handing out drinks. These high-calorie treats are one of the major factors in the parks’ weight problems, and a combination of low willpower and high peer pressure can make the temptation hard to resist.

The staff of Epistar’s Health Management and Promotion Office are doing all they can to help protect the health of their colleagues.

This year, the Health Management and Promotion Office has begun focusing particularly on 192 staff members with BMIs over 30, which puts them at high risk of cardiovascular disease, undertaking health checks and inviting doctors and nutritionists to provide guidance and assistance.

Zhou De­yan of the Manufacturing Department is one of their targets. Weighing 113 kg, the 31-year-old Zhou is well aware that he faces the choice of either losing weight or inevitably suffering serious health problems, and thus he has embraced the Health Management and Promotion Office’s efforts.

In addition to walking and cycling every day, Zhou has begun paying closer attention to his diet. Where once he would eat two meat buns accompanied by a sugary drink for breakfast, he now eats whole-wheat bread and drinks sugar-free soy milk; and where his lunches were once a veritable mountain of food, he’s now much more careful about what he chooses. “When I get hungry, I pull out the results of my last health check to keep me vigilant,” says Zhou, who is confident he will reach his target weight of 75 kg.

The weight-loss efforts of Epi­star’s staff have even made their way into performance reviews, with the eight units all competing. Eric Lin points out that senior management must lead by example if a company wants its staff to achieve their weight-loss goals. If even the boss is on board, the staff have even less reason not to follow suit. Epi­star’s example is truly something other companies would do well to emulate.