Korbel Champagne CellarsToast Life® and Embrace 

Work@Health®: Case Study

Organization Background

Korbel Champagne Cellars 

« Established in 1882

« Family-owned

« Industry sector: Manufacturing 

« Location: Guerneville, 

California

« 400 Employees

« 36% women, 64% men

Korbel Champagne Cellars has 

produced fine California méthode 

champenoise champagnes for 133 

years. To address the dangers common 

in large-scale champagne production, 

Korbel has a strong, long-standing 

safety program. A few years ago, the 

company decided to take action to 

promote workplace health as well.

Lois Temple, who works in Korbel’s 

Employee Health Services, remembers 

that day well because it was her second 

day on the job. The vice president of 

human resources asked Temple to take 

on wellness activities in addition to her 

other duties. As a nurse, Temple had a 

background in clinical care, but not in 

worksite wellness. A call to the Sonoma 

County Economic Development Board 

(Korbel is located in Sonoma County) 

steered her to the Work@Health® 

program. 

Participating in CDC’s Work@Health® Program

Lois Temple of Korbel Champagne Cellars’ employee health services

had respected the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 

for years, but was not aware that the agency was working in the area 

of worksite health promotion. After learning that Work@Health® was 

a CDC program, she quickly signed up and attended the hands-on 

training session in Oakland, 

California, in March 2014.

The Work@Health® program is 

designed to teach employers 

how to improve the health of 

their workers (and workers’ 

families) by using prevention 

and wellness strategies 

that focus on chronic 

health conditions. Welldesigned, science-based, and 

comprehensive workplace 

wellness programs can improve the health of individuals and 

companies, lower health care costs, and increase worker productivity. 

After the training, participants received 6-10 months of technical 

assistance in the form of coaching, webinars, and interactions with 

peers. 

Temple said the material covered in the training was “almost too 

much, too fast” but that it gave her a good sense of what was needed. 

She learned the common elements of an effective wellness programs, 

as well as how to analyze data, evaluate a program, and survey 

employees to determine their needs. 

Program Overview 

Getting Approval and Support to Begin

Temple knew how to write a plan and get approvals for her 

initiatives at Korbel. She was highly motivated after completing the 

Work@Health® training, and in the following 2 weeks, she wrote a plan 

for a worksite health promotion program and sent it to the company’s 

leadership for review and approval.

With training and effort, 

employers of all sizes and 

types can plan and implement 

a workplace health program. 

Employers can learn from the 

experiences of employers 

like Korbel about how to plan 

strategies and anticipate 

implementation challenges.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion 

Division of Population Health

CS257190V
“It didn’t take long for approvals from the board and 

owner,” Temple said. “They knew there were 

recommendations and incentives to support worksite 

wellness being developed through the Affordable 

Care Act. They were spurred by the fact [that] new 

recommendations for wellness programs and group 

health coverage were to be mandated after January 

2014. It allowed me to do what my boss had asked 

me to do.”

Page 2 of 5

To put her health promotion plan into action, 

Temple first recruited volunteers to form a wellness 

committee. She wanted to make sure the committee 

had a diverse membership, so she reached out to 

assembly line workers, distribution staff, and the 

company’s senior chef (because nutrition was a 

key focus area). The committee’s first action was to 

develop goals and objectives. For the first year, it 

focused on informing employees that a wellness 

program was coming. In the beginning, Temple 

said, “few knew, cared, or understood what 

[wellness] meant.” 

To generate interest and support, the committee 

surveyed employees about what they wanted in 

a health promotion program and what types of 

healthy snacks they would prefer in the workplace. 

Temple explained that one of the committee’s major 

nutritional concerns was doughnuts. Korbel had 

provided employees with fresh doughnuts every day 

for many years. Starting each shift with an assortment 

of pastries was a part of the culture that employees 

were used to. 

The Hard Work of Dumping Doughnuts

Even though she knew getting rid of doughnuts 

might be challenging, Temple said, “I felt this was 

the biggest thing I could undertake in year one.” 

To convince management and employees at all 

levels that this significant change was needed, she 

gave presentations to board members, foremen, 

supervisors, and employees. She and the company 

chef presented information about the nutritional 

content of doughnuts. They also presented results 

from employee surveys, which indicated that 

72% of employees were willing to substitute fruit, 

granola bars, and oatmeal for the doughnuts. Korbel 

leadership approved the change, and the committee, 

along with the company’s Hospitality Department, 

began providing the healthier options to employees 

each morning. 

Employees were surveyed 2 weeks after the change 

to determine what they liked and didn’t like. On the 

basis of employee preferences, half of the snacks 

provided at Korbel now are fruit and the other half 

are high-fiber items. One day a month, employees 

are offered doughnut holes. 

“The senior chef with the company was so happy,” 

Temple said. As an added bonus, the healthier 

options cost much less than the $60,000 annual 

cost of the doughnuts. Just a few months after the 

change, complaints about the lack of doughnuts 

dwindled, and Temple said she expects them to stop 

completely as the healthier options become the 

new norm.

Korbel Champagne Cellars.

Source: www.korbel.com.

Employers selected to participate in Work@

Health® were assigned to one of three models, 

all of which delivered the same comprehensive 

workplace health curriculum. 

1. The hands-on model was an on-site, 

instructor-led one-day training workshop 

held in one of six regional locations. 

2. The online model allowed employers to 

move through the curriculum independently 

over several weeks using a web-based 

learning platform.

3. The blended model included a combination 

of hands-on and online learning strategies.
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Broader Food Policy Changes

Dumping the doughnuts was just the start of positive 

changes at Korbel. With the approval of the company 

chef, the wellness committee helped develop a 

policy to require healthy food options at meetings 

and wine-tasting 

events with Korbel 

guests. The policy 

does not eliminate 

sweets, but it makes 

healthy options more 

available and easier 

to choose. 

Increasing Physical Activity

Korbel has also worked to increase employee 

opportunities for physical activity. The wellness 

committee encouraged workers to walk more 

instead of using golf carts on the winery’s 1,500 

acres. It developed walking paths with maps and 

route descriptions that allowed employees to enjoy 

the surrounding redwood forest and vineyards. The 

committee also arranged for discounts at local gyms, 

spurring employees to be more active. 

Communicating and Integrating with 

Other Programs

The wellness committee used a variety of 

communication channels, such as e-mails, 

newsletters, and flyers on bulletin boards, to share 

health promotion information with employees. 

Employee Health Services staff also began holding 

monthly tailgate meetings to present information 

about safety issues, teach CPR and first aid, and offer 

free flu shots. Pairing Korbel’s concern for employee 

health with its established concern for employee 

safety gave additional credibility and attention to the 

new health promotion program.

Program Success

Like all of the employers participating in the 

Work@Health® program, Korbel used the 

CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard to assess the extent 

to which it had evidence-based health promotion 

strategies in place before and after the program. The 

ScoreCard is a free tool that employers can use to 

assess their health promotion and disease prevention 

programs, identify gaps, and set priorities across 

health topics. 

Strategies assessed by the ScoreCard include 

health-promoting counseling services, 

environmental supports, policies, health plan 

benefits, and other worksite programs shown to be 

effective in preventing heart disease, stroke, and 

related health conditions. 

Korbel increased its total ScoreCard score from 153 

to 173 out of a possible 264 points. It showed the 

largest improvement in the number of evidencebased strategies it offered that focused on nutrition 

and physical activity. 

Examples of evidence-based strategies Korbel put 

in place during its Work@Health® training using 

the ScoreCard that it did not have in place in 2014 

included:

• Subsidizing or providing discounts on healthier 

foods and beverages offered in vending 

machines, cafeterias, and snack bars, and at 

other purchase points.

• Providing educational seminars, workshops, and 

classes on nutrition.

• Providing brochures, videos, posters, pamphlets, 

newsletters, and other written or online 

information on the benefits of physical activity.

• Providing educational seminars, workshops, and 

classes on physical activity.

Korbel also increased its score in the Organizational 

Supports module, which assesses the extent to 

which organizations have a foundation in place to 

support and maintain a health promotion program. 

After the Work@Health® training, Korbel conducted 

employee needs and interests assessments to help 

the company plan future health promotion activities 

and set up a health promotion committee. 

Photo provided by Pixabay.com.
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0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Nutrition

Physical Activity

Organizational Supports

2015 Score 2014 Score

“In one survey, we asked about weight reduction 

and diabetes. In the other survey, we asked 

[employees] to choose the kind of foods they 

would want: fruits, granola bars, oatmeal. We 

tallied that up, and we said these are the foods 

you would like as a substitute, so let’s give it a go.”

—Lois Temple, Korbel Employee Health Services

Learning from Work@Health® 

In a survey after the Oakland hands-on training 

session in 2014, 94% of participants said they 

understood how to apply what they had learned, 

and 95% said they would be able to use what they 

had learned at their jobs. After they completed the 

technical assistance portion of the program, all 

participants were asked to list the top three lessons 

they had learned. Temple said she had learned the 

following:

1. There’s always more to learn.

2. The wellness committee is a fabulous resource.

3. You need a budget; funding is necessary to 

conduct a program. 

About 6 months later, participants were asked to 

complete a survey about what they had done since 

the training. Most had established a health promotion 

committee or team, engaged leadership support, 

and started collecting data to set up or enhance their 

worksite health promotion programs. 

How Work@Health® Trainees in the Oakland, CA, Hands-on Model 

are using the Information They Learned in the Program

73%

82%

73%

73%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%

Engaged leadership for support

Established a health promotion committee

Identified and collected data for worksite

health program development

Developed worksite health plan and began to

take action

CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard Overall Score 

In Wellness Programming, 2014-2015

Challenges

Because of its long history and deeply rooted culture, 

introducing change at Korbel was challenging. With 

leadership support, Temple took the time upfront to 

get buy-in for the change by promoting it at all levels 

of the organization and by gathering input from staff. 

Like other manufacturing organizations, Korbel has 

staff who work in offices and staff who work in areas 

like the bottling line where they do not have regular 

access to work e-mail. The wellness committee used 

multiple communication channels to make sure all 

employees had access to educational materials and 

information about program activities. The committee 

also used ongoing safety meetings to share 

information about the health promotion program.
What’s Next?

Over the next 12 months, the challenge is to keep the momentum going and to offer new activities that keep 

employees interested and involved. The wellness committee plans to continue building on the healthy changes 

made, and it hopes to offer the following in the future: 

• Healthy cooking demonstrations. 

• Vending machine changes that offer healthier options.

• Free healthy recipes.

• Additional lunch-and-learn presentations on health topics. 

• Referrals to local wellness programs off campus.

• An expanded walking program.

• A “for women only” informational session.

• Stress reduction classes.

• “Team Korbel” participation in local activity challenges.

• Participation in the 2016 Korbel Safety Fair for employees.

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The Work@Health® employer-training program is an initiative of the U.S. Centers 

for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to promote workplace wellness through 

employer education, training, and technical assistance. Work@Health® training 

provides employers with knowledge and tools through a comprehensive curricula 

to promote good health in their work places to prevent or reduce chronic illness and 

disability, and improve productivity.