A health-conscious lunch break stretches beyond the food pyramid for employees at Principal Financial Group Inc. Along with an array of cardiovascular equipment and fitness classes, Principal’s in-house wellness center offers daily pickup games to provide exercise, stress relief and entertainment at Greater Des Moines’ largest private employer.

Bill Shields, an actuarial analyst, heads to the gymnasium on Mondays and Thursdays along with several other men and women to play soccer. A native of Scotland, Shields appreciates the opportunities to play a sport that has held his interest since childhood.

“I like the camaraderie and I enjoy the atmosphere,” said Shields, who also coaches boys’ soccer at Adel-De Soto-Minburn High School. “I have good friends through [playing soccer].”

Pickup basketball was in full swing 17 years ago when Dave Richter joined the company, though he didn’t start playing until eight years ago, when his responsibilities as a father of four began to affect his activities.

“Before I had kids I would play in the evenings, and now I do kid stuff at night,” he said.

Principal continues to invest in its wellness center to create an atmosphere that is supportive of the company and its employees, taking into account the rising cost of health care and a population that has become less health-conscious.

“As health-care costs continue to rise, employers are paying more money for the health and health care of their employees because the healthier you are, the less you cost,” said Kaye Halvorson, director of Principal’s wellness center. “Principal’s always been interested in making our environment comfortable, making it a great place to work and a top-tier organization. We want good people to come work for us and we want them to stay.”

Along with pickup soccer, basketball and volleyball, the wellness center provides treadmills, cycling classes, yoga, body sculpting and dozens of other fitness options to capture the attention of the 7,000 to 8,000 people who work at the company’s downtown offices.

Shields is one of a core group of about 20 employees who play occasionally during the week. He asks players to bring a light shirt and a dark shirt to easily divide teams, but that’s as far as it goes – no referees, no scoreboards.

“The atmosphere is pretty lighthearted,” Shields said. “There were one or two people in the past who didn’t always have the same kind of attitude or appreciation for the way in which we play, and now fortunately they don’t work here anymore.”

The soccer group is quite diverse demographically. The men and women range in age from early 20s to mid-60s (one Principal retiree returns occasionally to play). And several, such as Shields, are natives of other countries, with players from Germany, Spain and Africa.

“It’s kind of an eclectic group,” he said.

Following a four-month renovation that turned one gymnasium into a “cardio-theater” according to Halvorson, the soccer, basketball and volleyball groups now split time in a single gym.

“We do a have a schedule so it can be utilized as best as possible around the clock,” she said.

Richter’s basketball group is scheduled from 11 a.m. to noon five days a week. Of the 50 employees on his contact list, he typically sees eight to 10 people show up to play each day, all of whom are “mid-level” in terms of skill. Another group consists of men who have played at a higher level, such as intercollegiate basketball, and a third group is for men who may have only played at an intramural level.

Richter says he hits the basketball court nearly every, and finds the afternoons long and tiring when he can’t get to the gym over his lunch break.

“I also use it as stress relief,” he said.

“We have very good participation, good usage within our facility,” said Halvorson, who oversees a staff of 11 in the wellness center. “Obviously, if you look at the national average in America of the number of people who exercise regularly, it’s not very impressive.”

She said she has been pushing to extend the wellness center’s hours beyond its current 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule. Added convenience, she hopes, will continue to encourage more people to play soccer, lift weights, or spend 45 minutes in a Pilates class.

“Our most popular classes used to be the after-work classes,” she said. “But we as a company have a lot of working moms. It’s our lunch-hour classes that are huge. A lot of the working moms think, ‘My lunch hour is my time.’”