Western Takes Healthy Steps Towards Wellness With New Committee
At Western Construction Group, we make our employees’ well-being a priority, and it surpasses safety on the jobsite to also include their physical wellness. There is also a strong correlation between a healthy workforce and lower health insurance costs. It is with this mindset that the Western Wellness Committee was created by our Risk Management and Benefits teams at the end of last year.
The Western Wellness Committee is a selected team of health-conscious employees that act as delegates to help develop and execute our new wellness program initiatives. First, we helped to spread the message of how to lower your insurance premiums by completing a Biometric screening. This screening is an important factor in identifying potential health risks ahead of time.
From there, the committee brainstormed ideas on how to increase wellness at the company level and even researched other company’s wellness programs. Three of the top ideas from Phase 1 were:
1. Providing fresh fruits/veggies at the branch offices.
With over 30 branch locations nationwide, it’s hard to see what our employees eating habits are, so we decided to at least help provide healthier snacking options by ordering fruit and vegetables from local vendors to be delivered to each branch every week. We hope that people get excited about their new, fresh snacks, and start to make the habit of choosing healthier alternatives.
2. Promote employee participation in the run/walk events by reimbursing employee’s registration fees.
There are tons of charitable benefits that hold 5ks, relay races and obstacle runs all over the country. To help increase wellness and also community involvement, Western has agreed to reimburse all registration fees for participating in these fun events. It helps promote a healthy mindset, and people can choose what kind of event fits their individual fitness needs and goals.
Our employees are responding very positively to this new program and have even formed “Western” teams for these events!
3. Provide healthy eating tips/recipes via monthly newsletter.
With everyone being so busy, it’s hard for some employees to make or even consider healthy food choices. Western helped educate our employees by sending out Daily Wellness Tips-easy to digest, quick and easy tips that provided information about nutrition and healthy alternative ideas.
Phase 2 of the Western Wellness Committee has been tackling how to use technology to promote wellness company-wide. We’ve had some wonderful ideas come together, including: providing useful, wellness apps for employees to track their health goals, using broadcast platforms to share wellness speaker presentations and fitness sessions with all of the branches and sharing our employee fitness success stories on our intranet.
Stay tuned for more from our Western Wellness Committee!