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Working on Wellness Newsletter
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Securing Buy-In for Employee Health and Safety
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Through leadership and decision-making, management defines strategy and sets the tone for a company's culture. Workplaces that have a culture of health have visible leadership support from managers, supervisors and executives, and a work environment where health and safety is valued, supported and promoted. Remember, employees take direct and indirect cues from the people around them including peers and managers. Securing management buy-in for the wellness initiative is one strategy to ensure that health and wellness is part of the fabric of the organization.
Tips for Success:
- Communicate the value of workforce health and safety. Organization leaders should acknowledge and communicate widely the value of workforce health, safety and well-being and its connection to the core products, services and values of the company.
- Identify a Wellness Sponsor. Identify a member of the executive leadership team to be the visible leader and spokesperson for your wellness initiative. Pro-actively ask the sponsor to attend wellness events and to communicate the initiative to all members of the organization.
- Engage mid-level management. Middle management is the direct link between workers and upper management and plays a crucial role in the success or failure of your wellness initiative. Be sure to educate this group about worksite wellness and provide training on the link between health, safety and productivity.
- Establish a wellness committee. For long-term sustainability be sure to develop a diverse wellness committee to plan, promote and implement your wellness initiative. This can help divvy up roles and responsibilities, develop broad ownership, and is an excellent vehicle for communication with employees.
- Actively engage employees in your worksite wellness initiative. Advance worker well-being by establishing policies, programs and practices that encourage worker participation, input and involvement.
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The Healthy Workplaces Toolbox: Toolbox Highlight
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To help you begin the process of building buy-in with your organization's leadership team
, Working on Wellness has made a number of tools and resources available to you.
Linking to the organization's business priorities is essential for the wellness initiative to be successful and to gain support from management. The Business Priorities Worksheet is a tool that was created to help you and your senior leaders think through your organization's business priorities and make a clear connection to the values and benefits of your wellness initiative.
The Values and Benefits Exercise was created to assist you in making a clear connection between your organization's priorities to the values and benefits of your wellness initiative. The identified values and benefits will be used throughout your initiative to reinforce to your employees how the wellness program links to the overall business goals.
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Participant Highlight- Town of Fairhaven
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The Town of
Fairhaven
is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay of the Atlantic Ocean. The municipality employs 494 people across diverse job types and fields.
Bob Espindola, Select Board Chairman, is the Wellness Sponsor and executive
spokerperson
for the Town of Fairhaven's
w
ellness
i
nitiative.
Bob is the spark that set the Town of Fairhaven's employees on their worksite wellness journey. Through Bob's participation participation in the SouthCoast Worksite Health and Wellness Collaborative, he learned about Massachusetts's Working on Wellness Program.
Under his leadership, the
t
own applied and was accepted to participate in the first cohort of Massachusetts employers in the Working on Wellness program.
In Bob's role as
Wellness Sponsor
, he communicates key messages to employees including the rolling out of key assessments, such as the Working on Wellness Needs and Interest Survey, and programs,
such as
their wellness initiative kick
-
off and health fair.
Bob is also a visible supporter of Fairhaven's Wellness Initiative and an active participant in the
t
own's interventions.
You'll see him on the field with his fellow town employees playing kick ball and volleyball in competition with town businesses and groups such as the Mass Attack Roller Derby Team.
Bob
Espindola, the Town of Fairhaven's Sponsor, participating in
a friendly game of kickball through their wellness initiative.
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Working on Wellness Expert Series
Free hour-long worksite wellness focused webinars
The
Working on Wellness Expert Series
covers various topics in worksite wellness and safety. Each hour-long webinar, hosted by experts in the fields of worksite wellness, occupational safety, and public health, provides strategies that your workplace can use to enhance wellness at work, including- tools, interventions, and resources.
WINTER 2017 SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 9, 2017
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST
Led By: Jennifer Bennet,
Harvard Family Van
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST
Led By: Barbara Zabawa, JD, MPH,
Center for Health and Wellness Law, LLC
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EXPERT SERIES
Mobile Health Clinics: Meeting Your Employees Where They Are
February 9th at 2:00pm EST
NATIONAL WELLNESS CONFERENCE 2017
Registration is now open. The conference will be held in in St. Paul, MN.
June 18-21, 2017
EMOTIONAL BRAIN TRAINING (EBT)
Training employees to flip the stress switch.
February 8, 2017 at 9:30am CT
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