By Miriam Hansen and Brad Roden
On Wed, Sept 19th Board Members Miriam Hanson and Brad Roden co-chaired the “Wellness in Transportation Sector” meeting. The meeting was held at Ace’s in Superior. Miriam started the meeting off with a brief intro detailing the relevancy, access points and how to tailor a wellness program for your company. She shared a hand-out of Corporate Wellness Program ideas that can be adapted and utilized by any company interested in supporting a culture of wellness for their employees.
Brad Roden (SVP of NBC) then took the mic to share the innovative wellness platform initiated by National Bank of Commerce in June 2018. Due to the high quantity of millennials in their employee demographic, NBC chose to utilize a technology-driven program. Of the 129 employees, 125 opted to receive Fitbits. Information is shared laterally throughout the company, with “Pop-up” wellness challenges initiated by employees themselves, and a Wellness Team that meets regularly to over-see and promote certain desirable aspects of the software. Incentives such as steaks, cash and PTO days are provided. The digital platform was able to draw in and highlight other wellness-related pre-existing offerings at NBC, such as the EAP, gym membership reimbursements and insurance premium reductions, so that now employees are using programs that previously were shadowed.
Then Jason Crisp (Health & Wellness Coordinator of Halvor Lines) continued the program with the origin story of the Wellness Program at Halvor Lines. Outlining its inception and history, Jason was able to convey how Halvor has achieved a strong and established award-winning Wellness Program. Jason highlighted a few individuals and their stories to emphasize that it’s one person and one small step at a time that makes change happen. He also described the evolution and cornerstones of the program.
Miriam wrapped up the program summarizing that the success of both Brad and Jason’s programming comes from 1) Strong support from Upper Level Management and 2)Continued attention to the program by a Wellness Team or Wellness Champions to keep generating interest and support laterally in the company. Wellness in the transportation sector is critical to the health of the sector, and companies can design a unique program that fits their particular employee demographic for desired effect.
This presentation is followed up by an immediate action of the implementation of the Third Annual DSTA Fall Into Fitness Challenge, which started on Sept. 24th and culminates on Nov. 5th.