A company that makes workplace wellness its business should reflect those principles in its own office. For Preventure in Coventry, which helps other companies with customized wellness strategies and program implementation, its 69 employees have seen the concept of workplace wellness evolve over the past three decades.
“It’s much more metrics driven,” said Laura Walmsley, Preventure chief business-development officer, of workplace health initiatives such as nutritious food and exercise opportunities at work. “There is more [knowledge] that understanding health of employees can have myriad returns to the organization,” not the least of which is keeping health care costs under control.
Recent years have brought much more on-site engagement for companies, Walmsley said, going beyond offering an incentive for employees to join a fitness club. Examples of Preventure’s efforts to further engage employees at their workplace include a new, on-site vegetable garden and a recent challenge, in which “Break Buddies” keep each other accountable for taking a break every 10 minutes – even if it’s just getting up to get a glass of water. Initiatives are constantly reviewed and expanded, Walmsley said.
Workplace wellness has cultural importance, Walmsley said. And as for Preventure employees? “We want them to feel good about themselves and good about working here. They are more likely to give it all they’ve got. It feels like a two-way street.”
