Wellness part of the culture

Banneker Industries Inc. practices healthy habits as part of a larger goal – employee empowerment – a goal that wins awards and gets the company noticed on a national scale.

The company’s first place showing in the small-business category of PBN’s Healthiest Employers competition follows Banneker being named one of the Best Places To Work earlier in the year by PBN, as well as receiving the American Heart Association Health and Fitness Gold Award. It’s earned these honors by promoting healthy habits at work and in the community in a dramatic fashion.

As one of many examples, human resources department associate Sheryl Watson said, employees participating in the company’s recent eight-week Step Challenge clocked 5,462 miles of walking, enough to walk to Costa Rica, she said. One of the 19 employees participating clocked 911,144 steps, approximately 456 miles.

“Our wellness program has hosted health fairs, fitness competitions and supported community health and fitness events,” Watson wrote in the application for the PBN award. “The participation of employees has included all departments and locations of our organization. … We have achieved this without offering any financial incentive to the employees for participating.”

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The program distributes monthly fitness magazines, sends weekly health and fitness emails, and communicates health awareness through direct mail. It offers health- and fitness-related social activities and challenges. The company’s recent health fair provided the 30 employees who attended blood pressure screenings, flu shots and BMI testing.

Banneker founder, President and CEO Cheryl W. Snead said staying healthy is a company priority because it’s a small company and her employees have pulled together to keep each other healthy and happy, like a family would.

They have formed committees, such as the Strive Committee, that have introduced some of the ideas the wellness program has implemented. It was this committee’s idea to join ShapeUp Rhode Island, Snead said, a program under which local companies and organizations compile statistics on how many steps or miles were walked and how much weight was lost, competing with each other.

“One hundred percent of the company’s employees participate in the wellness program in one way or another,” Snead said. “Teams within the workforce organize workouts and walks. The company gives out flu shots every October.”

Watson noted a significant number of employees have reduced their weight and at-risk behaviors, and now sing the praises of the company program. The company’s insurance provider, UnitedHealthcare, has responded to the program, recently lowering employees’ premium rates by 1 percent.

Watson is part of the Strive Committee, which also encourages employees to get involved outside of work to promote healthy habits within the larger community. For instance, 13 employees participated in last year’s American Heart Walk in Providence and raised more than $1,000 for heart research. Company employees have been a part of this walk for the past nine years.

It is this type of broader goal, empowering employees through wellness and other efforts, that helps explain why Banneker’s four years in a row as a PBN Best Place To Work is not a surprise, nor are the numerous national honors Snead and the company have received in the last decade. These successes also helps explain why Snead earned the biggest award of all in October 2014, as a business leader promoting empowerment on every level. President Barack Obama mentioned her in a speech on Women and the Economy at Rhode Island College.

Obama delivered remarks to a packed house at RIC in which he cited the role Snead has played in the advancement of the company as a regional and global leader in the provision of supply-chain management services. He noted her entrepreneurial spirit and perseverance in building a world-class logistics and supply-chain services company, and as an African-American mechanical engineering graduate who has encouraged and empowered more women and girls into STEM fields.

“Her company has made it a priority to find talented, young women and minority students, encourage them to study science and math in college, hire them once they graduate,” Obama said in a speech widely available on YouTube.

Snead said Obama’s recognition shows how a company can work – through wellness initiatives and other efforts – to empower its employees, including those who are young, female and minorities.

“It tied to the programs we’ve done from that perspective. And I’m proud of it,” she said of her employee-centric approach. n

A HealthyThought:

‘Participation of employees has included all departments and locations of our organization.’

Sheryl Watson, human resources associate, Banneker Industries

Number of Employees: 50

CEO (or equivalent): Cheryl W. Snead, founder, president and CEO

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