CLY2 Employees
Date:
April 2, 2019
Research has demonstrated that workplace wellness programs can help employee’s live healthier lives while improving their on-the-job productivity and decreasing absenteeism.
The Imperative is committed to ensuring that Black women receive the support and encouragement they need to adopt healthy lifestyles not only in their communities but in the workplace as well. The Imperative is one of six national organizations funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement the National Diabetes Prevention Program throughout the country.
The goals of the program are clearly defined and realistic: lose 5-7% of body weight and maintain 150 minutes/week of physical activity. Participants meet in a group setting and a trained Lifestyle Coach shares numerous strategies and tools to make the necessary lifestyle changes that promote weight loss and increased physical activity.
Through our diabetes prevention program, Change Your Lifestyle. Change Your Life., we have come to know and work with Mays Chemical Company, a 34 year–old, Indianapolis-based business that also serves as a program intervention site for the Indiana Minority Health Coalition, one of our partner organizations. We are recognizing Mays Chemical Company not only for hosting Change Your Lifestyle. Change Your Life. for the past several months, but also because the late owner William Mays and senior management spent several years creating a healthy environment and culture of wellness for their employees.
We asked Jeanette Lackey, VP of Human Resources, to share the Mays’ Chemical philosophy on employee health and wellness:
Mays Chemical Company has taken a holistic approach to employee wellness. Our wellness programs are designed to focus on the mind, body and spirit. We look at wellness as an integral piece of the puzzle to enhancing employees overall well-being and work productivity. We know that by providing wellness programs we do more than just impact the overall bottom-line by reducing healthcare cost and absenteeism, but our wellness programs also build teamwork, productivity and work performance which are all key to a healthy work environment. And support from the senior management team is also key.
Our programs like Zumba, Weight Watchers, gym membership reimbursement, smoking cessation and Change Your Lifestyle. Change Your Life. are offered to help employees maintain balance in their lives while at work. We also host Sweat Day Wednesday, when all employees wear workout gear so they can exercise onsite after work. Five-minute increments of music played at random times during the day encourage employees to stop working and dance! Lunch and Learn workshops on financial health have also been offered because we believe that financial wellbeing also contributes to wellness.
Here at Mays we have implemented our wellness programs to support and enhance a healthy way of living on and off the job. Our goal is to help strengthen the mind, body and spirit of our employees.