A look at how leaning into the pillars of wellness leads to award-winning initiatives

Workplace wellness involves multiple pillars—financial, social, physical and mental being the core four. But regardless of how benefits support employees, the best organizations integrate a well-rounded approach that leaves room for certain pillars to truly shine.

We’re looking back at three winners from the 2023 edition of Ragan’s Workplace Wellness Awards to examine the winning tactics and strategies behind the programs. Remember to apply to this year’s edition of the awards before the December 6 deadline.

Bank of America, Financial Wellness Award

The program: People work at companies for a lot of reasons, chief among them being the check they get every couple of weeks. Understanding that the paycheck is an investment in employee wellbeing, fil Bank Of America launched a suite of financial wellness programs to ensure its external reputation as a strong financial cornerstone for its consumer banking customers exists for its employees, too.

Bank of America’s initiative included raising its minimum wage to reflect economic conditions and creating a retirement program that allows employees to invest with confidence that their futures are secure.

In addition, Bank of America maintains financial assistance programs for employees that cover healthcare, childcare, education, and emergency support.

The takeaway: When your main mission aligns with a pillar of wellness, it’s essential to ensure your employees benefit from your services first.

NYU Langone Health, Physical Wellness Award 

The background: The happiest, most productive employees are often the healthiest ones too — and when you’re in the business of healing, making sure your people can focus on their health is a major plus.

NYU Langone Health’s HR department partnered with its division of gastroenterology and hepatology, the Perlmutter Cancer Center, and Local 1199 to form an initiative, the “Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative”, which encouraged employees over 45 to get screened for colorectal cancer.

The “Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative” included informative content for employees, a free PTO day for those who chose to get screened, and transportation for employees in need of a ride. A dedicated nurse practitioner was on call to answer any questions employees might have about the process or their overall colon health.

NYU Langone’s wellness portal served as an informational hub for the screening program with educational videos, information on colon cancer risks, resources to schedule procedures, contact methods for the nurse practitioner, and more. The campaign was promoted through physical postcards and emails to NYU Langone employees, with Local 1199 promoting the program to union members.

The campaign ran from July 2022 to June 2023, during which it engaged 403 employees and coordinated 95 colonoscopies.

The takeaway: Another example of a company practicing its external mission internally, this program underscores how, when organizations take the extra step to make sure that their people are doing their best physically, they both show they care and give their employees their best chance to perform well.

PAN Communications, Professional Wellness Award

The background: Any old job will tell you when you start that there are chances to grow. At PAN Communications, they show it’s baked into the ethos of the company. PAN’s professional wellness program recognizes that individuals grow at different rates and in different ways with a coaching and development framework that brings out the best in every employee through its “Professional Wellness at PAN” program.

The firm’s career coaching model gives each new employee at PAN a dedicated coach to show them the ropes. The two meet biweekly to address growing pains, aspirations, and more. Employees also are connected with a VP at the firm that oversees the coaches.

The organization also runs a shared staffing model, in which employees get to try each discipline that makes up the role. In this way, PAN employees gain well-rounded skills that make them successful in a fast-moving comms world.

There’s also the PANU employee training program, which serves as an educational resource with the following benefits.

• There are modules for crisis comms, broadcast comms, and more.
• There are also one-on-one workshops employees can utilize to sharpen expertise in specific areas.
• In addition, PANU helps employees learn about newsjacking, content optimization, and paid media.

These investments in employees have borne success through employee feedback. PAN employees scored the organization at 9.32 out of 10 for training and development, 9.41 for overall job satisfaction, and 9.29 for agency satisfaction.

The takeaway: Your employees are your most important resource. Making the extra effort to focus on learning and development can help make you a destination employer when people have the knowledge that you care about their development as employees and individuals.

Remember to apply to the Ragan Workplace Wellness Awards here. 

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.