These Ragan award winners centered wellness in the employee experience

Workplace wellness can take many different forms but ultimately exists to give employees a feeling of betterment and security. Well-executed workplace wellness campaigns give employees the resources to feel their best, which enables them to perform their best on the job.

Let’s dive deeper into these three winners from the 2023 edition of Ragan’s Workplace Wellness Awards to explore the winning tactics and strategies behind the programs.

Employee Experience Award, Renown Health

The background: Employees give your organization a distinct identity and culture, but that uniqueness also brings individualized desires and needs that communicators need to be aware of. Renown Health recognized this and rolled out flexible work arrangements including remote work opportunities, adaptable schedules, and relaxed dress codes to give employees a workplace that suited their individual needs.

Renown Health’s commitment to wellness through employee experience goes far beyond remote work and wearing comfortable clothes to the office. It’s centered on making a tangible difference for workers, including:

• Paid time for volunteer service and grants for exceeding volunteerism milestones.
• Support for working parents via an on-site childcare center, for children aged six months to six years. As of the award date, 173 employees utilize the service.
• Career and personal development programs, including Enrich-U for increased on-the-job skill honing, and educational assistance programs for employees earning degrees.

The takeaway: When your employees have diverse needs, you need to provide them with a wide range of offerings that suit those needs. 

Mental Health Initiatives Award, M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment

The background: After the pandemic made it clear that the relationship between mental health and work needed a rethink, M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment its “Mental Health First Aiders” committee, which launched in 2021 and has since grown to inform the company’s policies, culture and benefits offerings.

The committee is a peer support group that dedicates itself to the wellness of employees . Each new member takes a six-week course on how to handle communications with mental wellness and empathy at the top of their minds. Almost 27% of the firm’s total staff members have joined the committee since its inception.

Some examples of the team’s award-winning work include:

• A #WellnessWednesday Slack channel for employees to share mental wellness resources, good news, or other self-care-inspired content.
• Bring Your Dog to Work Day. 90% of employees at the company reported that dog-friendly offices help them manage stress.
• A private Zoom session with Mental Health First Aiders for all employees to share their perspectives at any time. 

The takeaway: Empowering employee groups and resources that actually can make a difference creates accountable advocates who can positively influence recruitment, retention, and employer brand.

Work-Life Balance Award, 1Milk2Sugars Communications 

​​The background: Employees often desire a lot more than just a paycheck. They want benefits, perks, and a sense of work-life balance so that the stresses of their roles don’t follow them everywhere.

In early 2023, Canadian comms firm 1Milk2Sugars Communications set out to gather feedback on work-life balance from employees. The main pillars of the exercise were to obtain:

• Clarity on career development opportunities.
• Support structures for workplace boundaries, including the ability to completely detach from work after hours and on days off.

Based on initial employee feedback, the agency piloted a four-day workweek. This drove the agency to then create a codified outline of time expectations and each employee’s right to unplug when they’re away from work, setting the groundwork for the firm’s innovative work-life balance approach.

1Milk2Sugars also added several other major perks to promote work-life balance for employees in 2023, including:

• Premium Calm subscriptions for all employees.
• Access to Perkopolis, Canada’s top workplace perk brand, with employee-preferred pricing.
• Monday mentor meetups to ensure employees are feeling seen and hitting their career goals.
• A $500 CAN per-employee wellness budget.
• An all-inclusive work retreat for all employees over four days in the Dominican Republic.

An internal poll showed 80% of employees felt the four-day workweek helped them become more efficient in their roles. As of the time of this recognition, 1Milk2Sugars Communications saw zero voluntary turnover since May 2023

The takeaway: Demonstrating a willingness to change company policies and work expectations based on employee feedback sends a signal that they are heard and trusted. Once you’ve done that, and added benefits that support the reasoning for the shift, you’re on your way to a great retention rate.

Remember to apply to this year’s edition of the awards before the December 6 deadline.

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