Worksite Wellness Collaborative
Coming Soon!
SHIP 4 Grantees
St. James
Mayo/Smithfield Place
St James Mayo Clinic and Smithfield Place are collaborating
in SHIP 4 to create a healthier environment at Smithfield Place. Smithfield
place is a largely Latino occupied site, where language barriers and irregular
work schedules make it difficult to communicate health needs. St. James Mayo
Clinic has been working with Smithfield Place in the past with individualized
health assessments and coaching from the Mayo Clinic Dietitian. The pair looks
for help from SHIP to advance their healthy worksite plan by improving wellness
policies, onboarding employees to make health a priority, and using baseline
worksite assessments to discover wellness disparities within the facility.
Watonwan County Human
Services
Watonwan County has worked with SHIP in the past which
resulted in a successful healthy snack station as well as many other wellness
activities. They have done impressive work on their own by coming up with their
own walking policy using PTO to encourage physical activity. During SHIP 4,
Watonwan County plans to purchase sit/stand stations for employees interested, complete
a worksite assessment, incorporate more smoke-free signage, and designate a
room to support breastfeeding mothers.
City of St. James
The City of St. James looks to model Watonwan County Human
Services with their walking policy using PTO as an incentive in the future. The
City of St. James has worked with SHIP during previous years with the
successful creation of a snack station and purchase of bike racks. The City of
St. James modeled their own wellness efforts by establishing an employee loan
policy to purchase exercise equipment. During SHIP 4, they would like to create
a more inviting environment for breastfeeding mothers to express milk, promote
stretching, continue to promote nutrition, and expand their smoke-free policy.
Faribault County
Faribault County created a wellness team in SHIP 3. The team
consists of employee representatives from three units of the county. Faribault
County passed a 100% smoke-free grounds policy in 2015, with the exception of
employee cars. They also created a successful healthy snack station at all
three sites for employee use. The county looks to improve wellness efforts
during SHIP 4 by identifying locations and materials to support breastfeeding.
They also plan to establish container gardens for staff to plant and use at the
courthouse and purchase bike racks for staff use.
Tony Downs
Tony Downs Foods employs a majority of a Latino population
in the Madelia area. In the last rounds of SHIP, Tony Downs used their SHIP
funding to create a wellness team, stretching program for line workers,
purchased television monitors for communicating health information in Spanish,
and in progress of working on their healthy vending selection. During SHIP 4,
the plant plans to take on the project of furnishing a lactation room, start a
healthy snack station, install bike racks, and purchase signage for the
tobacco-free premises.
Hy-Vee Fairmont
Hy-Vee, Fairmont dietitian, Jill Smith, not only helps
consumers with their healthy habits, but also has been working to incorporate
wellness in the worksite for Hy-Vee employees. This includes incorporating
biometric screenings to identify risk for diabetes and other chronic diseases. Jill
Smith also plans to implement an I Can Prevent Diabetes program for staff as
well as the community. During SHIP 4, Hy-Vee looks to increase their wellness
efforts by incorporating healthy snacks into the vending machines, develop and
promote lactation space, and utilizing current wellness assessments through the
help of SHIP.
SHIP 3 Accomplishments
City of St. James - coming soon!Tony Downs Foods - coming soon!
Martin County West Schools - coming soon!
Faribault County - coming soon!
United South Central Schools - coming soon!
Parkview Care Center - coming soon!
Madelia Public Schools- coming soon!
St. James Public Schools - coming soon!
SHIP 2 Accomplishments
City of St. James
The City of St. James was able to create their first
City-wide wellness council because of SHIP 2! Their wellness council consists
of individuals from different departments throughout the city who are
passionate about improving the health of their worksite. The City was able to
partner with a local physical therapist to come in and provide some stretching
routines for employees to use before work to reduce the risk of on-site/work
related injuries. June 2013 was the kick off to the City’s first walking
challenge. The challenge consisted of 1 point for each mile walked/ran with a
maximum of 5 points a day. Points were also given to individuals who visited
the local fitness center and bonus points could be received if employees
attended screening/health events hosted by the City. Incentives were given to 2
individuals each week. Names of participants who participated in the walking
challenge for 2 or more days were placed in a drawing for an incentive; another
incentive was given to the individual who received the most points for the
week. In late June, 2013 the City hosted their first screening day. The
screening day consisted of volunteers and ambulance staff providing free blood
glucose and blood pressure readings to all staff. The City had over 50
participants and those employees who participated were given bonus points for
the walking challenge!
Martin County West Schools
CJFMW SHIP received additional funds from the UCARE Fund which allowed Martin County West Schools the opportunity to establish a worksite wellness program. The school formed an employee wellness committee and provided opportunities to staff to utilize school resources before and after school for physical activity, including community education classes and the school pool. The school partnered with the dietician at the Hy-Vee Food Store in Fairmont to offer nutrition education/cooking classes to employees. Each month the worksite offer social support challenges to encourage employees to be active and eat healthier. Tobacco cessation resources are provided to staff and currently the wellness committee is working to develop a worksite wellness policy.
Tony Downs Foods Group
CJFMW SHIP worked with Tony Down’s Foods (Down’s Food Group) in Madelia, St. James and Butterfield to further implement an employee wellness program. Over the past several years, health education has been provided each month to employees as well as ensuring employees have a tobacco free environment by implementing a tobacco-free grounds policy. SHIP funding allowed the worksite to implement more comprehensive, evidence-based strategies to improve employee health and wellbeing. These strategies include establishing wellness committees in each processing plant who oversee and provide suggestions to improving employee wellness. DFG has also recently adopted a comprehensive wellness policy which includes healthy vending, healthy catering and breastfeeding support for employees, tobacco-free grounds policies and cessation support and encouragement of community partnerships to improve physical activity opportunities for employees as well as encouragement of walking and biking to and from work. With an extremely diverse workforce, including 70% Latino employees, the employer identified several strategies that would help improve the healthfulness of the worksite. Vending machines were updated and labeled to encourage healthy options at break times. TV’s were installed in the break-rooms to run bilingual health education and community announcements such as WIC and Dental Clinics. The worksite partnered with the local Anytime Fitness to offer discounted rates to employees and also partnered with a local fitness trainer to offer classes to employees before and after work.
Wells Area Chamber of Commerce
The Wells Area Chamber of Commerce received $2,500 to reach out to their membership in supporting small businesses that do not have resources to implement their own worksite wellness programs. A new standing wellness committee, selected with a background in business as well as the health field, was formed and added to the Chamber organization. A baseline assessment was conducted to determine current practices. The Chamber partnered with the Wells Active Living Coalition to develop a county wide active living resource web page and walking maps centered on the downtown area to encourage business employees to be active during the work day. Walking Wednesdays was implemented. Chamber members also participated in the Community Healthy Lifestyles Challenge.
Madelia Community Hospital
Madelia Community Hospital received $3,000 and as a result accomplished many worksite wellness challenges and implemented new and improved vending during SHIP 2. Their new and improved vending features healthy snack options and has a computerized system which displays all nutritional information for each item in the machine. They partnered with their onsite cook and were able to create weekly healthy recipes for all staff to try. Each week a new recipe was found from a different healthy cookbook and was featured on their worksite wellness board. Copies of the recipe were also handed out to staff members. Their wellness council held monthly meetings to help come up with and create new and innovative ways their employees could be involved with health. They were able to create some very fun walking and healthy eating challenges. Their staff worked hard to develop on site walking maps to help increase participation of the challenge. All staff was provided pedometers as incentives for the walking challenge! Some extra pedometers were purchased for staff to check out on breaks on to use during their work day.
Mayo Clinic Health Systems- Fairmont
Mayo Clinic Health System-Fairmont received $3,000 and involved many of their employees in their fitness and weight loss challenges during SHIP 2. Mayo was fortunate enough to have a student intern during the summer months of 2012. The student intern was able to work closely with SHIP and come up with some innovative fruit and veggie challenges for Mayo employees. SHIP funds were used to create onsite fitness libraries for employees to check out healthy cookbooks, fitness videos and small fitness equipment. Work continues within the Mayo Health System to develop an employee wellness policy for staff.
3M -Fairmont
3M was able to partner with the dietician from Hy-Vee to present several lunch and learns on healthy eating/nutrition during their lunch breaks. Topics included how to eat healthy on a budget, how to use the Nu-Val System at Hy-Vee, and how to make quick and easy meals. Employee attendance and interest levels were high and as a result, the lunch and learn program will continue in the future. 3M hosted a Fairmont Fitness Day in May and had 87 employees participate. They also created a 60 in 60 walking challenge which asked employees to walk a mile per day for 60 days. SHIP was able to purchase pedometers to encourage employees to participate in the challenge. Walking signs were purchased to post around the 3M site to tell employees how far they have walked on the designated walking paths on site. New policies were developed and implemented related to employee nutrition. Tobacco cessation services were also provided and continue to be promoted to employees through the Occupational Health Nurse.
Blue Earth Area Schools
Blue Earth Area Schools had actively been engaging employees in wellness activities for several years, however did not have a policy in place to ensure the program would be sustained into the future. Through SHIP, their employee wellness committee was able to draft and pass an employee wellness policy as part of the school wellness policy. Their policy included provisions on physical activity for staff, access to healthy foods – including foods provided by the worksite at meetings and events. Social support programs were also continued to encourage healthy behaviors among staff.
United South Central Schools
USC Schools received $3,000 for worksite wellness. A newly formed employee wellness committee initiated a yearlong wellness program called Working On Wellness (WOW. This program consisted of providing options to employees to assist with for weight loss, weight maintenance and exercise incentives. Free weight training classes were offered. Support for stress management, hydration and smoking cessation was offered to all staff. The wellness committee continues to convene this summer to develop a comprehensive worksite wellness policy for staff wellness. Additionally, the USC Community Education Program and the Wells Active Living Coalition (WALC) have been working closely to offer nutrition and active living classes to compliment efforts going on with the school's worksite wellness committee. Classes, such as Zumba and Bone Builders first offered in SHIP 1 continue to be enjoyed by large numbers.
February 2013
Downs Food Group/Tony Downs Foods (DFG), a large poultry processing plant located in Watonwan County who employs a large minority workforce, has been busy making huge strides towards creating a healthier worksite for hundreds of employees. Downs Food Group is not new to encouraging healthy lifestyles with their employees. Over the past several years, health education has been provided each month to employees as well as ensuring employees have a tobacco free environment by implementing a tobacco-free grounds policy. SHIP funding allowed the worksite to implement more comprehensive, evidence-based strategies to improve employee health and wellbeing. These strategies include establishing wellness committees in each processing plant who oversee and provide suggestions to improving employee wellness. DFG has also recently adopted a comprehensive wellness policy which includes healthy vending, healthy catering and breastfeeding support for employees, tobacco-free grounds policies and cessation support and encouragement of community partnerships to improve physical activity opportunities for employees as well as encouragement of walking and biking to and from work.
To help implement this policy, DFG partnered with Anytime Fitness to reduce gym membership rates for employees. Additionally, DFG also partnered with a personal trainer to provide a fitness challenge. DFG also partnered with their local vendor to ensure 50% of the foods provided in the vending machines were healthier choices.
Moving forward, DFG is exploring the availability of offering stretching programs to reduce repetitive motion injuries; planning more wellness activities including more family oriented events and exploring ways to improve access to healthy foods through gardening and mobile farmers markets.
Congrats to DFG for helping to make Watonwan County a healthier place to live and work!
December 2012
Cottonwood County Family Services Agency (CCFSA) is working on the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) worksite wellness strategy. The organization has made strides to improve the culture of health in the worksite and has passed a Nutrition and Physical Activity policy. Other notable changes to improve wellness in the worksite included implementing a healthy snack program, providing nutrition education for employees, and developing walking route maps.
After just a few months of working with SHIP, the CCFSA developed a worksite wellness policy. The policy demonstrates the organizations commitment to healthy eating and physical activity, and it provides a foundation to support for the efforts that are being made to improve health of employees. The policy encourages employees to eat well and outlines the goals of the healthy snack program and encourages employees to bring healthy food options for meetings and when sharing food with co-workers. The policy also encourages employees to get up and move before and after work or during break times.
March 2012
The worksite wellness strategy works with employers to implement policies and practices that help employees be physically active, eat healthier and quit tobacco. There are several different ways worksites can accomplish these goals. SHIP will focus on establishing a worksite wellness committee, addressing company wellness policies and establishing evidence-based practices that are proven to better employee health. Evidence shows that healthier employees benefit employers by keeping health insurance costs down and increasing productivity.
The following worksites received grants to work on the Worksite Strategy with CJFMW SHIP:
3M-Fairmont
Mayo Health Systems– Fairmont
Tony Downs Foods
Madelia Community Hospital
Wells Area Chamber of Commerce
Jackson County
Blue Earth Area Schools
United South Central Schools
