Employers Help Win National Recognition for Mission's Weight Loss Challenge
More than 300 Western North Carolina businesses and employers participated in Mission's 2009 Lighten Up 4 Life challenge - and the success they made possible has now been recognized nationally.
Lighten Up 4 Life is one of just five initiatives nationwide honored in the 2009 American Hospital Association NOVA award program. The award, to be presented July 25 in San Francisco, recognizes work to improve community health by addressing health habits and other social and educational factors leading to better health status and improving access to care.
For Lighten Up 4 Life, numbers tell the story: During its first two seasons, more than 5,200 people in Western North Carolina lost 34 tons. Most of them were members of business-sponsored teams.
The approach is simple: Employees organize themselves into teams of four, give themselves a name (preferably humorous) and support each other as they adopt healthier eating habits and lose weight gradually. Their progress is self-monitored and reported monthly. The team and individual who lose the greatest percentage of body weight are recognized, but everybody who loses is a winner.
The Lighten Up 4 Life program is free, fun and effective, a triple payoff for employers dealing with unprecedented financial pressures and staff struggling to maintain morale. It has been so popular that it is being expanded into a year-round initiative. For more information, visit lightenup4life.com.
Unexpected Benefits at Volvo:
The Human Resource Perspective
"Volvo's wellness initiatives are having both a direct and indirect impact on our business. While mitigating direct medical costs are important from a business perspective, the unintended and positive consequences of our wellness programs far outweigh any potential direct cost savings.
"Our wellness programs have fostered an environment whereby employee attitudes are more positive in the sense that healthy bodies are creating healthy minds. Moreover, wellness events are creating settings which bring people into closer contact with each other, thus having the effect of fostering interpersonal and team relationships that might not have otherwise been the case.
"It is Volvo's belief that diversity is a catalyst for innovation and a source of international competitiveness. Culturally speaking, our wellness programs create a much greater sense of understanding and appreciation of the diverse aspects of our workforce by bringing employees together. The revelation of this "hidden" diversity creates immediate value for our company."
Charles H. Wood, Jr., CPA, SPHR. GPHR
Vice-President - Human Resource Management & Administration
Volvo Construction Equipment North America, Inc.
