Health Links [HL]: What does being a healthy workplace mean to your organization?

Beck Building Company [BBC]: Our wellness program demonstrates our commitment to health and wellness for all employees. We try to do “random acts of healthy” by bringing healthy lunches to share with each other, hosting speakers on topics such as safety and the effect of sugar on our health, and catering healthy food at meetings when possible. These small efforts add up to positive results.

I believe being a healthy workplace has elevated our culture. We have a great culture already at Beck, but this gives us another reason to be engaged with each other and talk about something other than work. For a spread out organization, it helps bring us closer together. Lastly, it gives us a competitive advantage, in attracting and retaining employees and new business. Clients look favorably on us when we invest in our team!

HL: How does your organization create a culture of health, safety, and well-being for employees?

BBC: Safety, health, life balance, and learning are all important to us. We walk the talk and lead by example. We offer flex time to our employees, many of whom have small children and need to juggle their kids’ events and sports. We discuss our guiding principles every month during our team operations meetings. We also cover a different health or safety topic at Beck University each month. 

HL: What changes have you seen among your employees, their families, or the surrounding community as a result of your program(s)?

BBC: Engagement! We have had great participation in our wellness program since we started it. Employees, spouses and kids can also enjoy the benefits of our program. I have noticed that small changes really add up. Many of our team brings healthier lunches to work, we order healthier food for our meetings, and we make better choices in general. As a part of our safety programming, we allow and encourage our employees to anonymously submit safety concerns so that we can continue to keep the subject top of mind and continually make improvements at our job sites.

We offer many opportunities for employees to give back to themselves and the community with events such as Habitat for Humanity build days and community clean-up events with local nonprofits. They are always well attended.

Awareness has increased in the community about the importance of, and our commitment to, these programs. We participate in community-wide gatherings with other leaders to discuss resources we can offer to our employees. Our local chamber of commerce recognizes organizations committed to health and safety programs like ours. We have been a finalist for the Healthy Workplace Award from the Vail Valley Partnership for the past two years.

HL: How has Health Links™ helped your organization?

BBC: Health Links helped us get started and gave us ideas. They stayed with us, asked questions, and made great suggestions. We recently had a Health Links advising session with David. He spent time with us going through our assessment and score sheet. We talked through several ideas for how we can continue to help our employees to improve their health and wellbeing. At the end of the day, that’s what matters to us. 

HL: What tips or pieces of advice would you give to a business looking to create a healthier, safer, and happier environment? 

BBC: Do it! Find an internal champion and talk to a business that is similar to yours that has created a healthy, safe culture. They can offer helpful advice.