According to a recent study from SmartAsset, Greenville County workers have access to some of the best workplace benefits in South Carolina. Many businesses incorporate corporate wellness programs into the company’s overall benefit program, offering a wide array of activities such as onsite gyms, healthy eating programs and on-site yoga sessions. Corporate wellness programs provide a way for employees to stay in shape, reduce stress and more.
UBJ looked at both organizations and wellness program providers that have made efforts to prioritize local employees’ health.
Bon Secours
Bon Secours is focusing on direct-to-employer solutions through a new solutions arm of the organization, called Harness Health Partners. This allows them to offer a variety of well-being services that empower employees to get (and stay) healthy.
These might include their human performance platform and coaching programs, biometric screenings, employee assistance and work/life services or health promotion programs.
“Through Harness Health Partners, we work with each client as a partner to understand the ‘why’ for their well-being initiatives in order to develop a customized solution to support the organization’s goals,” says Denise Diaz, the director of business health services.
Bon Secours works with each organization to establish program metrics to monitor and support their unique program goals. These may include aggregate measures such as engagement, health outcomes and more.
“We have found that employers are in different places in their journey to provide well-being solutions for their associates,” says Diaz. “In order to help meet them where they are in their journey, we have structured program offerings that vary in design based on the outcomes that the employer wants to achieve.”
Greenville Yoga
Liz Delaney, owner of Greenville Yoga, partners with Upstate businesses to provide on-site yoga. Participating businesses include law offices, high schools, doctor’s offices, non-profits, and others.
“We send a teacher to lead classes on-site once per week paid for by the companies. In some places, we move conference tables out of the way or work in hallways or break rooms,” says Delaney.
Prisma Health
Prisma Health partners with businesses across the state to provide a variety of health care services, including wellness programs. Employers are able to take a customized, flexible approach with what they want to include in their benefits programs.
Onsite business health programming allows companies to leverage resources to provide care at a lower cost in a more convenient location, says Ashley Creech, business relations manager. The businesses partner directly with Prisma Health so there is no cost to the employee. Some companies have an assigned onsite health and well-being consultant.
“It is a great recruitment tool and incentive for employees and helps to reduce time away from work,” Creech says.
Milliken
Milliken focuses on family wellness by supporting associates who travel for the company in a program called Milk Stork, which helps associates continue to breastfeed while traveling by providing them with everything needed to ship their breast milk home quickly and safely.
Milliken also offers a program called Health Advocate that “combines innovative coaching and engagement practices with advanced health-data analysis to educate, motivate and empower associates and their families to make lasting healthy changes. These services include wellness coaching, health-risk assessments and more,” according to a Milliken spokesperson.
“Milliken associates around the world are the reason we are able to create cutting-edge innovations, and we see the tremendous impact within our company when our associates feel cared for and appreciated,” says Craig Haydamack, chief human resources officer at Milliken. “We believe it is simply the right thing for us to do to provide wide-ranging benefits that support and prioritize our associates and their families in their health journey.”
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System offers labs, biometrics, health risk assessments and preventative visits in its wellness program. Mindfulness classes and yoga are also offered to provide variety in the program’s offerings.
“We care about our employees and want them to be healthy because if they aren’t, they can’t take care of people coming into the hospital.” – Misty Sloan, employee health program coordinator, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
“Once these are completed, if on the health plan with the hospital, the employee does receive company funding in the form of a health savings account or health reimbursement account,” says Misty Sloan, employee health program coordinator.
If an employee doesn’t have insurance through the hospital, a point system is used. Wellness points can be saved for prizes selected out of a catalog that includes items such as kitchenware or outdoor furniture.
“We care about our employees and want them to be healthy because if they aren’t, they can’t take care of people coming into the hospital,” Sloan says.
Michelin
Michelin’s wellness initiatives are designed to ensure employees have the opportunity to achieve total well-being in their professional and personal lives. says Terec Nedwards, health and wellness program manager. Michelin’s “Choose Well, Live Well” program includes a wide range of programs and benefits that promote a healthy, engaged workforce.
Michelin’s Employee Assistance Program provides counseling services and support for employees and family members. An on-site EAP counselor is available within each Family Health Center.
Denny’s
At its headquarters in Spartanburg, Denny’s promotes healthy eating in its cafeteria and offers outdoor recreation at its on-site landscaped park. Off-site, the company offers its employees free annual memberships to the local YMCA. A representative for the company reports that over 200 of its employees currently utilize the membership.
“At Denny’s, our team members are family,” says Jill Van Pelt, Denny’s senior vice president and chief people officer. “We offer a variety of benefits such as free mobile mammograms, YMCA memberships and volunteer hours to keep them engaged, healthy and happy. Denny’s is America’s diner and we strive to foster a work environment that feels like a home away from home.”
GE Gas Power
Greenville’s GE Gas Power’s wellness programs focus on providing the best work environment for its employees. Programs range from maternity care to employee running groups.
In Greenville, the company provides an onsite gym, the Power Station, managed by Health Fitness Corporation. Power Station is an 8,000-square-foot fully outfitted fitness facility that offers fitness assessments, including movement-efficiency screenings, individualized fitness programs, incentive challenges and daily group exercise classes.
GE Gas Power also offers a global wellbeing program, HealthAhead, which aims to inspire employees to achieve their best health possible. “In Greenville, an employee-run group holds bi-annual family 5k runs, annual health fairs, monthly bike rides and more all at no cost to employees,” says John Lammas, vice president of engineering for GE Gas Power and senior leader at the GE Greenville site.
Lockheed Martin
At Lockheed Martin’s Greenville location, an on-site wellness center acts as a resource and treatment facility for employees, who can get prescriptions, undergo physical examinations and seek treatment for a normal range of health conditions.
“We’ve focused on finding a variety of ways to make sure employees stay well.” – Leslie Farmer, communications lead, Lockheed Martin, Greenville
“Along with the wellness center, we also have regular team challenges,” says Leslie Farmer, communications lead for Lockheed Martin in Greenville. “These can be anything from healthy-eating challenges to weight-loss challenges to activity challenges. You might find our employees doing yoga together or participating in weight-training exercise. We’re focused on finding a variety of ways to make sure employees stay well.”
Duke Energy
Duke Energy’s wellness program addresses more than being physically fit. It also addresses employees’ and covered spouses’ and domestic partners’ emotional, social and financial health.
“Employees and eligible spouses/domestic partners can earn rewards for completing certain activities such as biometric screenings, health challenges and lifestyle coaching,” says Ryan Mosier, company spokesman. “Health challenges include physical and nutrition challenges.”
The program also provides personalized telephone health coaching to help with weight management, sleep, stress management, healthy eating, exercise and more.
YMCA of Greenville
The YMCA of Greenville approaches corporate wellness from a holistic perspective, says Lindsey Sease, senior membership and association quality director at YMCA of Greenville.
“For us, corporate wellness isn’t just about getting people into a Zumba class or connecting them to a facility. It’s about working together with companies [that] are interested in creating a culture of wellness for their staff and their workplace.”
Sease says the Y takes a multifaceted approach to wellness, accounting for food-at-work choices, stress management, time management and fitness. “It involves all of those things, not just a couch-to-5K program or a weight-loss program.”
