We’ve done it again! We are proud to announce that we have placed in the top 5 for Charlotte Business Journal’s Healthiest Employers for the second year in a row.
LandDesign continues to strive to be an employer of choice. This is not something that is achieved only by our wellness program (hey, it helps), but by our culture, benefits, growth opportunities…and the list goes on.
Wellness is a huge component of what makes LandDesign great. And we’re not talking just the physical stuff–we’re talking everything. We balance the physical, social, emotional, financial and nutritional components to foster a sense of belongingness and connection to each other, our work and the firm.
We could easily list out every single program we’ve implemented over the past few years, but that would just get boring and we’re not really into boring. So instead, we’ve listed and explained five wellness programs we’ve implemented during 2018 (thus far). Enjoy:
- Donations to Charity – We continue to partner with Plus3, a unique social media platform that generates dollar amounts to each wellness activity logged by our employees. This year alone, we’ve donated $3,880 to six charities within our local and national communities.Fun facts: In 2018 alone, we’ve logged over 11,000 activities, have taken over 21 million steps, and have burned over 900,000 calories. Fitness goals achieved.
- Ergonomics – Ergo-what? Ergonomics is the science of fitting the work environment to the people doing the job, not fitting the people to the work environment. Great concept? We think so. We’re not immune to our employees sitting at their desks for a large chunk of the day to get their work done. Why not introduce tips and tricks to help keep them healthy while they sit?Our ergonomics lunch and learn session was led by a licensed occupational therapist that demonstrated the proper work setup to allow for an efficient range of motion without straining the body. The therapist also included simple micro-break exercises that could be done while sitting and standing at one’s desk. We recorded the presentation and it now lives permanently on our company’s intranet for all employees to access.
- Massage Day – A huge and recent hit. Within minutes of sending out the sign-up email, the document had been locked by people flooding it to get a spot. A Charlotte-based chiropractic group sent two massage therapists to our office to provide employees with a 15 minute chair massage. Popular feedback suggested we should make it a weekly habit. We’re looking into it.
- Walking Wednesday + Run Day Monday – Walking Wednesday came out of a wellness initiative from the Charlotte Chamber’s Healthy Charlotte Council which we participated in a couple of years ago. Since then, we’ve brought it back for months at a time during spring, summer and fall.Each Wednesday, we send a note out to our staff encouraging them to join a member of our social committee for a 20-30 minute walk. It is a nice way to get to know people within the office that you might not have already met.Run Day Monday was an employee initiative that started about 3-4 years ago. We have a few avid runners within each of our offices. Each Monday, employees get together after work to run. We’ve had people use this as an opportunity to train for 5k’s, 10k’s and even marathons. Similar to Walking Wednesday, this creates yet another social opportunity for our staff to get to know one another. We’ve continued to implement this during the summer months each year.
- On-site Nutritionist Visits – This is another great benefit that we are able to offer employees. We are fortunate to have a medical benefit policy that covers nutritional visits as a preventive service regardless of a medical diagnosis.Our on-site nutritionist visits the Charlotte office every six weeks giving employees adequate time to implement suggestions made by the nutritionist. The sessions are one-on-one so employees can feel comfortable sharing their wellness journey with the counselor.
You can check out last year’s blog post here, which takes a deeper dive into our view on wellness.
