LifeCare Alliance will be among 100 honorees to receive a Healthy Worksite Award from the Healthy Business Council of Ohio in February. LifeCare Alliance earned the organization’s Platinum Award for 2020.
The Healthy Worksite Award recognizes Ohio employers who demonstrate a commitment to employee wellness through comprehensive worksite health promotion and wellness programs. Applicants are scored on the extent their wellness programs facilitate and encourage employee health, enhance productivity and ensure a healthy work environment.
All applications were reviewed and evaluated using objective criteria. Four levels of high achievement were awarded in 2020 —Bronze, Silver, Gold and, new in 2020, Platinum. The HBCO chose to add the Platinum level of achievement in 2020 in an effort to continue to encourage program growth in employer sites throughout the state who have, in recent years, consistently received the previous maximum achievement level of Gold.
“We can all agree that 2020 was a beast of a year for employer sites so this year’s application was modified to recognize the extraordinary efforts employers were making to offer employee wellbeing in spite of it all,” explained the Healthy Worksite Award Co-Chair Annie Laurie Cadmus. “Applicants had the option to complete a ‘Pandemic Response’ section of the application to share how they adjusted their program offerings and continued to offer support to employees during a difficult year.”
Also new in the 2020 application was the addition of questions about the cancer screenings available to employees at worksites. These questions were asked as a direct response to the Ohio Department of Health’s desire to address cancer support resources available throughout the state of Ohio. Every worksite that provided positive responses to these questions will be given a special designation from the Ohio Department of Health in addition to their overall Healthy Worksite Award score. Data regarding worksite offerings in relationship to cancer screenings will be provided to the Ohio Department of Health so they can better assess statewide availability of programming.
The online award application is available to all Ohio-based worksites from mid-August through late October each year. While the 2020 application deadline has passed, Cadmus stressed that the HBCO would like to encourage all worksites, large and small, public and private, for profit and nonprofit, to consider applying for the Healthy Worksite Award in 2021.
“The Healthy Worksite Awards Committee will meet in early 2021 to compile a document with aggregate results of the 2020 award applications and to generate a PDF of the 2021 questions. Those documents will be made available in early 2021 so worksites can identify programmatic areas of improvement and prepare their 2021 application,” Cadmus stated.
The awards ceremony will be offered virtually as part of the Health Action Council’s 2021 Virtual Conference Series & Expo on February 4, 2021. The symposium features national experts on wellbeing, resilience and health reform. The public is invited to register for this event at the Health Action Council website.
