TotalWellness is proud to call Omaha, Nebraska home to our main headquarters. The city has progressively expanded its economy and size, but through all the positive growth, we’ve also seen it struggle to provide opportunities for healthy living to its citizens and employees.
Omaha is ranked 142 out of 182 on a list of America’s healthiest cities, according to a 2009 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One of the leading organizations seeking to tackle this issue is Partners for a Healthy City, a group that has dedicated their community-wide efforts to encouraging the creation of healthy living opportunities. By partnering with businesses, schools, community and faith -based organizations around Omaha, Partners for a Healthy City has encouraged organizations to change or implement at least one policy related to employee health. Whether it’s creating opportunities for physical activity or making healthy food and beverage choices available in their environment, they’ve been able to make small steps towards a healthier Omaha. Partners for a Healthy City has now received support from more than 350 organizations (including TotalWellness!) and their outreach to our organization has dramatically impacted our own staff and work environment.
The key message we took away from Partners for a Health City is that the first step to a healthy working environment is implementing policies that allow employees to change their negative behaviors into positive ones. At TotalWellness we strive to go above and beyond the basic wellness initiatives for our employees and ensure that every employee has the same opportunity to reach their personalized goals. At the basic level, the following policies have been put in place: access to filtered drinking water, an internal wellness committee, ability to exercise during shifts either indoors or outdoors, and an indoor bicycle rack for those that commute to work via bikes.
Two of the most common workplace wellness issues include an employee’s inability to receive the recommended amount of daily exercise and the lack of access to organic fruits and vegetables. Here at TotalWellness, we provide employees with an on-site gym and the ability to exercise during shifts for an allotted period of time. The on-site gym contains a range of equipment, from treadmills to a squat machine, and there are even the appropriate resources available for yoga and pilates classes! This ensures our employees have the opportunity to exercise during work rather than trying to fit it into their schedule outside of the office. Studies show that even 10 minutes of exercise each day can dramatically improve an individual’s overall health. In addition to the physical benefits, we find that permitting employees to take a break to exercise allows them to become re-engaged and it can jumpstart productivity in the later hours of their workday.
Our most recent wellness application was influenced via the Partners for a Healthy City and their recommendation to begin a community-supported agriculture program for the staff of TotalWellness. In order to supply our employees with access to organic fruits and vegetables, we partnered with Tomāto Tomäto and purchased a share of seasonal produce. Each week, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, ranging from peppers and peaches to kale and kohlrabi, is brought directly to our offices with an informative sheet containing personalized recipes for that week’s produce. More than half of our staff at TotalWellness signed up for the program and some individuals will even bring in the dishes they made with CSA produce to share with the rest of the staff.
Partners of a Healthy City has an ambitious vision to help change the way people here in Omaha look at health. We’re thrilled to support their goal of providing the necessary tools for workplaces to encourage a healthy, positive lifestyle for their employees. Their personalized methods help organizations implement positive changes and assist in identifying opportunities for further wellness. In the future, we would like to see Partners of a Healthy City extend throughout the metro area to every type of industry and organization.
TotalWellness would like to say thank you to Partners of a Healthy City for all of their efforts!