After earning bronze in 2012 and 2013, WorkSafeNB brought home the gold at the Heart & Stroke Foundation of New Brunswick’s 2014 Wellness at Heart Awards Banquet, held May 13 at the Delta Beausejour in Moncton.
WorkSafeNB was also recognized with an Award of Distinction, a special honour reserved for organizations that show leadership by offering comprehensive and outstanding wellness programs to their staff.
Grand Falls committee member Sandra Soucy was among the 12 committee members on hand to accept the awards. She said nobody expected to win twice.
“The Heart and Stroke Foundation had told us that WorkSafeNB would be winning an award and then asked for one of our committee members to talk about our program’s success at the banquet. We suspected we might win a silver award or even the gold, but none of us imagined we’d receive the gold plus the Award of Distinction!”
Grand Bay committee member Cynthia Clarke, who served as WorkSafeNB’s spokesperson at the banquet, told the audience that the wellness program has been continuously evolving since it was formed in 1998.
“As Wellness ambassadors at WorkSafeNB, our objective is to keep the momentum alive by promoting health and wellness at our workplace. Our passionate committee members work hard at being creative and organizing innovative and fun activities to engage a diverse range of interests, within our workplaces,” Clarke said.
Members of WorkSafeNB's regional Wellness Committees were on hand to accept this year's Gold Wellness at Heart Award. Pictured, from left to right, is Sandra Soucy, northwest region, Véronique Bourque, northeast region, Nadine M. Cormier, southeast region, and Dan Connolly, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of New Brunswick.
“The success of our program has always been rooted in the passion of the committee volunteers and the involvement of our staff. We’re grateful for the support we have from our leaders. They recognize the key role wellness plays in healthy and productive workplaces.”
WorkSafeNB president and CEO Gerard Adams thanked the 27 wellness committee volunteers for their hard work.
“The real winners are all our employees who are made aware of the importance of our own well-being through the hard work of the Wellness group. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement.”
Since its introduction in the late 90s, WorkSafeNB’s Wellness Program has focused on the wellness priorities of staff. The Wellness group gathers direct feedback from staff and through other means, such as confidential online surveys. In 2014, they also supported WorkSafeNB’s launch of My Good Health / Ma Bonne Santé – a service that helps employees manage their personal health challenges and goals. The service provides the Wellness group with reports that monitor the ever-changing wellness concerns and challenges of staff. The reports track trends using aggregate data, to protect the privacy and anonymity of employees’ personal health information.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation awards the Gold Wellness at Heart trophy to organizations that, over the past year, have offered three or more programs/activities focused on each of the following four pillars:
In addition, to earn gold, the organization must demonstrate that those wellness activities employed at least three of the four recommended strategies for enhancing wellness among staff:
Over the past year, WorkSafeNB’s Wellness committees offered 87 different wellness programs to staff throughout the province, including:
Activities are typically held at lunch or at pre-announced times, so everyone can participate and grow their competencies for better health.
