The Jefferson Chamber held its inaugural LiveWell Jefferson Worksite Wellness Summit in October 2019. The event aimed to educate employers on how to build simple, customizable and successful wellness programs for their workplaces.
“Companies do not need to invest a lot of money to maintain an effective wellness program,” explained Nick Rees, Obesity Prevention Coordinator of the Louisiana Department of Health’s Well-Ahead Louisiana program. Rees led the event’s main workshop, sharing many free initiatives employers can use to keep workers happy and productive: 5-minute team workouts, hydration competitions, walking meetings, limiting cellphone and email use after hours, and more.
Rees also helped the workshop attendees learn to assess what their priorities should be when creating a wellness program, how to maintain employee motivation and management support, and how to use benchmarks to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs.
Rees’ workshop was followed by a panel discussion with local businesses about their experiences implementing wellness programs. The panel featured Dominique Becnel of Gambel Communications, Angela Mitchell of Delta Personnel, and Angela Lacour of SCI. The panel was moderated by Coretta LaGarde of American Heart Association.
“The workshop was an awesome model for all healthy spaces to follow,” said Lisa A. Collins, who coordinates Baptist Community Ministries’ congregational wellness program. She also praised the lunch, which offered healthy options designed by Ochsner Eat Fit.
The Jefferson Chamber launched the LiveWell Jefferson initiative in early 2017 to foster health and happiness throughout the parish’s business community. LiveWell Jefferson teaches employers how to use wellness techniques to build productivity, talent, morale and to reduce absenteeism, staff turnover and healthcare costs.
