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Bill Spivey of Sitka Community Hospital, right, presents Emily Buck of Southeast Alaska Independent Living, Inc. with the Sitka Employee Wellness Coalition's December Well Workplace of the Month award. The Sitka Employee Wellness Coalition is a community-wide organization promoting workplace wellness in Sitka. It is co-sponsored by the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), Sitka Community Hospital and the Steps to a Healthier SE Alaska program.After sending staff members to September's Well Workplace University, SAIL staff got busy capturing senior-level support and planning how to make a wellness program work for SAIL's six-person staff in Sitka. Employees became more physically fit with "Walk and Talk" meetings instead of the traditional sit-down sessions. One innovative new policy is a flex-time option that allows for physical activity in the middle of the day. Employees can come to work half an hour early and leave half an hour later than usual, which gives them a two-hour lunch break so they have enough time to eat a nutritious meal and get in a walk or jog when the natural light is at its best. One SAIL employee said the mid-day break "makes all the difference in the world."
SAIL is a small non-profit organization that's shown how creativity and motivation pay big dividends when it comes to employee wellness.
The Sitka Employee Wellness Coalition is a community-wide organization promoting workplace wellness created as a follow-up to September's Well Workplace University. The coalition is co-sponsored by the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), Sitka Community Hospital and the Steps to a Healthier SE Alaska program. The coalition's next brown bag lunch meeting is from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
For more information on the Sitka Employee Wellness Coalition, contact Doug Osborne of SEARHC Health Promotion at 966-8629 or Jennifer Spriggel of Sitka Community Hospital's Mountainside Family Health Care at 747-0313.
