Health Links (HL): Why is the health and wellness of your employees important to you?

Physical Therapy Connections (PTC): The health and wellness of our employees is important to our company for many reasons, including the benefits of having productive and happy employees that want to come to work every day. The benefits of a healthy and happy employee are the foundation for creating a successful workplace and an environment that patients, employees, and owners want to be a part of.

HL: What does your workplace wellness program look like?

PTC: Our workplace wellness program is like a library of health and wellness, combined with all of the physical equipment one would need and some of the easiest ways to measure/track success. We provide free gym memberships to each employee and their family, the company pays for 100% of employees health coverage, free education seminars are held once a month by the owner of the clinic (Chad Clark) on topics like; nutrition, pain free exercises, and soft tissue mobilizations (self massage), the wellness champion (Adrian Gomez) does complimentary body fat measurements using ultrasound technology, movement screens and holds classes for children of employees. We have over 100 books available to employees to check out and read about all topics health and wellness related and each year we host an event to recognize the health and wellness champions that go above and beyond to lead healthy and active lifestyles. This year we all participated in a ropes course designed to build team dynamics and awards were presented to acknowledge the efforts of all employees.

HL: How will you/do you know your program is successful?

PTC: Goals are being met in all aspects; physical, mental, emotional, social, etc. The company has been operating for over 10 years and each year the company grows naturally and efficiently. We continue to achieve record profiting years and increase number of patients treated, while continuing to have low or no injuries, sick days and utilize maxed out vacation time to stay refreshed.

HL: What obstacles did you have to overcome to get your program started? How did you overcome them?

PTC: We have encountered some obstacles such as lack of surveying, lack of participation, lack of awareness of the program and many more. The way that we have overcome the obstacles is to always provide the services that are allowing awareness and change. The wellness program at PT-Connections is only 4 years old and has changed so much since the first year, we continue to allow the program to evolve and allow our surveys to guide us to provide a service that is efficient and fun for all of our employees to participate in.

HL: Do you incorporate safety along with your wellness program? If so, what does this look like?

PTC: We have local vendors come in to evaluate our facility for safety hazards and have always followed guidelines to provide the safest environment for our employees. Beyond safety hazards we also perform training for technique of all movements including; lifting, crawling, climbing, pushing, pulling and so on. We have never had an injury in the workplace in the 10 plus years operating.

HL: What tip/advice would you give to a business that is considering starting a workplace wellness program?

PTC: Do it. It will be work up front and there will need to be ongoing tweaks, but it will save you time, energy, and money in the long run.