“Employee Wellness Matters” – HigherEdJobs

Remember when the world shut down in March of 2020? The threat of contracting COVID-19 propelled most of us to drastically alter the way we lived. That year, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 345,323 people in the US died from that deadly disease.

Here’s another staggering statistic. In that same year — 2020 — almost 700,000 people died from heart disease in the US. Chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and certain types of cancer kill far more people every year than COVID, and there’s a lot that can be done to prevent them. Faculty and staff at our colleges and universities can focus on things like improving their fitness and eating habits and on sleeping well and properly managing stress. It’s stuff that we all do, every single day, and it’s not nearly as drastic as wearing a mask everywhere or staying home for months on end.

Institutions of higher education have a great opportunity to help their employees not only make the necessary lifestyle changes to prevent these life-threatening conditions, but also to make them happier, healthier, and more productive people — at home and at work. Colleges and universities are well equipped with the facilities and expertise to implement formal programs that can address all aspects of employee wellness.

Be Well Bergen is an employee wellness program that kicked off in the Fall of 2021 at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ. Before it became an official program, several faculty members from different departments were doing their part to help to improve the health and wellness of the employees. Yoga workshops, healthy cooking demonstrations, meditations, and stress management seminars were on the agenda of almost every faculty development workshop. But the sporadic nature of these events wasn’t doing enough to sustain permanent lifestyle changes among the faculty and staff.

There were a few key components of the Be Well Bergen Program that were crucial to its success — and just about every college and university already has most of them lying in wait to help their employees.

Pools, golf, tennis, fitness centers, tracks, meditation rooms, teaching kitchens, and walking paths are on almost every college campus. These facilities are already set up to foster wellness. There are also countless faculty and staff with expertise in almost every wellness topic. In today’s day and age, college campuses are ideal spaces to implement new employee wellness programs that can make a difference in the health of the entire campus. And the pandemic has enlightened people about how important their mental and physical well-being are to their overall health.

Campuses across the U.S. are already well-equipped to provide access to virtual meetings and current technology. Fitness classes, meditations, and other support groups and seminars can be live streamed and recorded for later viewing on-demand. Every single employee can have access to the offerings even if they’re at their desk or teaching in the classroom at the time it’s presented live.

Another key component — collaboration — is the backbone of the Be Well Bergen program. For programs like these to be successful, someone must assume responsibility for coordinating all the parts that make the program a success — facilities, programming, resources, equipment, and bringing the entire campus together to support the well-being of the employees. The program director helps to facilitate relationships across the campus, and into the community — everything from buildings and grounds to the Black History Month Committee to the Public Relations Department. Be Well Bergen even partnered with some of the exercise science professors to pair up employees with students who were able to put their coursework into practice and provide personal training sessions to employees throughout the semester. Collaboration is the piece of these programs that many college campuses are missing. Without someone to connect all the dots and keep the program moving forward, meaningful change is far less likely to occur.

Be Well Bergen’s mission statement, “To inspire and develop a sense of community that supports the total well-being of every employee,” aligns with the mission of the College. And, in the post-pandemic era, there is a strong desire to get together and connect. The Be Well Bergen program believes that it’s important to develop a sense of community amongst faculty and staff, and collaboration is a huge part of the program. At Bergen, there are celebrity chefs, master gardeners, rock climbers, sustainability experts, financial gurus, and just about everything else that you can imagine that could support the health and wellness of its campus. Oftentimes, these hidden talents and skills would never be revealed if we weren’t building that sense of community. Faculty and staff are usually delighted to get to share their talents with their peers, and their peers greatly benefit from their knowledge and skills. It’s collaboration at its finest.

Most college campuses are already set up to easily implement employee wellness programs. Programs like Be Well Bergen are helping improve the health of campuses everywhere. It’s our responsibility as leaders to care about and support faculty and staff in their personal health and well-being. Happy and healthy people make better employees. Better employees will be more present, productive, and effective. Morale is better. Student success and retention are better. Institutional effectiveness is better. It all starts with your greatest resource, your employees.