HealthyU - Wellness Program
What is the HealthyU program?
- HealthyU Vision
- Hood College’s HealthyU wellness program helps to create and nurture a culture of organizational and personal health to demonstrate that employee well-being is a top priority for the College. The College encourages the well-being of its employees by providing a supportive work environment in which employees participate in HealthyU activities to promote their own personal well-being and productivity while also becoming active partners in managing health care utilization in the College’s sponsored plans. The pursuit of organizational and personal health is an important way for Hood College to attract and retain the best global talent to serve the changing needs of our students.
- HealthyU Mission
- The HealthyU wellness program is to provide ongoing educational, dynamic, and fun opportunities for all employees to create and maintain healthy, balanced and active lifestyles through a commitment to the Eight Dimensions of Wellness model.
- HealthyU Core Values
- Campus-wide participation in HealthyU is strongly encouraged.
- Campus leadership models and nurtures principle of culture of health.
- Best practices are incorporated into all aspects of HealthyU programs.
- Campus health climate is everyone’s responsibility.
- Investment in health is a lifelong requirement.
According to the preamble of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) constitution, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Over the past 75 year, the concept of “health” has developed into “wellness” and employers have come to recognize that employee wellness is a key to an engaged, productive workforce. Employees seek to work for employers who provide a robust wellness program as part of their overall benefits package.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that “the workplace is an important setting for health protection, health promotion and disease prevention programs. On average, Americans working full-time spend more than one-third of their day, five days per week at the workplace.”
The CDC has developed a model for developing workplace health programs which can lead to change at both the individual (i.e., employee) and the organization levels. For individuals, workplace health programs have the potential to impact an employee’s health, such as their health behaviors; health risks for disease; and current health status. For organizations, workplace health programs have the potential to impact areas such as health care costs, absenteeism, productivity, recruitment/retention, culture and employee morale. Employers, workers, their families and communities all benefit from the prevention of disease and injury and from sustained health.
Hood College recognizes the value in creating and maintaining a robust wellness program and has the support of the senior leadership team in providing our workplace community with the activities, education and support to improve their overall wellness.
The Healthiest Maryland Businesses Wellness at Work Awards Program recognizes Maryland businesses that are committed to improving employee health and well-being and highlight wellness initiatives that meet all components of the CDC's Workplace Health Model.
There are four award levels businesses can achieve: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and On the Path.
In 2019, Hood earned the Bronze Award. With an increased focus on our measurement of our wellness outcomes, we were awarded the Gold Level Award in 2020. In 2021, we were awarded at the Exemplary Level under the new rating system.
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