Mower Refreshed continues its commitment to collaborating with businesses and organizations county-wide that seek to foster environments that promote well living by presenting two organizations as 2013 Refreshed Businesses of the Year: Pacelli School (under 100 employees) and Cooperative Resource Center, Inc (over 100 employees). The two organizations were awarded at the 2014 Austin Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting in February.

Both organizations align with the framework that hallmarks Mower Refreshed: Engage Equip Empower. The nomination committee identified specifically that the integration of wellness into the everyday work environment was a key component in selecting the two recipients. Nancy Morrison, Vice President of Human Resource Development at Cooperative Response Center (CRC), Inc stated “the success of an ongoing wellness initiative needs the support of the organization in the form of making it a strategic initiative.” She adds that measuring success of wellness efforts along with all the other corporate goals is key. The ideas and efforts submitted by all the applications were innovative, sustainable, and have the potential to be adopted by other companies and schools; a part of the developing best practices for workforce wellness in Mower County.

The Workforce Wellness team is in process of creating a resource inspired by all the nominations from 2012 and 2013 Refreshed Business of the Year applications. This will be a storehouse for organizations to both share what they are finding to be effective in positively impacting wellness at work and to utilize ideas that make sense for their organizations. The resource will be a “living document”, being added to as businesses and organizations share successes. It will store implementation strategizes that have shown to be a best practice, inspiring other organizations in creating a climate that focuses on wellness.

CRC is discovering that investing in developing a focus on the promotion of wellness rather than a treatment philosophy creates an environment that fosters healthy outcomes. Like last year, all the nominations received by the selection committee were inspiring and an encourgaing sign that wellness at work is growing in Mower County.

Wellness Wednesday tip

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” –Jim Ryun

Expect challenges as you work to change behaviors and choose to see the challenges as new opportunities.