Column: Wellness programs offer fun ways to be healthier

Don’t ask a Clermont County Public Library employee if they sit and read on the job all day.

In fact they are walking, exercising and eating healthy lunches. The CCPL employees have been participating in wellness programs for the last six years. In 2008, we established a wellness committee that created different challenges throughout the year to increase our physical activity or to encourage healthy eating habits.

Besides giving employees the chance to improve their health, both the Wellness Council of America and the Society for Human Resource Management point out a wellness program benefits a workplace. Benefits include lowering health care costs, reducing absenteeism, achieving higher employee productivity and improving employee morale. The Clermont County Public Library wanted to help our reduced workforce in this manner and set out to implement a workplace wellness plan.

We started out small with a healthy challenge each year where successful participants could earn fitness prizes. We then added a health fair component to our annual staff-training day held in October. Employees could get a flu shot and other screenings at the fair. Now our program has grown to include a scorecard system offered in conjunction with a professional health care organization.

Now in its second year, employees can earn points on their scorecard for achieving the goals of our special programs, for getting checkups with their doctors, or getting screenings done at the health fair. If employees earn the target number of points in the year, they can earn a small discount on their insurance premium, a fitness or a nutrition prize.

This year’s special programs for library employees include “Be Merry But Maintain,” which has a goal of maintaining your weight over the holiday season. You also may have spotted a library employee wearing a pedometer or running in a local charity race this spring.

Our “Step It Up” walking challenge encouraged staff to increase their normal walking amount over an eight-week period by counting their steps via a pedometer. It even included a team event in which each branch competed against others to at least walk the equivalent of miles from the Felicity branch library to the Goshen branch library.

No matter how the activities might change throughout the years, the Clermont County Public Library wellness program’s goal is to increase or maintain our employees’ good health by encouraging regular checkups, increasing physical activity and providing healthier eating options.

This Columbus Day, the library won’t be open but the staff will be working hard at the Union Township Branch at our health fair and training day. We will be seeking to inform ourselves about nutritious snacks. We will engage in various biometric screenings to ensure we are on a healthy track. And we will seek to inspire healthy choices in ourselves and those around us.

So don’t just sit there … ask if your workplace has a wellness program and enjoy the healthy benefits.

Beth Lammrish chairs the Clermont County Public Library’s wellness committee and is a member of Clermont Coalition for Activity and Nutrition.