Connecting the wellness Dots!

Red Dot Corporation is a leading manufacturer of quality HVAC products for the heavy vehicle industry. Red Dot employs approximately 300 plus employees and was looking for a way to promote healthy lifestyles. The key objectives of their wellness program were to promote healthy eating choices, get employees moving/exercising in a meaningful manner and promoting awareness of their current quit smoking program.

The Solution

Parker, Smith & Feek teamed up with Red Dot’s enthusiastic Human Resources and Senior Management and gave them the tools, resources and knowledge to set-up and maintain an ongoing wellness program.

Initially, an employee benchmark survey was conducted to see if a wellness program would be of value and if employees would participate. The results of the survey were highly in favor of developing a meaningful wellness program. 35 employees indicated that they would like to participate in the Wellness Committee in some capacity.

A Wellness Fair was set up which included onsite interactive assessments and education on their current benefits being offered. Red Dot employees speak over 17 different languages, so it was imperative that the vendors and staff had the right skill-set to communicate key messages about their benefits and wellness.

Monthly communications, like wellness newsletters, were used to educate employees about their current wellness options offered as a part of Red Dot’s benefits package. In the past, the benefit package had been undervalued and underutilized by the employees, so Red Dot decided to use participation incentives. The incentives were drawings for company logo vests/jackets/waterbottles, gift cards and two hours paid leave.

Results

Since the wellness program has been up and running, Red Dot has implemented a variety of wellness components; including:

• A daily morning stretch program that has each employee participating in 10 minutes of stretching. The stretch program has reduced repetitive work related injuries.
• A month-long walking event with a goal of taking a minimum of 10,000 steps per day/7days per week. 132 employees participated in the event with 70% of those employees meeting or beating 10,000 steps per day. The program also included the introduction of designated “safe walking” lanes around the manufacturing plant.
• The replacement of candy and soda in snack machines with healthy alternatives.

Chery Phillips, Red Dot’s Human Resources Manager said: “We have been extremely pleased with the initial results of our Wellness program, with outstanding participation levels across all the programs offered as listed below . Because of the success in our Seattle facility we also implemented it at our smaller Memphis facility and have realized up to 100% participation in various wellness events.”

Seattle Site

• 88% attendance at the annual Health Fair.
• 27 employees actively participated in the on-site Weight Watchers program.
• 60 employees have lost a total of over 780 pounds.
• 14 employees quit smoking.
• 79 employees participated in a total of 4 weekend Hike & Bike events and daily/weekly walks/hikes
• 93% participated in one or more events in the first 6 months of the program.

Additionally, employees also participated in Red Dot sponsored events such as:

• Yoga Classes.
• American Kenpo Classes.
• Bowling.
• Lunch & Learns, covering physical and mental health, and financial topics.

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