Focusing on occupational and personal wellbeing, the City of Olathe implemented programming to address employee financial, community, social, career and physical health.
Our program’s philosophical underpinnings can be found in the CDC’s 2011 advice that “Workplace health promotion programs are more likely to be successful if occupational safety and health is considered in their design and execution. [...] Integrating or coordinating occupational safety and health with health promotion may increase program participation and effectiveness and may also benefit the broader context of work organization and environment.”
The City’s innovation was to coordinate our approach to various risks: health, lifestyle choices and workplace safety. Traditionally, management of these risks has been compartmentalized with health and benefits in the HR function and workplace safety and workers compensation in the risk management area. Human Resources paired these functions through a Wellbeing Coordinator and a Safety & Risk Management Coordinator, who work in tandem to create:
