Family, Inc. strives to create healthy workplace for employees, wins award | Business News
From left to right, Kimberly Kolakowski, executive director, Rachel Zeller, wellness committee member and Sabrina Nelsen, wellness committee member hold a check for $1,000 they received from Iowa Healthiest State Initiative. They took first place in the Small Workplace category.
Family, Inc. of Council Bluffs was awarded $1,000 by the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative for their efforts in creating a healthy and happy workplace.
The organization created a wellness committee — formed of members from the organization — who create plans, activities and creative ideas to keep employees at FAMILY, Inc. healthy.
“We want to keep our employees physically, mentally and socially healthy, as well as having a good connection with others at work and participate in self care” Executive Director of Family, Inc. Kimberly Kolakowski said.
Since employees are currently working remotely, they have created a “Virtual Acknowledgment Jar.” Through this jar, employees can send little positive notes like, “Thanks for being positive today,” or “Great job on that project,” Kolakowski said.
When working remotely, people miss out on those informal social engagements, where you go visit someone’s desk or bump into someone in the hallway. Family, Inc. has found a way to fill that gap with its “Family Rooms.”
“We created ‘Family Rooms’ and it’s a time each week when there is an open zoom room that people can hop into and have those informal social engagements that we just don’t have anymore,” she said.
To focus on healthy eating, a cookbook was made with recipes submitted from employees. To incentivize submitted recipes, Family, Inc. partnered with a local organization — the 712 Initiative.
