In today's complex business environment, many corporate citizenship leaders are working strategically with their employee resource groups (ERGs). Also known as business network groups or affinity groups, these employee-led communities can foster a sense of inclusion and belonging, while sponsoring events and learning opportunities for people all throughout an organization.
Wellness programs that support the whole employee
This month's Member Spotlight is an excerpt from the State of Corporate Citizenship 2020 report.
Business executives participating in this survey rated employee health and wellness high in multiple domains.
Forty-eight percent of respondents indicated that health and wellness was the highest corporate citizenship dimension currently contributing to achieving their company’s business goals. (See Figure Below.) Moreover, those participating in the study ranked employee health and wellness as the highest corporate citizenship priority for their company when looking at the past three years, its present operation, and the next three years.
It should come as little surprise, then, that many companies are working strategically to enhance their health and wellness programs—both as a recruitment and retention tool, and because research finds that employee participation in such programs can improve productivity and ultimately a company’s bottom line.i
In the business of health care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) recognizes that its employees are also customers—as such, BCBSMA team members are embraced as doubly valuable assets. In addition to being the lifeblood of the company, employees often help pilot plan offerings, providing important feedback before such offerings get rolled out to BCBSMA’s customer base.
“Being a health care company, obviously healthy living is very important to us,” said Jeff Bellows, vice president corporate citizenship and public affairs. “We have the expertise here that gives our employees and our members confidence that we will take care of them when they are sick, but we also want people to think of us when they are healthy as well.”
BCBSMA offers its employees a wide array of health and wellness benefits. In addition to charity walks, runs, and rides, the company reimburses gym memberships; offers full locker-rooms, a wellness center, and a wellness coach on-site at the headquarter campus; and provides all employees with sit-to-stand desks. The company is careful to integrate emotional well-being into its more traditional physical Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts: Bring your true colors to blue activities. For example, employees at the Quincy and Hingham campuses benefit from the on-site community gardens BCBSMA established in partnership with The Trustees of Reservations, a nonprofit conservation and preservation organization in Massachusetts.
“We are pleased to be able to offer access to green spaces to our associates, especially as we know that healthy environments foster improved physical and mental health outcomes,” said Bellows.
This commitment to supporting the whole employee is demonstrated not only within BCBSMA’s programs, but also in the processes it has established to create holistic and effective initiatives. The BCBSMA Wellbeing Committee—a cross-functional group led by the company’s chief human resources officer—meets monthly to discuss how to ever improve the company’s working environment. Thanks to the variety of committee perspectives, the team has iterated through meaningful changes such as using data provided by the facilities department to identify those employees who would most benefit from flexible, remote schedules, and providing all employees with free membership to Boston’s Bluebikes—a metro-wide network of public transportation bikes that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts sponsors.
This kind of proactive thinking—considering employees’ commutes as extensions of their workdays—goes hand-in-hand with the company’s willingness and ability to provide members of its workforce with healthful benefits that improve their well-being both at and beyond the office.
This month's Member Spotlight is an excerpt from the State of Corporate Citizenship 2020 report.
i Gubler, T., Larkin, I., & Pierce, L. (2017). Doing well by making well: The impact of corporate wellness programs on employee productivity. Management Science.
Related Content
Re-watch this insightful panel discussion with The Allstate Foundation and its nonprofit partners as they reveal their journey to build trusting, authentic donor-grantee collaborations that drive greater impact.
In this fireside chat with Travelers EVP and Chief Marketing, Communications and Customer Experience Officer, Lisa Caputo, you’ll hear how achieving the Travelers Promise means taking care of customers, community, and each other.
Support for military families is vital to sustaining America’s all-volunteer force, a strong national defense, and healthy business environment. But many companies don’t fully consider how they can be a powerful ally to military families.
In an era of critical nursing shortages and untapped veteran talent, Independence Blue Cross Foundation has engineered an innovative solution that serves both community needs and business imperatives.
Sanofi's session looked at questions like: How can companies bring their purpose and core strengths toward ensuring a resilient world? How should we inform and define our points of entry? With whom should we be joining forces to foster the healthy, thriving communities we all need?
In this powerful 60-minute storytelling session, five storytellers shared deeply personal stories of how working across traditional boundaries transformed their understanding of leadership, impact, and human potential.
RESEARCH BRIEF - Across all measured societies, ESG performance contributed to financial performance. There are cultural attributes, however, that both strengthen and weaken this relationship.