CLEVELAND, OH (April 1, 2013) — The Cleveland Museum of Natural History recently announced the winners of its fifth annual Wellness@Work Awards, and we are thrilled that Excelas won FIRST PLACE in the small business division (1-100 employees).  The Museum, with sponsor COSE, and partners Gallagher Benefit Services Inc. and Sibson Consulting, honored 14 area businesses for their workplace wellness initiatives.

The awards honor companies that have demonstrated excellence in workplace wellness.  The winning companies created programs to improve their employees’ health, work/personal life balance, education, quality of life and sustainability in the workplace.

Excelas’ wellness program, called “Excel-ness,” was formally launched in 2011.  The program focuses on three components of wellness:  nutrition, fitness and stress management.  We partner with a local fitness center and provide physical assessments for participating employees.  Incentives are offered for improvement in measurable aspects of wellness, such as losing weight, lowering blood pressure, improving flexibility, or achieving a healthier body-mass index.  Wellness is a regular component at our monthly staff meetings, where we incorporate educational sessions on nutrition and stress management, physical workouts (including a chair workout), guided imagery, stretching and instructional tai chi.  One of the most popular wellness initiatives at Excelas is our Walk Out of Work (WOOW!) program (Read more).

Our program supports employees’ well-being by reinforcing the importance and practical application of health, fitness and nutrition in our daily lives. Nearly 100% of our staff participate.

Award applications were evaluated by the Wellness@Work Awards judging panel, which is composed of experts in health, wellness and corporate social responsibility.  The panel considered assessment of needs, quality and availability of wellness programs, evaluation of program results and documentation of success.