Excela recognized for efforts focusing on workplace wellness

For the ninth consecutive year, Excela Health has been recognized among the Healthiest Employers in Western Pennsylvania, and for the fifth year in a row named a Healthiest 100 Workplace in America, in an awards program presented by Healthiest Employer.

The Healthiest Employer awards program, powered by Springbuk, was created to honor organizations that prioritize the well-being of their employee population. Companies were recognized because of their commitment to workplace wellness and their exceptional health and benefits offerings.

“Never has employee well-being been more critical than during this time of public health crisis,” said Excela Health Chief Human Resources Officer Laurie English. “As a health system, our employees are on the front lines of the pandemic, and facing physical, emotional and spiritual challenges as they provide care.”

Award applicants in Western Pennsylvania were evaluated across six key categories: culture and leadership, foundation components, strategic planning, communication and marketing, programming and interventions, and reporting and analytics.

Springbuk evaluates each applicant using its Health Intelligence platform — powerful, AI-driven technology that applies proprietary algorithms to disparate health and related data, generating insights and actionable opportunities to save money and prevent disease. In Western Pennsylvania, Excela Health was tops in its category representing companies with an employee complement between 1,500-4,999. Nationally, Excela was ranked #56 among the Healthiest 100.

“As we have navigated the pandemic, we have adapted traditional in-person wellness programming to an online platform, allowing nutrition and exercise classes to continue uninterrupted for staff as well as the community,” said Excela Health’s Well-Being Center Manager Patrick Martin. “We’ve developed more video resources for stress relief and grief support and are utilizing our employee assistance program to its broadest potential to touch employees and their families on every front including their financial wellness and retirement planning.”

Earlier this year, Excela Health also was a repeat honoree among the Nation’s Best and Brightest in Wellness sponsored by the National Association for Business Resources. Excela first received this honor in 2016 and has remained a recipient each award period.

Being able to offer the resources to help its teams manage stress, find work-life balance and cope with personal and family medical concerns is “mission critical,” according to English.

“Receiving repeat recognition for what has become ingrained in our culture not only validates our success in adapting to the ever-changing health care landscape, but demonstrates how necessary a robust employee wellness program is. We are indeed honored to be a regional and national leader in this regard,” she said.