Live Well LEON: Small Choices. Big Change.

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

At Leon County, our philosophy has been very simple – a healthy workforce leads to greater organizational performance. In 2008, Leon County launched the wellness program with the goal of improving the overall health of its employees. A wellness team comprised of a diverse group of County employees was formed and over the next several years, they built a program recognized and awarded, at the local, state, and national level. In 2011, the Board of County Commissioners created the Health and Wellness Coordinator position to reinforce its commitment to fostering a healthy workforce. The wellness program has been successfully integrated into the County's People Focused, Performance Driven organizational structure and garnered the support of the Constitutional Officers (i.e. Sheriff, Clerk of Courts, Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, and Supervisor of Elections) and healthcare partners. The County has one of the most generous benefit packages in our area, and we take pride in showing our employees how much we care about them and their health. As revenues have continued to decrease and expenses including health care costs have risen, the Board has tried to minimize the cost to our employees. There has been a paradigm shift in work‐related wellness programs with greater emphasis on creating healthy, happy, engaged, employees focused on an individual's well‐being rather than wellness. The County’s program was rebranded to help create a culture of well‐being that will focus on the "whole person" and the following elements of well‐being: career, social, financial, physical, and community. Together, employees can make great strides to build a strong, healthy, productive, resilient, and engaged organization that is people focused and performance driven. Since the launch of Live Well LEON, the participation rate has been 94% of 1,700 employees.