By ANNE MARIE SNELL

The Health Initiative is sponsoring “The Future of Worksite Wellness,” a session for business featuring nationally recognized speaker Dr. Rosie Ward

On June 10, employers and employees with a stake in employee wellness will come together at the Gran-View in Ogdensburg to learn more about the Future of Worksite Wellness in a half-day event starting with breakfast.

There is a $40 fee. Registration is open. To learn more, visit gethealthyslc.org, or call Carol Zimmerman at 261-4760 ext. 223.

Organizations have become stuck in outdated paradigms when it comes to supporting thriving wellbeing on both the organizational and employee level. Creating a thriving workplace culture is not about policies and programs that support healthy lifestyles. It is about creating the conditions to shift the underlying attitudes and assumptions so both organizational and employee wellbeing can thrive.

Culture transformation is a journey, not a program, event or destination. And because changing workplace culture is really about changing people, it is only sustainable when we approach change from the inside out. This includes not only rethinking how we position employee wellbeing efforts but the partnerships we must create to move beyond “wellness programs” focused on biomedical health risk reduction to having wellbeing be part of the company brand and identity that provides employees meaning and purpose in their work each day.

This presentation will challenge current paradigms and present a new paradigm and approach for moving worksite wellness into a sustainable future by creating the conditions for both organizational and employee well-being to thrive.

In addition, Travis Horne, Borislow Insurance, will speak about workplace transformation.

Worksite wellness today is focused on a linear short-term oriented process that moves individuals through various gates, usually providing a reward for completing a certain activity. This session will take a closer look at how Borislow Insurance (which won the Boston Business Journal Healthiest Employer Award in 2012) transformed their worksite wellness program from wellness to a culture of wellbeing. Horne, director of health and wellbeing at Borislow, explains how you can transition your organization through a long-term strategy that encompasses the whole person and behavior-change tactics.

This article was submitted by Anne Marie Snell, chief operating officer of WorkWell Investments, operated by St. Lawrence Health Initiative, Inc. in Potsdam.