Wellness By Choice:

Jennifer believes that the success of mind, body, and soul Wellness begins on the inside, with a personal choice and a mission. When an individual makes the decision to become healthier, they should be fully equipped with the tools to help them. She believes that education is the key to helping encourage others to carry out their own mission and the prerogative of her program is to support and facilitate that mission in dynamic, creative ways.

Jennifer’s Wellness program is a participatory program which highlights the natural consequences of various health choices. Using an online portal, her program utilizes a combination of science-based research and mindfulness disciplines from various religious and metaphysical practices to address integral health issues, including the mind, body, and soul. By using a ‘pros and cons’ platform, she has designed the program to empower individuals with informed choice. By making the program ‘choice’ oriented, the program also becomes more participatory and therefore, more successful.

The Wellness program has indeed been successful, with an 88% participation rate. Members participate by using the online portal for education, tips, recipes, and health challenges. The online portal includes walking, running, and biking challenges with personal fitness goals. The website also includes voluntary submission of biometrics in order to keep track of progress including heart rate, BMI, cholesterol, glucose, and weight.

Wellness: It’s a Cultural Thing

Jennifer has also created a corporate culture of Wellness at the Wilson Agency, purchasing organic produce for the break room, creating Wilson Agency teams for charitable events and marathons. At Christmas and Thanksgiving, employees receive organic turkeys as well as squash and cranberry sauce recipes. Employees also receive discounts for active lifestyle products and memberships to ski resorts, hiking gear, swim classes, ice skating, gyms, etc. Every month, an online health challenge member wins a parking spot in the garage, which is motivating for cold, Alaskan winters and has been proven to increase participation. 

Thanks to Jennifer, Wilson Agency stairwells and hallways are lined with Wellness motivational posters, employees are certified to perform CPR, employees are encouraged to start the day with an organic smoothie of apples, pears, and kale, and use their lunch hour to walk the park. EAP programs are also readily available to help employees with mental health issues, addiction counseling, and smoking cessation. The Wilson Agency provides support groups, education, and encourages employees to include mental health into the repertoire of self-care.

Furthermore, Jennifer also believes that healthy choices begin in the culture of home and extend outwards to work and the public. In light of that, she included the “Clean Out Your Cabinets” challenge for the 2015 program which challenges employees and their families to throw away or donate processed foods full of trans fats, carbs, high sodium, empty calories, and saturated fats and replace their shelves with organic and raw ingredients. This aspect of the program is based on the belief that by being an example of healthy choices, parents have more influence on their children than schools or other programs do and they are more likely to continue lifelong healthy habits. Employees can also log onto Facebook and learn about natural alternatives for household chemicals, such as replacing bleach and ammonia with apple cider vinegar or lavender spray.

And since laughter is one of the main ingredients of Wellness, Jennifer will also send employees a work-appropriate joke featuring a cute animal.