Believe it or not, employee wellness programs have existed for the better part of the last 100 years. For much of this history, the programs have focused on the physical aspect of health while ignoring other facets of an individual’s wellbeing including mental health and work/life balance. In the past, wellness programs often included structured times throughout the workday to stretch or get some exercise, but research shows that programs such as these are often underutilized by the employees themselves. Why is this, and what have these attempts at workplace wellness been missing? At Mountain Rose Herbs, we recognize that the workday is just a fraction of the lives we all lead. If we want company-sponsored initiatives to effectively promote health and wellbeing, they must extend beyond the office to improve the overall quality of life.
As many of you know, the foundation of everything we do at Mountain Rose Herbs and the impetus behind our sustainability initiatives is that we value people, plants, and planet over profit. This is why we support organic farmers, why we support the stakeholders in our supply chain through the Fair For Life and For Life certifications, and why we are serious about supporting the health and wellbeing of our employees through company initiatives focused on sustainability and resiliency. Today we are excited to share that we have reached a long-sought milestone in our employee-related sustainability efforts.
We are all aware that the cost of living and healthcare have increased dramatically over the past few years. The Mountain Rose Herbs’ leadership team has been committed to finding more ways that we can support our employees in the face of these increases. As we work to set our employees up for success, we have raised our base pay and strengthened our benefits package. We offer an Employee Assistance Program which includes free counseling services, training and development opportunities, and substance abuse treatment. Over the past three years, we’ve increased the percentage that we pay for our employees’ medical insurance premiums by 10% each year. As of June 2023, we are finally able to announce the great news that we are covering 100% of our employee’s medical premiums! Our healthcare plan includes access to alternative therapies such as acupuncture, massage therapy, and naturopathic medicine.
This monumental achievement took time and commitment, and we think this model could help other companies who wish to increase their employee benefits but don’t know where to start. Over several years, we steadily added what we could, taking on a little more each year as we were able to, constantly prioritizing our employees. This focused, long-term approach made the final jump to 100% medical care premiums achievable. We are honored to do our part to support and improve the quality of life for our amazing employees.
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