August 29, 2013

VU lands healthy employer award

Vanderbilt has again been named the winner of The Nashville Business Journal’s Healthiest Employers Award for the 500+ Employees Group.

Vanderbilt has again been named the winner of The Nashville Business Journal’s Healthiest Employers Award for the 500+ Employees Group.

The winners are judged by a national panel of experts who are independent of The Business Journal and of business interests.

Criteria for the award include cultural commitment, foundational components, strategic planning, programming and intervention, and reporting and analysis.

The finalists from the same category as Vanderbilt included Caterpillar, Healthways, Nissan, Saint Thomas Health, TriStar, Regions Bank and Pinnacle.

(Vanderbilt University)

“Vanderbilt continues to be recognized as a leader in providing support for the health and productivity of its workforce through various programs, including the Faculty and Staff Health and Wellness Programs,” said Mary Yarbrough, M.D., MPH, executive director of Faculty and Staff Health and Wellness.

Yarbrough noted that Health and Wellness provides four avenues of influence to support a healthy workplace, based on World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention healthy workplace models: work-related health and safety (Occupational Health Clinic); personal health and safety (Health Plus); psychological health (Work/Life Connections-EAP which includes faculty, physician, nursing and staff programs); and social support (Child and Family Center).

This is the fourth year in a row Vanderbilt has won the award, and continues the University’s string of honors in healthy workplace recognitions this year, including the Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles Award, given by the National Business Group on Health, which was announced in May, and the Mayor’s Workplace Challenge Award, announced in April, which recognized Vanderbilt for achieving the Gold Level in the inaugural year of the Healthy Workplace Challenge.