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Episode 3: Creating Champions of Wellness

“If we, as employers, can change the health of one person, we’ve accomplished a lot.” –Kim Beck, health and wellness manager at Labcorp

As health and wellness manager at Labcorp, Kim Beck believes small changes—like helping improve the health of just one employee—can make big impacts down the line. In her 26 years at Labcorp, she has positioned herself as a prominent advocate for employee well-being by leading the development and execution of a health strategy focused on a holistic approach to colleague health.

She sat down to discuss this health strategy with Dr. Richard Safeer, chief medical director of employee health and well-being at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Her strategy, as she puts it, “has always been population health-focused.” This coincides with Labcorp’s overarching mission of improving health, improving lives. Beck highlights the more than 78,000 employees globally and how all of them could become wellness champions.

The wellness champion program at a glance

Labcorp allows any employee to become a wellness champion on a volunteer basis. This creates a champion network, connected under the banner of employee well-being. They are provided programs to enact at the local level that sync up with their monthly initiatives. They also play a key role in supporting employee engagement in initiatives such as flu shot campaigns and biometric screenings.

Employee wellness champions are given recognition and acknowledgment, incentivizing others to participate. A wide variety of employees are champions—some remote, some in-person. And, globally, there are about 100 champions. Becoming a wellness champion does not require much to start—being on one's own health and wellness journey, for example. No matter what, they are all asked for their feedback through surveys, and consolidated feedback is funneled back into the program, effecting positive change.

Both Labcorp and Johns Hopkins have wellness champions—boots on the ground advocates of the wellness program—embedded in their organizations.