At a local level, Transwestern promotes wellness and healthy lifestyles through its wellness ambassador program. Team members across the country volunteer their time to be wellness representatives to drive local educational and wellness initiatives. Transwestern's in-house wellness consultant, Heather Greene, works closely with the wellness ambassadors to cultivate a fresh and meaningful wellness program each year. Each region's wellness budget is an established line item in the region's overall budget. All of our local wellness initiatives are fully funded and supported by Transwestern.

Transwestern's leadership team avidly supports efforts to drive wellness participation and promote good health. As a result, team members have embraced our culture of total wellness, as demonstrated by robust participation in our wellness initiatives, continuous positive feedback on our various programs and willingness to share personal wellness achievements.

GlobeSt.com: Other than educational luncheons and fitness, what types of wellness activities are included?

Graton: Transwestern's wellness program encourages continuous education and includes access to a multitude of resources for its team members. For example, our dedicated intranet portal, TransForm, provides team members with valuable information on fitness, nutrition, stress reduction, prevention, and wellness tips, such as flu vaccinations, basically the best in health and wellness information year-round, as well as what's happening across the company. In addition, Transwestern publishes a monthly team member testimonial sharing a team member's wellness success story. These testimonials have ranged in topic from weight loss to fitness hobbies to quitting smoking.

Transwestern also works closely with its vendors to offer discounts on health and wellness-related items such as gym memberships and weight loss programs, including Jenny Craig. Many of our offices have held healthy cooking workshops, such as a healthy holidays presentation in Houston, where attendees learned how to enjoy the holidays while not abandoning their wellness goals. The speaker, Gwen Eager, provided healthy holiday recipes and samples to the class. Lunch and learn events around the country provide similar outlets for continuing the wellness conversation.

GlobeSt.com: What type of feedback do you get from employees? What types of measurement methods do you use?

Graton: Transwestern measures the success of its wellness initiatives in a number of ways. During the last couple of years, medical claims and pharmacy costs have moderated. In addition, we have seen increased participation in health risk assessments and biometric screenings. For biometric screenings, we have seen a trend of improved cohort results. Transwestern also is proud to report consistent year-over-year smoking cessation participation. Each year, more team members become involved in corporate and local wellness initiatives, as well as provide positive feedback in annual wellness surveys. We utilize these metrics to constantly hone our wellness initiatives to better serve our team members and deliver greater value to them and their families.

GlobeSt.com: Please give us some specifics about the national wellness competition.

Graton: Transwestern's companywide step challenge, called TransForm Olympics, is a combined wellness and philanthropic effort. More than 500 Transwestern team members across the country participated in our 2016 TransForm Olympics. Transwestern's seven geographic regions compete against each other over a four-week period, recording individual team member physical activities. These activities are converted into “steps” by an external wellness partner. The winning regions are selected based on the average amount of equivalent steps taken. We recognize the top three regions as gold, silver and bronze finishers. This year, Transwestern made a donation to the local Make-A-Wish chapters for each winning region. In addition, individual team member prizes are awarded.

GlobeSt.com: What else can you add for companies that might want to start wellness programs?

Graton: Much of our success in creating a thriving wellness culture is due to our wellness ambassador program. Established in 2010 as a volunteer initiative, our wellness ambassador program invites local team members to play an active leadership role in driving wellness in their respective offices. Wellness ambassadors work to support and enhance healthy lifestyles by developing local wellness programs to increase team member knowledge and participation in fitness, nutrition and preventative care. They also collaborate with each other and the national human resources team to ensure the program remains relevant and engaging. Today we have a spirited wellness program with more than 30 actively engaged wellness ambassadors across the country.

As previously reported, Transwestern's Debra Schooler discussed ACA and healthcare from the property management side.

HOUSTON—Transwestern was recently named one of the 100 Healthiest Workplaces in America. The company was selected out of more than 5,000 national nominees last year for its lasting success through a broad range of employee wellness initiatives and corporate wellness programs. Rick Graton, director of benefits and compensation, Transwestern, recently discussed the wellness program in more detail in this exclusive.

GlobeSt.com: What was the impetus for the wellness program?

Rick Graton: Transwestern proudly believes its commitment to wellness is an essential component to its multitude of “Best Place to Work” awards across the country. Transwestern is committed to establishing a workplace that promotes and values personal responsibility for health and well-being. Our people are the driving force behind Transwestern, so we want to ensure they are feeling and performing their best–in all aspects of life.

We encourage and incentivize our team members to improve their overall health and well-being through comprehensive and engaging educational and wellness programs. Our approach drives wellness at both a national and local level. At the corporate level, Transwestern conducts annual incentive programs, encouraging team members to participate in free biometric screenings, personal health risk assessments, tobacco cessation programs and preventative health checkups. In addition, Transwestern holds an annual companywide wellness challenge, providing team members opportunities to participate and compete for recognition and prizes.

At a local level, Transwestern promotes wellness and healthy lifestyles through its wellness ambassador program. Team members across the country volunteer their time to be wellness representatives to drive local educational and wellness initiatives. Transwestern's in-house wellness consultant, Heather Greene, works closely with the wellness ambassadors to cultivate a fresh and meaningful wellness program each year. Each region's wellness budget is an established line item in the region's overall budget. All of our local wellness initiatives are fully funded and supported by Transwestern.

Transwestern's leadership team avidly supports efforts to drive wellness participation and promote good health. As a result, team members have embraced our culture of total wellness, as demonstrated by robust participation in our wellness initiatives, continuous positive feedback on our various programs and willingness to share personal wellness achievements.

GlobeSt.com: Other than educational luncheons and fitness, what types of wellness activities are included?

Graton: Transwestern's wellness program encourages continuous education and includes access to a multitude of resources for its team members. For example, our dedicated intranet portal, TransForm, provides team members with valuable information on fitness, nutrition, stress reduction, prevention, and wellness tips, such as flu vaccinations, basically the best in health and wellness information year-round, as well as what's happening across the company. In addition, Transwestern publishes a monthly team member testimonial sharing a team member's wellness success story. These testimonials have ranged in topic from weight loss to fitness hobbies to quitting smoking.

Transwestern also works closely with its vendors to offer discounts on health and wellness-related items such as gym memberships and weight loss programs, including Jenny Craig. Many of our offices have held healthy cooking workshops, such as a healthy holidays presentation in Houston, where attendees learned how to enjoy the holidays while not abandoning their wellness goals. The speaker, Gwen Eager, provided healthy holiday recipes and samples to the class. Lunch and learn events around the country provide similar outlets for continuing the wellness conversation.

GlobeSt.com: What type of feedback do you get from employees? What types of measurement methods do you use?

Graton: Transwestern measures the success of its wellness initiatives in a number of ways. During the last couple of years, medical claims and pharmacy costs have moderated. In addition, we have seen increased participation in health risk assessments and biometric screenings. For biometric screenings, we have seen a trend of improved cohort results. Transwestern also is proud to report consistent year-over-year smoking cessation participation. Each year, more team members become involved in corporate and local wellness initiatives, as well as provide positive feedback in annual wellness surveys. We utilize these metrics to constantly hone our wellness initiatives to better serve our team members and deliver greater value to them and their families.

GlobeSt.com: Please give us some specifics about the national wellness competition.

Graton: Transwestern's companywide step challenge, called TransForm Olympics, is a combined wellness and philanthropic effort. More than 500 Transwestern team members across the country participated in our 2016 TransForm Olympics. Transwestern's seven geographic regions compete against each other over a four-week period, recording individual team member physical activities. These activities are converted into “steps” by an external wellness partner. The winning regions are selected based on the average amount of equivalent steps taken. We recognize the top three regions as gold, silver and bronze finishers. This year, Transwestern made a donation to the local Make-A-Wish chapters for each winning region. In addition, individual team member prizes are awarded.

GlobeSt.com: What else can you add for companies that might want to start wellness programs?

Graton: Much of our success in creating a thriving wellness culture is due to our wellness ambassador program. Established in 2010 as a volunteer initiative, our wellness ambassador program invites local team members to play an active leadership role in driving wellness in their respective offices. Wellness ambassadors work to support and enhance healthy lifestyles by developing local wellness programs to increase team member knowledge and participation in fitness, nutrition and preventative care. They also collaborate with each other and the national human resources team to ensure the program remains relevant and engaging. Today we have a spirited wellness program with more than 30 actively engaged wellness ambassadors across the country.

As previously reported, Transwestern's Debra Schooler discussed ACA and healthcare from the property management side.