Aims Community College Recognized as a 2023 Healthy Workplace Leader

Aims Community College continuously strives to foster a community of care. “A healthy workplace is a place where people feel valued and connected,” said Rachal Walsh, Program Manager of Employee Wellness and Recognition at Aims. “We take the extra steps and measures to go above and beyond by  providing resources, wellness initiatives and safety protocols for our employees.”  

Aims benefited employees have medical, dental and vision plans fully funded by the college. In addition to robust benefit plans, Aims provides paid holidays, personal leave, sick leave and a four-day work-week during the summer. Aims strongly encourages professional development through on-campus training and funds to travel to conferences, tuition waivers for Aims classes, and tuition reimbursement at other accredited institutions. Aims also has a generous employee recognition program, which includes annual awards and programs like Ripples in Recognition, Distinguished Colleague and Arty’s GEMS, where employees can recognize colleagues.

In 2015, Aims built a new Physical Education and Recreation Center (PERC). The 46,000-square-foot facility offers students and employees access to state-of-the-art facilities, equipment and personal trainers for physical education and recreational workouts. The PERC has a spin studio, cardio theater, strength and conditioning center, indoor track, racquetball and more. “It’s amazing that we built a workout and education facility of this magnitude and that employees get to work out there,” said Jan Cope, Program Director of the Aims Center for Professional Development.

These items strongly support a healthy work-life balance and contribute to overall employee wellness. 

Mental and Emotional Support for Employees

At the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Aims launched the HOPE Initiative for employees. “We could see what was going on and the level of stress and uncertainty with employees,” Cope said. The program started as a monthly e-newsletter with mental, emotional and physical health resources, inspirational quotes, tips to reduce stress, exercises, recipes and more. As Cope puts it, “Aims wanted to provide multiple resources to help comfort employees during a very hard time.”

The HOPE Initiative was set to sunset in 2022 but continued due to demand and popularity. “People value what we're doing and appreciate the direction we're going. We've adapted and expanded our professional development to include more offerings as part of the HOPE Initiative to be tailored to employees' emotional needs.” 

Last year, Aims began offering employees and their dependents Talkspace, an online counseling and psychiatry service, at no cost. Talkspace is a virtual service that connects members with licensed mental health providers for counseling, therapy and medication support.

Aims also has a generous employee assistance program (EAP) to identify and assist employees in resolving personal problems affecting their work performance, health, and well-being. This could apply to issues including mental health, substance abuse, financial and legal situations, relationship issues, and stress-related problems.

“Aims cares so much about our employees and is doing what we can to get them through all the challenges by offering them resources which have been extremely important and greatly appreciated,” Cope said. 

Certified Healthy Workplace Leader

The Certified Healthy Workplace Leader designation is the highest level of recognition offered by Health Links. This certification level is awarded to organizations that have continually demonstrated the highest level of commitment and dedicated resources to team members and community health and safety. Recognition as a Healthy Workplace is based on an organization’s score on Health Links’ Healthy Workplace Assessment®, an evidence-based online questionnaire. Health Links offers an assessment, personalized advice, and access to proven resources to help organizations and their teams champion health and safety.

Walsh is proud of this accomplishment, “it's great that we received this recognition, and there's always room for improvement. Our team welcomes employee feedback. We take to heart what employees need and work to find resources to fulfill those needs.”

“We continue to gather information for new things to bring to campus and to continue to build health and wellness in all facets of life for all of our employees,” Cope said.

Visit aims.edu for more information about the college, or visit aims.edu/careers to find opportunities to join the Aims team.