KCC partners with Battle Creek’s Professional & Personal Wellness for employee wellness services

A view of the reflecting pools area in front of the North Avenue campus on a sunny summer day.

Kellogg Community College has hired Battle Creek based wellness vendor Professional & Personal Wellness to help plan and execute employee wellness events and provide wellness education and services through the current academic year.

The move is part of an expanding Employee Wellness Program initiative at KCC affirming the College’s commitment to the well-being of its employees. The PPW contract amounts to an investment of $23,895 for a year of services, with funds allocated from the College’s general budget.

KCC’s Employee Wellness Program has for several years provided and promoted wellness opportunities that encourage, educate and support KCC employees to become actively involved in making long-term lifestyle changes. Program initiatives are spearheaded by a KCC Employee Wellness Committee including more than a dozen members from across all College levels and departments.

KCC Athletic Director and Employee Wellness Committee Chair Tom Shaw said PPW’s services will allow the Wellness Committee members to take on more of an advisory and support role as opposed to planning and executing events themselves. The move will enable the College to offer more robust programming in support of employee wellness, Shaw said.

“Our employee wellness needs are very diverse and varied,” Shaw said. “PPW are wellness experts that have the experience we need to meet our employees where they are at in their wellness journeys.”

In addition to event planning, advising and the coordination of employee wellness activities, PPW staff will spend 60 hours per year on campus, including at the College’s regional centers in Albion, Coldwater and Hastings, to interact with employees, talk about programming and to help employees set wellness and quality of life goals.

PPW services will include a full calendar of events for the academic year, including 10-day challenges and goal programs with contests and incentives offered each month, as well as access to a robust website including event and activity listings, resources and more at https://properwell.com.

In addition to working with PPW in the coming year, KCC will retain the services of Kalamazoo based wellness organization Holtyn & Associates, LCC, which has worked with College employees on campus for several years and will continue to provide health resources for employees, including one-on-one health assessments each semester.

Services offered by PPW and Holtyn cover just some of the wellness opportunities offered to KCC employees, which include free one-on-one health assessments for all employees; free memberships at the Battle Creek Family YMCA; reduced prices on select wellness-related Lifelong Learning classes offered at the College; monetary incentives for employees who complete an annual physical; several employee-specific wellness events offered each semester, including various physical activities and a lunch and learn series on campus; an exhaustive, curated internal calendar of community wellness events; a quarterly KCC Employee Wellness Newsletter; and more.

KCC has been increasingly recognized by the community for its commitment to employee wellness, including with major award nominations at the state and local levels this past spring. In April, KCC was honored as one of three finalists in the Healthy Workplace Award category of the 2017 Governor’s Fitness Awards. In May, the College was recognized as one of three finalists for the Battle Creek Area Chamber of Commerce’s Choose Health Workplace Wellness Award.

For more information about KCC’s Employee Wellness Program, visit www.kellogg.edu/wellness.

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