Verve, a Credit Union, received a Platinum Well Workplace Award from the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA), in affiliation with Wellness Council of Wisconsin (WCWI). The 2021 Platinum Well Workplace Award recognizes Verve’s commitment to the health and well-being of its team members.

Verve is one of nine organizations to make the Q1 2021 Well Workplace Award Winners list and has a history of making team member health and well-being a core piece of its operations, earning a gold award in 2018 and a silver award in 2014.

“There is already a lot of demand for a better place to work, and we believe that through their efforts, our members have been creating really thriving organizations and thriving places to work that are going to make their people more well, and we invite them to apply for the awards so we can celebrate all the great work that they’ve done,” said Sara Martin Rauch, chief operations officer at WELCOA.

Improving the health of their people and giving teams the right resources, is about more than putting a program on top of a culture—the whole culture needs to support well-being.

“We have a recipe for success and this award shows it’s working,” said Kristin Steede, VP of learning + development. “Wellness is an integral part of our strategic plan with wellness initiatives shepherded throughout the organization by an engaged steering committee and team of ambassadors. It’s more than simply an add-on or a ‘nice to have,’ it’s a key piece of our strategy to be an employer of choice in the communities we serve. We are driven by serving the needs of others and that starts with our team.”

Verve’s care and concern for its team members can be seen in its wellness program with fitness classes held in onsite fitness facilities at two branches, friendly workplace challenges, wellness lunches, educational workshops and more.

“From our interactive wellness fair at our annual all-team meeting to encouraging team participation in local fitness events, we have intentionally surrounded our team with opportunities to make healthy choices to meet their individual needs,” Steede said. “Our program has continued to evolve by offering free financial coaching, increasing the wellness information available on our intranet, encouraging team members to join our stretching gatherings every morning, developing quiet spaces for our nursing mothers and creating mindful breaks for team members.”

The Well Workplace Awards initiative is driven by a rigorous set of criteria outlined in WELCOA’s Seven Benchmarks of Success. Since its inception in 1991, more than 1,000 organizations, ranging from educational institutions to non-profit and for-profit sectors have joined the list of “America’s Healthiest Companies” by receiving the Well Workplace Award.

“Our team members are the most important piece of our success as an organization. We focus on our team’s overall well-being by offering robust programming to ensure we are taking better care of ourselves which paves the way for taking better care of our communities,” said Kevin J. Ralofsky, president and CEO at Verve. “Our commitment to wellness is just one way we strive to make a difference in people’s lives because we know that when Verve team members are empowered to be their best selves—professionally and physically—it creates a highly effective and engaged workplace, and our members feel the difference.”