Peconic Landing Wins Statewide Award

ALBANY, NY (06/05/2009)(readMedia)-- The premise behind Peconic Landing's "Working Wonders" is beautifully simple: Happy employees make for happy residents.

Peconic set out to create a program that would embrace whole-person wellness and reward employees for participating. "Working Wonders" focuses on achieving balance in all aspects of life: work, family and personal, in body, mind and spirit. The program provides quick and easy ways to incorporate healthy lifestyle habits into daily life in two broad categories: fitness/nutrition and culture/knowledge.

Employees are rewarded with prizes for earning points gained by participating in program activities, both at work and at home. Each participant receives pages of point-earning activities as well as a tracking sheet and instructional brochures. Point opportunities abound on and off campus: walking, exercising, taking a class, losing weight, visiting a museum, reading a biography, giving blood, recycling, composting, even learning a foreign language. Participants track their accomplishments on a tracking sheet and have them validated by a team leader, and the program is flexible enough for employees to request points for things that aren't already on the lists.

Prizes are awarded at 45-point increments and include everything from pedometers to fleece jackets and gift certificates, movie tickets and gas cards. A year into Working Wonders, more than half of Peconic's employees are participating and have earned more than 150 prizes.

As a result of the program, employees have formed lunch-hour walking groups and flock to the onsite lunchtime stretch-and-tone classes. A brown-bag lunch seminar series drew dozens of employees on topics including "Creating Balance in a Busy Life," "Am I Turning a Profit or Losing My Shorts?" and "Going Green with Groceries." Classes and seminars all happen during lunch or after hours, and the schedule is posted on a dedicated Working Wonders bulletin board.

The next step in this innovative program is a team approach to earning points and a new array of prizes, along with an online tracking system.

Investing in its employees' wellbeing, in body, mind and spirit, is Peconic Landing's innovative way to bring the highest quality care to its residents.

Founded in 1961, the New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging (NYAHSA) represents nearly 600 not-for-profit and public continuing care providers, including nursing homes, senior housing, adult care facilities, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living and community service providers.