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2024 Safety Award Runner-Up: Employee Health Center at City of Greenville

October 10, 2024

SWANA Safety Awards recognize organizations in the solid waste and resource management industry that take the initiative to improve employee safety. One of the runners-up for this year’s 2024 Workplace Wellness Program award was the City of Greenville’s Employee Health Center, nestled in the northwestern region of South Carolina. Run by two registered nurses and a coordinator, the wellness program prioritizes preventive care by offering free annual physicals, massage therapy, immediate first aid, and more.

Recycling and Environmental Coordinator at City of Greenville Lynn Watkins says, “At first, the Health Center focused on offering a broad range of wellness activities, but we quickly realized the importance of tailoring these initiatives to meet the specific needs and preferences of our employees.” They began regularly collecting feedback from participants in an effort to better understand employee needs, slowly building more personalized wellness options like flexible fitness classes and stress management and mental health resources.

Understanding your team members’ backgrounds and current lifestyles allows for space to customize your program and offer tools your team members might actually use. As Watkins explains, “We continuously review participation rates, health outcomes, and employee satisfaction to identify areas for improvement.” Massage therapy was such a hit that the Health Center extended the service to the Public Works campus so that solid waste employees not at City Hall can also participate.

Throughout the year, the wellness program engages employees by putting on multiple fitness-related challenges with departments playing against each other, improving team camaraderie. The goal is to make wellness accessible in consideration of financial, personal, and physical obstacles, and provide incentives for employees to follow healthy habits more regularly. For example, city employees can receive a $35 monthly stipend, but only if they exercise at a gym of their choice at least eight times a month.

The Health Center also runs an on-site tobacco-cessation program empowering employees to quit smoking by using face-to-face counseling, physical assessments, and prescription medicine. To ensure higher participation rates, virtual programs and on-site health screenings are offered, and there is a mobile RN program to reach employees who do not work at City Hall. We look forward to seeing more initiative in the solid waste industry prioritizing personal safety and wellness.

To learn more about the Employee Health Center at the City of Greenville, SC, visit the Health Center’s website.

To read about the other runner-up to the 2024 Safety Awards, visit the article on the Municipality of East Hants.

The 2024 Safety Award winners will be recognized at WASTECON during the opening session which will include the keynote session Safety in the Skies and on the Ground: Aviation Industry Insights for Solid Waste and Resource Management.