Healthiest Employers of Rhode Island Awards 2020 | 2-499 EMPLOYEES
1. Children’s Friend | David Caprio, CEO and president | Number of employees: 362
PROBLEMS WITH EMOTIONAL or mental health are not as visible as a broken arm or shortness of breath. But equal care and attention is still necessary, especially in a workforce that faces constant emotional stressors.
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Emotional difficulties are largely baked into Children’s Friend’s work. The agency, working mostly in neighborhoods of Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls, strives to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable young children.
The agency’s strategic priority states: “Too many of the youngest and most vulnerable children in Rhode Island are experiencing devastating outcomes, including death, as a result of abuse and neglect. … Children’s Friend is realigning itself to proactively respond to this crisis.”
About 400 of the agency’s employees – mostly social workers, teachers, teachers’ aides and nurses – work at 15 locations, said Rebecca Paquette, Children’s Friend’s chief of talent. They provide services such as adoptions and foster care placements, early intervention in family crises, day care and child care, supportive counseling and job training for fathers, nutrition help, and teaching in 65 Head Start classrooms.
Paquette said Children’s Friend’s staff is generally composed of empathetic and caring people who want to fix families’ problems. Because of that, it makes the work hard for staff, she said.
“This work is very stressful because we are working with people in crisis,” Paquette said.
‘You have to look at employees as whole people. They are bringing everything – their physical, mental and fiscal selves – to work. In order for our clients to be well-served, we need our employees to be in good health themselves.’
Rebecca Paquette, Children’s Friend chief of talent
The agency strives to always tailor its health and wellness programs to employees’ needs that are revealed through data from the benefits vendors, staff surveys and focus groups.
Children’s Friend offers employees a variety of resources. Educational programs for employees touch on stress management through yoga and mindful meditation. Lunch-and-learn programs instruct people on physical activity, nutrition and emotional well-being. A stress-reduction workshop has used vision boards to help workers see their problems and imagine solutions.
The agency offered telehealth opportunities to workers to add convenience to their efforts to work on their health even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, Paquette said. A couch-to-5K project helped workers get started on vigorous activity. Employees are also offered a diabetes management program.
Regarding financial motivators, Paquette said Children’s Friend offers a no-deductible health plan option that employees may qualify for if they meet five requirements: Get a physical and a dental exam; have smokers quit smoking; complete a rally survey by UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc. that is part of the Real Appeal weight loss program; and finish one of the five Children’s Friend employee health and wellness challenges or three rally “missions.”
Surveys of employees and their responses to existing wellness programs are used in devising more-useful offerings, Paquette said.
“We are always soliciting ideas about what to try next,” she said.
The agency undertook the Real Appeal online weight loss program, which includes individual coaching “as a direct result of looking at health coverage claims and recognizing that that might be something that our staff would benefit from,” Paquette said.
The one-year program was free to employees even though the initial outlay was costly for the agency, Paquette said. But Children’s Friend takes “the long-term view and [sees] the overall benefits the program will provide for both employees and the agency,” she said.
The annual Wellness Fair in 2019 focused, in part, on hydration with the motto, “Motivate, Hydrate, Feel Great.” Employees received metal straws in a branded pouch as a small gift so that workers could keep aware about the need for good hydration for good health.
Paquette said Children’s Friend feels obligated to help support employees’ health and wellness because that is the mission it provides to its clients.
“Our agency is dedicated to the well-being of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable children and families,” an agency statement declared. “[We] provide the same care, consideration and compassion for employees,” Paquette said. “In order for our clients to be served, we need our employees to be in good health in all areas. When you pay attention to employees’ health, they are happier and it’s better for clients.”
