60 SECONDS ON BUSINESS
Hospital honored as healthy workplace

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

If you want to benchmark excellence, here's one place to begin. It's clear that healthy employees are a valuable key to greater productivity.

The Castle Medical Center was recognized as having an exemplary workplace in the Hawaii Psychological Association's Healthy Workplace award program recently. From the date of hire, employees are offered a regular health screening program, wellness counseling and feedback designed to promote a healthy lifestyle. They even have a vegetarian cafeteria.

Castle also gives a continuing-education allowance to every employee and encourages self- and professional development. Along with a child-care program, there are workout facilities on site, as well as classes in everything from aerobics to yoga.

Other organizations recognized in the nonprofit category included:

• Aloha United Way. Developed an innovative "leave-sharing program" so employees can donate unused leave time to ill colleagues in need.
• Casey Family Programs. An excellent Disaster Readiness Program that includes all employee family members.
• Easter Seals. An impressive list of employee benefits and Mahalo Cards from one employee to another.
• St. Andrew's Priory. Developed an environment with cooperation among faculty in curriculum development and creative lesson-planning.
• Seagull Schools. Places emphasis on staff training and development and encourages creativity on the job.

For the complete list of recognized companies visit The Hawaii Psychological Association Web site.

Reach Dr. Drake Beil at drake@60secondsonbusiness.