2016 Clinton National Airport
Congratulations to The Clinton National Airport and Michael Smith on winning the 2016 ARSHRM Best Practices Award!
The winner of this award, Clinton National Airport, is a company who is continuously looking to identify additional benefits and services to provide its employees. Through this continued effort they identified several employees who had health risks that they felt could potentially affect many of their other employees as well.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is sometimes called the “silent killer” because it usually has no noticeable warning signs or symptoms until other serious problems arise. According to the CDC, about one in three adults are currently living with hypertension. Last year, this company had someone reveal they had been identified as having a severe risk for heart attack. Additionally, they had several employees who were taking medical leave due to heart problems. Looking at the data, this meant they could have up to 63 employees who at any given time could currently be at risk for a heart attack!
They responded by creating a new “Healthy Heart Day” wellness initiative in 2015, and contracted with the Arkansas Heart Hospital of Little Rock to provide diagnostic screenings and awareness information to all employees.
Their Healthy Heart Day screenings were provided free of charge to encourage maximum employee participation, despite the financial expense to them. They offered two different heart screenings to employees during this time that checked Blood Pressure, Blood sugar, Total Cholesterol, and several other tests. They choose to hold this new annual event in February in order to tie-in their wellness initiative with National Heart month for greater promotional awareness among employees. Since it’s roll-out last year, Clinton National Airport hosted two successful Health Day events, which provided approximately 265 free screenings at a value of over $13,000. They feel this was a worthwhile investment into their employee’s personal wellness despite the costs to them and plan to continue this event. Since providing these screenings, they have been able to lower their total FMLA leave due to heart problems. They hope this wellness initiative will allow their employees to continue working and feel their best for many years to come.