The district, which has about 100 full-time and 30 seasonal employees, uses biometric health screenings and health risk assessments to identify risks and opportunities within its workforce. Its Work Well committee uses the analysis to develop quarterly challenges around nutrition, physical activity, stress reduction or another health-related topic that employees can focus on.

Participants are paired to serve as “accountability buddies” during challenges.

“Our current challenge is Witness the Fitness, so we’re focused on fitness activities throughout the work week,” Vixie said. “And we check in with our buddies to make sure we accomplish the tasks that we are assigned each week. It adds a lot of fun, and hopefully stress reduction, to our workdays.”

Attending to employee well-being is built into managers’ responsibilities. This year, Beach Cities plans to further operationalize work-life balance.

“This makes [it] intentional for us to define work-life balance for our employees and to make sure that we’re focusing not only on what work needs to be done, but what is going on with them as well,” Vixie said.

Lola Butcher is a freelance writer based in Springfield, Mo.

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