When you have a company-wide commitment to excellence and elite customer service, the health and safety of your team needs to be a priority.
Because if your people sacrifice their well-being, they can’t provide the level of service your customers – and your company – expect.
That’s why GPRS puts the health and well-being of every member of our team, from Project Coordinators to Accounting Specialists, to our 500-strong national field team of Project Managers, first. It’s also why GPRS Wellness Coordinator Erin Waggoner created the company’s new health and wellness initiative, called THRIVE.
and overall wellness
THRIVE refers to the desire for all GPRS team members to “Thrive with healthy habits every day.”
Its mission to is to provide team members and their families the ability to “experience positive transformation through accessible education and resources… Empowering them with the five elements of well-being: Physical, Emotional, Financial, Career, and Social, so that GPRS team members will THRIVE.”
The new initiative kicked off with a LinkedIn Live video feed to its first Summer Wellness Workshop event in June, and a second in July, with Dr. Reyna LeVan, a chiropractor and wellness specialist based in Michigan.
June’s workshop focused on physical fitness & stress reduction. A group of more than 40 people took part on-site, and field team members could join via LinkedIn Live to participate flexibility testing learned exercises designed to increase flexibility, balance, and strength.
July’s workshop was also featured on a LinkedIn Live event and focused on nutrition, sleep, and stress reduction.
Waggoner and LeVan, both health subject matter experts and friends, shared how the live event arm of THRIVE has evolved, and what they hope they help GPRS team members achieve.
“My goal is to focus, to do workshops, to do teachings, always have information on the hub, on our wellness page that highlight each of these five aspects,” said Waggoner. “We started with physical and emotional… starting off with these two, I asked Reyna if she could come alongside me, being more of a subject matter expert. We’ve been on the same page for many years, and I’ve learned so much through her practice that I want to share with everyone else.”
Dr. LeVan concurred. “I’m a chiropractor, so that’s my dominant talk, chiropractic and all the other avenues that people can take to impact their health and well-being… So, I geared the first two talks around drills and activities that people can take – and they don’t have to be chiropractic patients – to use in their lives.”
“Last time, we talked about three stressors – physical, emotional, and chemical stress – how to mitigate those and how they affect your body. This time, we did the five aspects of wellness. It’s awesome that you [THRIVE] have five aspects of wellness because mine sort of mimic that. Your nervous system, nutrition, exercise and stretching, your emotions, positive mental attitude, sleep and rest were today’s focus,” Dr. Levan shared.
Why the Focus on Stress?
Stress reduction has become an increasing focus in the construction industry because accident, substance use, and suicide rates continue to climb among contractors and tradespeople. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the construction industry had the second highest suicide rate among U.S. workers. And in 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that construction workers suffer more fatalities at work than any other industry.
These alarming statistics have put the issues of mental health and stress front and center as part of Construction Safety Week and prompted some of the industry’s largest general contractors to institute their own wellness initiatives.
One such initiative is Hoffman Construction’s GUTS/Tough Enough to Talk Project that aims to take stress reduction and mental health focus directly onto the company’s jobsites. In reporting earlier this year, one of its founders, Josh Vitale, shared with GPRS that construction workers deal with substance and alcohol issues at almost twice the rate of any other industry.
That’s one of the many reasons Waggoner is passionate about bring wellness into the workplace at GPRS. Human Resources and the company at large have backed her passion by turning the summer events into lunch and learns with buffets of healthy food – most recently including a baked potato bar – and by holding a drawing at each event for gift cards for two lucky participants.
“When you look at all the stressors, all the things that we deal with every day, it's not just here at work. We walk in the door with a whole lot of stuff, a big heavy backpack of things. THRIVE exists to give everyone tools that they can use, they can take back to their family. They can truly use some of these things to create a higher level of wellbeing. And it's for everyone's good,” said Waggoner.
THRIVE is gaining traction among GPRS team members, who seem to feel they have a valuable resource for wellness through their workplace. “A lot of people approached me or sent emails [after an event] because they have more questions,” Waggoner shared. “They want to make changes – they know they need to make changes – most of us do… Right now, it’s just getting the information into the hands of our team members, company-wide, so that’s the goal right now.”
The final installment of GPRS’ Summer Wellness Workshop series will be in August at GPRS’ corporate headquarters in Maumee, Ohio. Dr. LeVan will be discussing how to control your nervous system to switch from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic.
“Once people realize how their nervous system works and how to regulate it in a better way on their own, it really ties into emotional well-being. I think people really beat themselves up not realizing why their bodies are doing the things that they’re doing. There’s a lot of emotional trauma stored in our bodies and nervous systems, and we’re helping people understand how to unwind that.”
The THRIVE initiative will continue to hold events surrounding physical, emotional, career, social, and financial wellness throughout the year.
If you’d like to learn more about GPRS and how to become a member of our team, click here.
