Vermont Governor Jim Douglas signs legislation at Milton CAT’s Richmond facility.
On June 10th, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas visited the Milton CAT Richmond location, toured the facility and met with members of the Milton CAT team. The governor’s visit highlighted our company’s innovative wellness programs. Legislators, advocates and insurance company representatives joined Governor Douglas as he signed two health care bills into law. Governor Douglas’ forward-thinking Blueprint for Health is helping Vermont lead the nation in efforts to change our health care system. “We were proud that our award-winning worksite wellness program was considered by the Governor as an example of the kind of programs that will help change our health care system from reactive to preventive,” said Milton CAT President, Chris Milton.
Explaining the emphasis the dealership places on implementing a very comprehensive wellness program for their employees as “a matter of good business,” Milton comments, “It’s true that we are in the equipment business, but at the end of the day, it’s all a matter of people working with people; people trusting people, people depending on people!” According to the Milton CAT President, to meet the demands of today’s economic environment and to provide their customers with the unparalleled level of support they have come to expect from Milton CAT, they must rely on people. “Our people are, in fact, our number one competitive advantage,” states Milton
The wellness program at Milton CAT reaches further and goes deeper than your typical corporate initiative. Milton CAT Safety Manager Dave Convery details the components:
"First of all, at Milton CAT, we have a goal of zero accidents and injuries, and we strive daily to "Think Safety, Act Safely". The focus on safety and health has resulted in a work place injury reduction of 30% consecutively over each of the last three years.”
“But we go beyond safety,” continues Convery, “to an integrated health and injury prevention service. We have ‘wellness coaches’ in the workplace, who deliver to our employees the awareness building, educational, motivational and support resources necessary to accomplish and sustain improvements in their overall health.” The initiative was piloted in 2004 and rolled out company-wide at the beginning of 2005. Currently there are five professional wellness coaches deployed to cover 1,200 employees at 13 separate dealership locations.
Convery explains that these wellness coaches are not employees of the dealership; they are trained and certified healthcare professionals, employees of Wellness Coaches USA (wellnesscoachesusa.com). Even more importantly, unlike most traditional wellness models that offer remote employee interactions conducted by phone, seminars, through email or by newsletter, the health coaches at Milton CAT help employees in person, one-on-one and face-to-face, to improve their lifestyle behaviors, their health, and their quality of life. Convery states that the Milton CAT workplace wellness program is not designed to replace medical treatment or disease management but to help the vast majority of employees to improve their health by making better lifestyle choices and decisions.