February 2015
| Business World
51
mental health tool kit training mandatory,"
reiterates Andrea. "Michelle and her assistant
have gone county-wide to roll out this men-
tal health tool kit, and we've also trained all
of our supervisors on how to recognize men-
tal health issues at the onset. If they notice
an employee not performing well or not be-
ing themselves, they know how to approach
that employee and offer them the EAP (Em-
ployee Assistance Program) that is available
to them."
"We also motivate our employees to be phys-
ically active," indicates Michele. "We have a
'Walk the Talk' campaign that encourages
employees to interact with each other in
person rather than just communicating via
email, which increases social interaction as
well as getting them out of their seats. We
also do yoga in the park and have two coun-
ty gyms that employees use. We wholeheart-
edly believe that healthy employees are more
productive employees."
Moving forward, Michele and Andrea are
excited to build off of the recent success
they've experienced as a result of their for-
ward-thinking methods. That means con-
tinuing to do what they've been doing, en-
suring that all new employees are onboard
with their innovative initiatives, and "never
becoming complacent."
"If there are new initiatives out there that can
benefit our employees, we need to stay cur-
rent and adopt them to ensure that our pro-
grams and our processes are a good fit and a
good match to continue on with the success
that we currently have," says Michele.
"When we won these awards, it was prob-
ably one of the proudest moments of my
life knowing that I worked for the County
of Wellington," concludes Andrea. "To see
what we accomplished as a team and as an
organization was such a great honour."
