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ARUP Among Six U.S. Organizations to Receive Nationals Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards
Salt Lake City, March 6, 2006—ARUP Laboratories, a national reference laboratory, has been named a winner of the American Psychological Association's 2006 National Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award.
The Utah-based organization was named the winner in the large for-profit category.
The award is given to organizations that implement a comprehensive array of workplace practices that foster employee health and well-being while enhancing organizational performance. Nominees were evaluated in the areas of employee involvement; health and safety; employee growth and development; work-life balance; and employee recognition, all components of a psychologically healthy workplace.
ARUP engages its employees in a variety of ways, from surveys, suggestion boxes and an official open-door policy to town hall meetings and "brown bag" lunches where executives answer employees' questions. ARUP's Continuous Quality Improvement Program encourages employees to contribute to teams charged with addressing quality issues affecting both internal and external customers.
ARUP's free on-site health clinic is just one example of the company's emphasis on employee health and well-being. Open six days a week, the clinic provides employees and their families with health care services that range from preventive to urgent care. ARUP also provides a free 24-hour wellness center that offers the benefits of a full-service fitness center, including convenient "mini exercise classes" during breaks as well as formal courses on topics such as strength training, Tai Chi, yoga, cancer prevention, weight management, smoking cessation, and healthy eating habits.
To help employees broaden their professional knowledge, ARUP's Institute for Learning (IFL) partners with the University of Utah's Department of Pathology to offer a broad range of continuing education opportunities including lectures, conferences, professional publications, on-site training, and academic fellowships. Regardless of their role within ARUP, employees can count on the IFL's career counseling resources to help them customize their individual career paths and design a sound strategy for developing competencies and moving up in the organization.
ARUP offers a variety of flexible job schedules along with a number of innovative benefits, including free lab testing for employees' families and pets, supplemental newborn screening, a lactation room for nursing mothers, pet insurance, and personalized financial counseling.
ARUP regularly presents awards for both individual and team performance and service recognition and reinforces the company's emphasis on health and well-being with its monthly "Dr. Kjeldsberg Award," given to an employee who has made a significant healthy lifestyle change.
According to ARUP's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, Carl R. Kjeldsberg, MD, "ARUP recognizes that if our employees are to exhibit a caring attitude and strong commitment to patients and physicians, ARUP needs to set an example by showing a caring and respectful attitude to our employees."
For ARUP, treating its employees well has paid off. High morale, improved health and well-being, and employee satisfaction have translated to low absenteeism and increased productivity. Additionally, ARUP's employee turnover rate is only 14 percent, which falls in the bottom quartile for the lab industry. In a recent survey, a majority of employees cited ARUP's benefits package as a strong influence on their decision to join and remain with the company.
"We believe that creating a flexible, healthy workplace is not just the right thing to do for our employees' well-being, it's also the right thing to do for the organization's well-being," comments ARUP's President and COO Ronald L. Weiss, MD, MBA, agreeing that the programs ARUP has implemented have provided a win-win situation at ARUP.
'In today's challenging business environment, organizations are looking for the competitive advantage that will give them an edge in the marketplace and help them exceed their customers' expectations," said Russ Newman, PhD, JD, APA's executive director for professional practice. "ARUP Laboratories' low absenteeism and increased productivity demonstrate that employee health and well-being and organizational performance are inextricably linked."
More information about the National PHWA winners and Best Practices Honorees is available at http://apahelpcenter.mediaroom.com. Companies interested in learning more about creating a psychologically healthy workplace or applying for an award in their state, province or territory, can visit www.phwa.org.
About the APA
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.
About ARUP Laboratories
ARUP Laboratories is a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and an enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology. With more than 1,800 employees, ARUP offers in excess of 2,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine screening tests to highly esoteric molecular and genetic assays, for patients throughout the country. Rather than competing with its clients for physician office business, ARUP chooses instead to support clients' existing test menus by offering highly complex and unique tests, with accompanying consultative support, to enhance their abilities to provide local and regional laboratory services. ARUP's clients include more than half of the nation's university teaching hospitals and children's hospitals, as well as multihospital groups, major commercial laboratories, group purchasing organizations, military and government facilities, and major clinics. In addition, ARUP is a worldwide leader in innovative laboratory research and development, led by the efforts of the ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology™.
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ARUP Contact Information: Ronald L. Weiss, MD, MBA |