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(Rockville, MD - May 19, 2006) The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is among a select group of Maryland businesses to receive the "Health and Wellness Trailblazer Award" from the Alliance for Workplace Excellence.
Award winners will be honored today at a ceremony at the Bethesda North Marriott Convention Center.
"It is a privilege and a pleasure to work for an organization that values and respects each person's talents and contributions and is supportive of people as individuals, including their health and well-being," according to ASHA Executive Director Arlene Pietranton. "We thank the Alliance for this terrific honor."
A Montgomery County-based coalition of public, private, and non-profit organizations, the Alliance promotes workplace excellence as a competitive advantage.
This is the first year for the "Health and Wellness Trailblazer Award," which recognizes employers who demonstrate an exemplary commitment to the overall physical and mental health of their workforce. They are "leading the way in finding effective business solutions to the increase in stress on today's workforce and the rise in healthcare costs," the Alliance says.
Award criteria include depth of management commitment to employee health; on-site fitness centers and health screenings; ergonomic workstation evaluations; and, flexible benefits plans. An independent review panel chose the winning employers.
ASHA will be profiled in the Alliance's 2006 Health and Wellness Trailblazer Report, which will be sent to Maryland employers to inform them about best practices.
ASHA also receives the "Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval," today which it has won every year since the inception of the honor in 1999. According to the Alliance, the award recognizes "visionary employers that view workplace excellence as a strategic business imperative. These leaders are paving the way to building workplaces where employees are able to achieve success in all aspects of their professional and personal lives while enhancing the business bottom line."
"Quite simply, happy and healthy employees are productive employees," Pietranton notes. "ASHA believes in and practices the values behind this wonderful award not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it makes good business sense."
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 123,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists.
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