January 20th, 2009

Rochester Institute of Technology — WCUSA and RIT Expand Partnership

January 20, 2009

In furtherance of their longstanding commitment to the health, welfare and quality of life of their faculty and staff, in January, 2009 Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) entered into a “partnership arrangement” with Wellness Coaches USA (WCUSA) to provide RIT’s faculty and staff with WCUSA’s state-of-the-art onsite wellness coaching program. The onsite wellness coaching program was integrated with RIT’s already robust workplace wellness initiative called Better Me.  The objective was to enhance the effectiveness of Better Me by expanding its reach, its capability to “engage” employees in wellness, and its power to change behaviors and improve lives through WCUSA’s unique and powerful onsite wellness coaching methodology.

Initially started as a pilot program for approximately 650 of RIT’s faculty and staff in selected locations throughout the campus, WCUSA’s onsite coaching quickly proved a success.  As a result, RIT has decided to take our process to the next level.  More specifically, here’s a portion of what RIT reported in their 2010 Benefits Enrollment Newsletter (October 2009 Employee Edition)…

…”The best medicine for containing health care costs over the long term is for people to live healthier lives.  RIT strives to help faculty and staff achieve this important goal with our ever-expanding Better Me employee wellness program.  After a successful pilot, we are excited to enhance the program by introducing workplace wellness coaching to the entire RIT employee community beginning in January, 2010.  We hope you will take advantage of this tremendous resource to help you maximize your health and wellness.  This is just another example of our commitment to make RIT a great place for you to work, learn, contribute, and grow!”

“To provide this resource to employees, RIT’s Better Me wellness program is partnering with Wellness Coaches USA, a premier, national wellness coaching organization that place wellness coaches directly on-site at participating employers.  RIT selected this organization after extensive research on health and wellness coaching methodology.”

“What makes Wellness Coaches USA and on-site coaching such a perfect fit for RIT is that it truly helps focus our wellness program on our people and their health.  This personalized and active approach to coaching is what will continue to make our wellness initiative stand out above others.”

“This is such an exciting time for RIT’s employees.  Now all of our faculty and staff can have their own wellness coach guiding them through the maze of often complex health and wellness concerns.  No matter where we are on the wellness spectrum, we can all be better.  The assistance of a wellness coach makes it much easier to start a plan of improvement and stick with it.”

We are very proud of our work with RIT, and note that it further demonstrates the applicability and appeal of our model to a broad cross section of employer/employee classifications, and more specifically, to colleges and universities.