Forum shines spotlight on employee health & wellness

JACKSON, Tenn. — The sixth annual Employer Forum brought people from all over West Tennessee to Jackson Friday morning.

The event kicked off with a special guest — someone dressed as Tina Turner lip syncing “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”

The theme of this year’s forum was “What’s Healthy Got To Do With It?”

Since the forum is all about health and wellness, people couldn’t help but get up and move.

“We want to provide employers here in this area the success of others throughout the country,” corporate health and wellness manager Shelley Hayes said.

Several guest speakers took the stage to encourage and share how they are keeping employees healthy across the country.

Employers in the audience included Amy West, human resources director at Jackson State Community College.

“We use this conference as something to revive us and get us focused on something positive that can positively impact our employees,” West said.

The second half of the day was all about “Well Tank,” a competition for organizations to show how they want to improve their employee’s health.

West says they’re competing in the competition to win the $10,000 grant to improve facilities they already have, giving students the option to be healthy.

“We offer a wellness center that has free weights and cardio equipment, and we want to enhance that,” West said.

The school also plans to use some of the money, if they win, for more healthy food options in their food pantry for students.

“Our goal is for everyone to take a little nugget home, or a little nugget back to the workplace, but we hope they take a lot more than that,” Hayes said.

The ultimate goal of the forum is to make health and wellness accessible for all employees.