Wellness Councils
Wellness councils play an important role in creating healthier workplaces to make wellness a part of everyday work life.
Each agency's wellness council collaborates with their assigned Working for a Healthier Tennessee wellness coordinator. Together, they choose activities and programs for their agency that support healthy eating, physical activity and overall well-being.
Wellness councils use program resources and our activity lists to plan efforts that help their coworkers build healthy habits over time.
What is a wellness council?
A wellness council is a team of Tennessee State Government employees who work together to support health and wellness in their agency.
The council:
- Includes employees from different roles and levels within the agency
- Plans and tracks wellness activities for employees
- Encourages both individual and group participation
- Promotes wellness activities across the agency
- Recognizes and celebrates individuals and teams who meet wellness goals
How are wellness councils formed?
Each agency appoints its own wellness council. The size and makeup of the council may vary by agency, but councils should include a mix of employees who represent different roles, regions and perspectives.
What's the role of the wellness council chair?
Each wellness council has a wellness council chair who serves as the main point of contact.
The wellness council chair:
- Supports the mission of improving employee health
- Models healthy behaviors
- Helps select council members
- Leads meetings and sets goals
- Assigns tasks and follows up on progress
- Works closely with the agency's assigned Working for a Healthier Tennessee wellness coordinator
- Shares updates on wellness activities throughout the year
Agencies may also choose to appoint a co-chair and should have a plan in place for leadership changes.
Wellness council chairs can use the wellness council chair checklist for guidance or contact their wellness coordinator for the wellness council chair toolkit.
What about other wellness council members?
A strong wellness council includes members with different skills and roles, such as:
- Public information officer or the person in charge of internal communication to help share wellness activities and successes through newsletters, intranet, social media, etc.
- Wellness council members to support planning and carrying out wellness activities
- Human resources and/or legal representatives to provide guidance and support as needed
- Additional members representing different regions, offices and levels of staff within the agency