The University of St. Thomas is enhancing its employee wellness program to encourage and promote employee health and well-being. At the core of the enhanced program will be a new benefit: the Vitality Wellness Program, an interactive, rewards-based program, which employees can use to set wellness goals and develop individualized wellness plans. Additionally, Human Resources is establishing an ad hoc committee of “wellness champions" – faculty and staff who will promote best practices, facilitate communications and recommend and support the implementation of wellness activities and programs at the university.
Wellness Committee
Human Resources is still seeking faculty to serve on the Wellness Committee. If you are interested in learning more about or serving on the Committee, contact the HR-Benefits team: 651-962-6497 or benefits@stthomas.edu.
Vitality Program
The Vitality Program is an actuarially based, best-in-class wellness program available to all regular full-time and part-time University of St. Thomas employees. The program was recommended by the University’s Fringe Benefits Advisory Committee, which comprises faculty, exempt staff and non-exempt staff from across the university. Vitality tracks your wellness activities and creates personalized goals and plans for every individual based on your unique circumstances and objectives, and offers incentives and rewards for meeting these goals.
Vitality participants earn points by completing a variety of activities in areas such as wellness assessment and education, fitness, prevention and healthy living. Every point earned through the program is worth one “Vitality Buck,” which can be redeemed for rewards including electronics, sporting equipment, hotel vouchers and more than 600,000 other items at the online Vitality Mall. There are no fees or premiums for employees to participate in the program, except that applicable tax rules require points earned by participants to be taxed in the year accrued.
To get started with Vitality, register online following the instructions below. Once you have successfully registered you can complete your Vitality Health Review to earn points, review and activate your personal wellness goals, and begin engaging in activities. Employees who participated in the onsite biometrics screenings in March 2013 will see their screening results automatically populated in their personal and confidential account within Vitality. If you did not participate in these screenings, you will have an opportunity to obtain your biometric information and submit it to Vitality after you have registered.
Vitality is subject to data privacy laws. Individual employee data submitted to Vitality is maintained confidentially by Vitality and will not be shared with the University of St. Thomas except on an aggregated, unattributed basis in the form of general, statistical reports, similar to the aggregated claims data we receive from our medical and dental insurance administrators. These reports do not include information that would specifically identify individuals.
How to Register
1. Go to the Vitality website, www.PowerofVitality.com
2. Click on “Register Today!”
3. Complete all required (*) fields: first and last name, date of birth and last four digits of your Social Security number
4. Once your information is validated, the system will ask you to create a username and password.
5. Read and accept the Terms and Conditions.
6. Enter a security question.
7. The process is complete.
If you have questions regarding the university’s wellness program, please contact the HR-Benefits team: 651-962-6497 or benefits@stthomsa.edu.
