Lowcountry business members gathered at seminar to encourage workplace health, well-being

Employees representing Lowcountry businesses interested in creating a healthy work environment gathered on March 27 to hear from area business leaders and a city official sharing their personal insights, strategies and ideas for prioritizing wellness and maintaining a culture of health and well-being in the workplace.

As part of the South Carolina Healthy Business Challenge’s (SCHBC) ongoing series of spotlight gatherings featured across the state, participants met for the group’s spring seminar series focused on “Health-Savvy Leadership: The business case for prioritizing organizational well-being.” This event marked the final segment of the series, following the Midlands and Upstate regions, aimed at fostering discussions and initiatives to promote workplace health and wellness.

The midday luncheon event was led by Susan Johnson, Ph.D., who serves as the director of the Office of Health Promotion at MUSC and is also the founder and director of the SCHBC. Joining her were the SCHBC leadership team, along with sponsors and exhibitors. The event included a panel discussion featuring prominent civic and business leaders. Among the panelists were Keith Benjamin, co-founder and restaurateur of Uptown Hospitality Group; Mayor Will Haynie, representing the town of Mount Pleasant; Tim Kennedy, president of Trident Construction; and Danielle Scheurer, M.D., chief quality officer at MUSC. The event was moderated by Bryan Derreberry, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce CEO.

Panel participants responded to several questions concerning “health-savvy leadership,” plus answered questions from the audience. Panelists also shared their personal and professional perspectives on multiple topics ranging from managing workplace stress, time management and maintaining work-life balance to sharing strategies for balancing leadership demands with well-being. 

In research reported by Johnson, employers today have a huge impact on their employees’ health and well-being. “Stressed employers and leaders can also have stressed employees. For today’s leaders who understand this and the impact that they have, they are also recognizing that they are becoming a better leader, a better person, thus it makes their job more rewarding,” she said.

MUSC's Dr. Danielle Scheurer, far right, shares both personal and workplace ideas to manage workplace health and well-being.

Scheurer, a hospitalist and influential leader at MUSC Health, highlighted several early examples where businesses prioritized health and wellness by re-investing in their employees through health-related benefits and incentives. Additionally, as a hospital leader, she emphasized the importance of leading by example through both thought and tangible actions. “There’s physical and mental aspects of well-being. As part of MUSC leadership, we are all aware that people watch what we do very carefully. If we’re taking care of ourselves, then our team members and people who look up to us will hopefully follow suit,” said Scheurer. To that end, she openly shares her daily schedule and calendar, which includes time set aside for dedicated workout sessions as well as periods when she is unavailable.

“Identifying that time and setting up boundaries is very important, especially for team members working in health care and stressful 24/7 on-call jobs. It’s also important that we, as leaders, remain open and transparent to others in how others feel while sharing support and providing resources that they need.”

Scheurer also shared the progress made in conversations about mental wellness among care team members. In the past, discussions about mental wellness were almost non-existent, leading health care practitioners to suffer in silence. Today, however, she feels that tide is turning. At MUSC, care team members who have experienced a trauma on the job now have access to a peer-coaching program. This initiative pairs individuals with a peer co-worker who can offer support and guidance during challenging experiences.

Responding to another topic on employee well-being, Scheurer emphasized the importance of measuring employee feedback through annual employee engagement surveys. She underscored the importance of assessing employee resilience, particularly looking at indicators such as employee activation and decompression. Leaders and managers are interested in understanding how effectively employees are able to disconnect from work-related stress and maintain resilience. She said that it’s critical for MUSC teams to recognize signals and responses that may indicate unhealthy or unsustainable patterns of behavior.

The SCHBC evolved from a collaboration between MUSC and the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA), stemming from a three-year community grant project funded by The Duke Endowment. This initiative aimed to address the well-being of health care employees. MUSC joined 60 statewide hospitals in this effort and was named one of eight Center of Excellence (COE) hospitals for establishing best practices, sharing ideas and creating a culture of well-being at each hospital, establishing healthy workforces in South Carolina. Upon completion of the grant, the SCHA received additional funding to expand to all sectors of business, and the COEs were asked to develop a strategy to become a resource to businesses in their communities. Johnson then reached out to colleague Paul Wieters with the City of Charleston, and together, they created the Charleston Healthy Business Challenge in 2015. In 2021, state leaders learned of the program’s success and encouraged Johnson and her team to expand their worksite wellness efforts among Lowcountry, Midlands and Upstate businesses, leading to a rebranding of the program to the SCHBC and a statewide expansion, launching the Upstate Region in 2022 and the Midlands Region in 2023.

  “I cannot emphasize enough how the collaborative aspect of the South Carolina Healthy Business Challenge is so important to this program,” said Johnson, who speaks about the SCHBC model to communities and organizations around the country. “It is the collective impact of everyone. Each of us has something to bring to the table, and we want to make sure we continue with this collaborative effort as we move forward.”