{"id":174178,"date":"2026-09-04T14:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=174178"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:38:27","slug":"bates-human-resources-earns-award-for-excellence-in-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/04\/bates-human-resources-earns-award-for-excellence-in-well-being\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates Human Resources earns award for excellence in well-being"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"employee
Employee Enrichment Week includes a Front Porch Perk-up for employees at 215 College Street. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bates College has been selected for a Best Practice Award from the New England Employee Benefits Council (NEEBC). The award recognizes Bates\u2019 Employee Enrichment Week, held annually in June, as a standout program, showcasing \u201cthe importance of wellbeing and the essential role it plays in a favorable work environment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patty Rooney, associate vice president for human resources, said that the award affirms Bates\u2019 commitment to its employees. \u201cWe have been focused on improving employee wellness and health outcomes for several years,\u201d Rooney said. \u201cWe’ve been expanding and diversifying programs, educating and communicating wellness resources, and encouraging the Bates community to join us in this journey. This award recognizes the tremendous effort that the HR team and our Wellness Ambassadors have expended to continually enhance, innovate, and promote our wellness programming across our campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bates\u2019 Employee Enrichment Week in June offers community lunches, the B-Well 5k Run\/Walk, and an offering of short courses for Bates employees, typically taught by colleagues. This year\u2019s courses included \u201cSourdough 101: From TikTok to Tangy Loaves,\u201d \u201cMaking Mappettes: Celebrate the Tiny Places We Love!\u201d and \u201cInterviewing Tips & Tricks.\u201d Activities included a kickball showdown and morning flow yoga. Human Resources describes Employee Enrichment Week as a \u201ccelebration of a job well done and an opportunity for our staff and faculty to connect, elevate their skill sets, and feel empowered to try new things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"employee
Accounting Assistant Jeanne Mace-Davis and Assistant Vice President of Alumni Engagement Sarah Cameron show off the results from “The Delicious World of Charcuterie,” a course offered during Employee Enrichment Week. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brittany Pleau-Richardson, director of benefits and employee wellness, described the commitment Bates makes to supporting employee well-being as consistent, on-going, and comprehensive \u2014 considering employees in terms of their physical, emotional, social, financial, and overall well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"employee
Vice President for Communications and Marketing Kristen Lainsbury and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Leana Am\u00e1ez enjoy some lightly competitive activities as a part of Employee Enrichment Week. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe work to create an environment where people feel supported, valued, and encouraged to take care of themselves,\u201d Pleau-Richardson said. \u201cI\u2019m especially proud that this is not a one-time effort, but an ongoing commitment to listening to our employees, responding to their needs, and continuing to strengthen the ways we support our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bates will be recognized on Sept. 16 at the LaCava Center at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., when the college will receive the \u201cExcellence in Wellbeing\u201d award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEEBC, which was founded in 1980 to bring together the region’s employee benefits practitioners for exchange of ideas, has grown to a community supporting over 2,000 participants and 1,200 members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bates College has been selected for a Best Practice Award from the New England Employee Benefits Council. The award recognizes\u00a0Bates\u2019 Employee Enrichment Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1917,"featured_media":174215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"\/usr\/local\/webserver\/webpve\/htdocs\/new-www.bates.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/b\/news\/single-big-header-image.php","_header-color":"","_photo-credit":"","_header-effect":"","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11011,1],"tags":[12469],"class_list":["post-174178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-batesnews","tag-human-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1917"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174178"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174307,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174178\/revisions\/174307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}