AHA Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite Recognition for Lawley

(BUFFALO, NY) – Lawley has been recognized as a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite by the American Heart Association after receiving Gold-Level status in 2015 for helping employees eat better and move more.

“Staying active and employee wellness are important priorities at Lawley. We are honored and excited to be recognized by the American Heart Association as a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite,” said Bill Lawley, Jr, Lawley Principal. “We’re always striving to create the best workplace environment possible for our employees. This will benefit our employees’ health and produce even more positive results at our headquarters in Buffalo and our branch offices.”

Some of the criteria for Platinum-level employers:

  • Offer employees physical activity options in the workplace. Lawley does through our in-house corporate wellness team
  • Increase healthy eating options at the worksite. Lawley provides this through a partnership with Gourmet Foods to Go
  • Promote a wellness culture in the workplace. Lawley offers employees and their spouses incentives through annual biometric screenings to identify early health risks
  • Implement at least nine criteria outlined by the American Heart Association in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and culture
  • Demonstrate measurable outcomes related to workplace wellness

The Fit-Friendly Worksites program is a catalyst for positive change in the American workforce by helping worksites make their employees’ health and well-being a priority. American employers are losing an estimated $225.8 billion a year because of healthcare expenses and health-related losses in productivity, and those numbers are rising. Many American adults spend most of their waking hours at sedentary jobs. Their lack of regular physical activity raises their risk for a host of medical problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Employers face $12.7 billion in annual medical expenses due to obesity alone. The American Heart Association is working to change corporate cultures by motivating employees to start walking, which has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity.

“The Fit-Friendly Worksites Program offers easy-to-implement ways for organizations to help employees eat better and move more, which will help improve their health – and their employer’s bottom line,” said Julie Ciura, Wellness & Health Management Team Leader. “Even people who haven’t exercised regularly until middle age can reap significant benefits by starting a walking program. A study published in 1986 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that some adults may gain two hours of life expectancy for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise they performed.”

For more information about the Fit-Friendly Worksites program and how it’s helping to improve the health of Americans by focusing on the workplace, call 716.564.1100 or visit heart.org/worksitewellness.

About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is devoted to building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Our mission drives everything we do. To improve the lives of all Americans, we provide public health education in a variety of ways. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or join us, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or any of our offices around the country, or visit heart.org.

About Lawley
Lawley is a privately-owned, independent regional insurance firm specializing in property, casualty and personal insurance, employee benefits and risk management consulting and ranked among the 100 Largest Insurance Brokers in the U.S., according to Business Insurance magazine.

For over 60 years, Lawley’s team of more than 350 associates have developed customized property, casualty, surety and benefits insurance programs for businesses and municipalities of all sizes along with personalized protection for individuals and their families. Lawley is consistently recognized as one of the Best Places to Work by Buffalo Business First.

Headquartered in Buffalo, NY, Lawley has branch offices across New York in Amherst, Batavia, Elmsford, Fredonia, Melville and Rochester along with Darien, Connecticut and Florham Park, New Jersey. To find out more, visit lawleyinsurance.com.

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