Explorers took first place in the wellness category from the HR Department of the Year Awards.  

Awards season is, again, shining a light on La Salle University as a top institution, and this time, it’s for the Human Resources (HR) Department.  La Salle’s HR department was the winner of the HR Department of the Year Awards in the Excellence Category for Wellness as announced in November 2024. 

The award validates La Salle’s commitment to employees, which strives to create a culture of support, and as a leader in designing and implementing initiatives that help employees manage their health, costs, and personal responsibilities.   

“As health care costs continue to rise rapidly nationwide, we have focused intently on initiatives designed to mitigate costs for employees, enhance their access to and understanding of benefits, and empower them to make informed, cost-effective choices that support their short- and long-term goals,” Vice President of Human Resources Kristin Heasley, M.S., PHR, SHRM-CP, CPSP, said. 

“Everyone on our team has played a part in this award—whether by working directly with one of the initiatives or by diligently supporting other items, so that coworkers could work directly on these initiatives,” she added.  

The department had been awarded a $5,000 grant that it leveraged to produce the Annual Employee Benefits Fair held each September and featuring nearly 20 vendors who offered education on benefits and wellness services. Employees enjoyed complimentary chair massages, healthy-snack demonstrations, aromatherapy, and prizes donated by vendors and benefit partners.  

HR is committed to supporting employee well-being by offering a variety of impactful programs based on feedback regarding employee interests. Some examples include Preparing and Returning to Work After Parental Leave, Investing Essentials: 5 Principles to Invest with Confidence, Get a Great Night’s Sleep, Aging Gracefully with Nutrition, Write Your Own Next Chapter: 5 Steps to Setting Your Retirement Date, Medicare 101, Managing Menopause Symptoms at Work, and many others, all provided with the help of outside vendors. These programs reflect HR’s dedication to empowering employees in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. 

HR also implemented changes to employee medical plans to enhance access and affordability and added a University Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution to ensure every participant in the high-deductible plan had seeded an HSA with a minimum of $100 per month.  

In partnership with their HSA vendor, HealthEquity, HR was able to implement (at no cost) a comprehensive retirement platform, which allows the HSA to be accessed through the institution’s retirement plan administrator’s portal. In one place, employees can now see both their retirement funds and HSA funds. Many employees specifically save HSA dollars now to be used to cover the cost of medical expenses in retirement. Adding to that, La Salle offers employees confidential retirement planning counseling on-campus, and offered two voluntary retirement programs to support long-term, full-time faculty approaching retirement.  

Additional benefits were added for family forming care, expanded hearing benefits, and enhancements were made to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The University was also able to maintain a reduced cost for telehealth visits.  

Together, these events and initiatives presented a strong case to the judges, enabling HR to bring home the top prize.  

“While we acknowledge there is much more we want to do for our employees, we achieved a great deal with our limited resources by leveraging relationships, actively participating in our health insurance consortium, focusing on the benefits that are important to our employees, negotiating effectively with vendors, and thinking creatively about how to achieve our goals,” Heasley said.