Birch Tree Communities

Pictured from left: Birch Tree's HR Team - Shayne King, Franchesca Kader, Amanda Mace and Courtney Jennings

The Arkansas SHRM State Council Human Resources Best Practices Award recognizes an organization that aligns successful HR programs and practices with the company’s business objectives.

Birch Tree Communities is the 2024 Arkansas SHRM HR Best Practice recipient.

The organization’s mission is to help their patients lead a satisfying life in the community. Their staff play a key role in their patient’s success. Birch Tree understands that their staff’s wellbeing has a direct impact on their patient’s lives. Therefore, they designated a wellness committee for their staff to focus on all facets of wellness with an emphasis on exercise. Realizing their manual tracking system was burdensome, they partnered with Strive to expand the employee experience. With Strive, they can combine challenge participation and recognition, social interaction, education and growth in the app. They incentivized monthly challenges with a minimum step count challenge, weekly exercise challenge and monthly wellness focus challenge. The Strive app also provides a resource tab with mental health topics and a telehealth option. Since implementing the app, the organization has seen 41% of their employees have success in their wellness goals including weight loss, smoking cessation, and adopting healthier lifestyles.