When I became APA's chief executive officer in 2003, one of my top goals was to make sure APA was a great place to work for our loyal staff. In June, we got some external validation that we are on the right track when the Washington Post named APA one of the top 150 places to work in the greater Washington area as rated by company employees. APA ranked 12th among the top 20 large employers on the list and was the only nonprofit in the top 12 in that category.
This recognition is first and foremost a testament to staff who every day make APA a great place to work by embodying our core values including teamwork, decency and fairness, and collaborative decision-making — all elements of successful work environments as documented in the psychological literature.
At the core of APA employees' health and well-being is our Human Resources department, which hosts in-house biometric and other screenings, as well as wellness brown-bag lunches on a variety of topics including diabetes and weight loss. The department also manages APA's excellent health and retirement benefits and a tuition reimbursement plan that has allowed many of our staffers to earn higher degrees — accomplishments that improve our work environment and the contributions we can make to the field. This, coupled with the comprehensive in-house training programs provided to staff, enhances the opportunities for career advancement within APA. What's more, our flex schedules allow eligible employees to work from home some days of the week, recognizing that many staffers need such flexibility to meet their non-work obligations such as family caregiving, educational pursuits and community involvement. By promoting a healthy work-life balance in this and other ways, research shows we're boosting employees' commitment to our organization and ultimately what APA can achieve in furthering its mission to advance psychology.
A few years ago, we established our Staff Initiatives team, which has established a variety of activities and programs that promote a happy, healthy and productive workplace. For example, the team routinely hosts afternoon "Healthy Hours" that include healthy snacks and physical games, such as ping pong and wall-sit challenges. The team also launched the popular "Stairwell Ambush," which rewards employees who are randomly "caught" taking the stairs rather than the elevator (an incentive to stay active based on the psychological principle of variable schedules of reinforcement).
APA staffers also participate in $1 fitness programs such as yoga or Pilates classes during lunch, de-stress with in-house seated upper body massages, or work out in one of our two onsite gyms in our two buildings. APA also encourages staff to meditate either in an ongoing class or on our rooftop labyrinth, or to enjoy lunch with a view of the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol in our state-of-the art rooftop conference center.
Our organization puts into practice research compiled by APA's Center for Organizational Excellence supporting that employee involvement can increase job satisfaction, morale and commitment to the organization, as well as increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and enhance work quality. APA staff can join staff-initiated social groups, sports leagues or our 10 committees. The Neighborhood Opportunities for Volunteer Activities committee, for example, organizes regular bake sales for local charities and our "Go Casual for Charity" days, when employees can dress casually if they donate any amount of money to a designated local charity.
APA is a great place to work because our staff members come to work every day eager to support our member psychologists and promote the field of psychology. They, and I, believe in our mission to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives. And we know from psychological research that finding your work meaningful is good for both employee and employer, and in our case, helps us to better serve our members.
