Healthy habits at work, at home, and at the 2019 World Cup: An interview with Regence client success manager Emily Boscacci
Main photo: Emily (pictured right) and A.D. at the 2019 World Cup Quarterfinal win
Regence believes that fostering a healthy workforce helps us better serve our members. In honor of National Wellness Month, today we kick off a new blog series highlighting the employees and practices that help foster a culture of wellness within our own walls.
Emily Boscacci has turned a personal passion for health into a career. As a member of Regence’s Human Performance and Wellbeing (HPW) team, Emily develops wellness programs that meet individual employee needs and goals. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution; each of Regence’s clients presents different challenges and opportunities. Emily shared more about her job, how she practices healthy habits, and what it was like to cheer on the US Women’s National Team during the 2019 World Cup in France. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
How would you describe your job on a day-to-day basis?
I work with employers to figure out what kind of wellness program can best support their employees’ health and wellbeing. This includes developing strategies and programs, launching specific activities and solutions, then—and most importantly—evaluating results over time to understand what worked best.
What do you like most about your job?
I love meeting with clients and their employees in person to better understand the culture of different organizations and industries. Many Regence clients are innovative in their own fields, so it’s a unique way to apply this same innovation and energy toward developing workplace wellness programs. In-person visits give me a chance to see the microcultures within a workforce, connect with different leaders and team members, and really understand their vision for wellness.
As a Regence employee, what works best with your own workplace programs?
We try to be creative, putting a personal spin to something like a steps challenge, such as infusing a pop culture element (Avengers theme, anyone?). It’s important to identify a theme and then make it fun for our employees. Taking a team-based approach has also worked well since people often like working together toward a common goal. We also have a large remote workforce, which means we need to find ways to make health and wellness innovative, fun, meaningful and holistic, including diverse programs, webinars, and other resources.
What makes Regence different when it comes to helping employers with health and wellness?
For years we’ve helped Regence members with their physical health, emotional health and financial health. Now, there’s a shift to also look at human performance, recognizing how career development and workplace performance support both individual and organizational success.
You recently joined your fiancé while she competed in the 2019 World Cup with the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team. From the perspective of a wellness expert, what was that experience like?
It was amazing on many levels. My fiancé, Adrianna, who goes by A.D., worked hard to get there so it was great to support her in this way. I spent over three weeks in France, staying with the soccer friends and family program. A.D. and I saw each other every other or every three days, so time spent with loved ones is cherished and good for them from an emotional wellbeing perspective. It was also incredible to see just how much they track their health and wellness holistically, everything from daily reports on muscle soreness, sleep patterns, anxiety and other areas. A.D. and all the other players do this year-round to reach their full potential.
While on the road, I don’t normally set rules for myself, but since I was in France for three weeks during the World Cup, I made three for myself to help stay healthy:
- Always take the stairs, which included walking up and down to my eighth-floor hotel room.
- Walk as much as possible, skipping the metro system to get extra steps in.
- Do two sets of 25 pushups each day at a minimum.
Not a huge habit at all compared to these world-class athletes, but it gave some consistency. I usually ended up doing a bit more and it was great to have a solid baseline to build on.
If you had to choose one tip to give for living healthy, what would it be?
Find ways to fit wellness-related activities and healthy behaviors into your daily routine. This way you don’t always have to make a conscious effort to move or eat better, especially when time is short. Identify the things you do every day that either contribute to or take away from your overall wellbeing, then start with making small adjustments. Years ago, I started biking to work, first with a short ride to a train stop. Now I’ve worked up to biking an hour each way to work, which is something I remember thinking was crazy when I first started.
