Employee health & wellness is a hot topic these days, but our goal is to treat it as more than a trending topic or superficial pledge to our teams. Happy, healthy employees lead to an optimized workforce, and an optimized community. We believe that making real investments in our employees’ well-being leads to all of us becoming more well-rounded, contributing members of society. One recent investment has been our full-time onsite nurse and health & wellness specialist, Melissa Piccioni.

Melissa was brought onboard to help us with COVID-19 protocols, but we discovered that her presence could have a more holistic impact on our employees’ well-being, and now she’s here to stay. 

Tell us a little bit about your professional background.

I’m a registered nurse, and always loved working in really fast-paced environments. I like action. I’ve basically worked in emergency rooms my entire nursing career. 

What drew you to the field of nursing?

I’ve always liked helping people. I remember as a kid, people having small accidents or scraping their knees and I try to assist the situation. It’s basically who I am. Once I went into nursing, I realized how much I loved it. It feels good when you help people.

What was your original mandate and how has that changed?

I thought I was just coming in here to take care of pandemic stuff; to do testing basically. Slowly more things more projects were presented to me and I really liked it. There was a need here for somebody specifically to ensure people’s wellbeing was taken care of. 

I now assist with anything related to health. I help people when they don’t know where to get advice from. I assist wellness initiatives like yoga classes, bringing people together, teaching them about mental health and offering resources. Employees don’t need to go far to get testing, or to know what clinic to bring their kid to, or to deal with some anxiety they’ve been feeling lately. It’s something you rarely see in other companies.

Can you dive deeper into what our health & wellness program is, and what its goal is?

The health & wellness program doesn’t just focus on making you a better employee, but making you better all around. It’s about educating the staff on topics like how to be healthy mentally, physically, and occupationally too. We focus on these topics every month or so, and hopefully give the employee something they can take home.

Have you received feedback from employees on how they’ve benefited since you’ve come into the picture?

People feel good about the projects we put in place. It brings people together, which is fun. I also get a lot of people walking into my office to talk about what’s going on in their lives. They know I’m a nurse, so I take their confidentiality seriously. People enjoy having somebody who’s there for their health. Having someone to talk to is really special. 

What’s been the most rewarding aspect of this journey you’re on with the company?

There’s a sense of accomplishment when people come to you and say, “Hey, that was awesome. I wanna do more of those meditation classes,” or “I went to see that doctor you recommended and things really turned out.” I like that people have confidence to come and speak to me. There’s just something consistently rewarding about being able to help.

Learn more about the benefits and perks of working at Fuel.