Building a Culture of Wellness Across a Nationwide Workforce

SEI is a technology consulting firm with multiple locations across the United States. At SEI, wellness is a core value, not just a perk. Through its SEIze the Day Wellness Program, well-being is intentionally built into how the company operates, ensuring employees feel supported and engaged. The strategy emphasizes flexibility, inclusive and data-informed initiatives, and opportunities that support all dimensions of wellness, including physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, environmental, and financial well-being. This commitment is reinforced consistently by leadership. While building a successful wellness strategy comes with challenges—particularly for a geographically dispersed workforce—SEI and its partnering consultant, Excellence Wellness Solutions, are proud of how they have created meaningful connection and support across the organization.

The Challenge: Reaching and Engaging a Geographically Dispersed Workforce

In today’s work environment, working in the same office as colleagues is not always the standard. Many organizations are spread out, operate in hybrid models, or have embraced remote work as their primary approach. While the remote and hybrid approaches offer flexibility and having multiple locations can demonstrate growth and success, they also carry risk of disconnection. Without intentional engagement, wellness initiatives can lose meaning and lead to disengagement. SEI and Excellence Wellness Solutions have tackled this challenge head-on through intentional communication and a personalized approach. A key factor in the success of the wellness initiative is the strong relationships that have been established, allowing employees to trust the wellness team and feel supported to focus on their well-being.

The Approach: Making Wellness Simple, Visible, and Integrated

Wellness is directly aligned with SEI’s mission, vision, and values and is integrated into the overall business strategy, as well as built into the workday. Employees are introduced to wellness from their very first interaction during new employee orientation. Excellence Wellness Solutions partners with SEI to deliver a thoughtful, detail-oriented wellness strategy that makes participation easy and tracking seamless. Clear, consistent communication is instrumental to the success of wellness at SEI. Some specific strategies that set SEI’s wellness program up for success include the following.

• Using multiple communication methods, such as email, internal channels and chats, and personalized messaging, to encourage participation, provide reminders, and celebrate success
• Leveraging technology to reduce barriers and make tracking simple
• Including spouses in the wellness initiative
• Encouraging participation during the workday to make wellness accessible
• Providing opportunities to learn from guest experts during live sessions, with recordings available for flexibility
• Hosting team watch parties for live sessions and workshops to demonstrate leadership support
• Building camaraderie by highlighting wellness achievements and successes in the internal channel and chats

Together, these strategies help to overcome the challenge of working in a dispersed work environment by making participation easy and inclusive across all locations, while also prioritizing community and connection.

Leadership Support

In addition to the strategies above, leadership support is a significant driver of wellness success at SEI. Leaders at SEI serve as visible spokespersons for wellness, actively communicate wellness messages to employees, and are directly involved in initiatives such as the annual 5K and hosting watch parties. CEO Bill Gallagher has led the way by prioritizing wellness as a core strategy for the organization. After receiving employee feedback about personal wellness challenges and opportunities for support, he began to place greater emphasis on wellness at SEI. By personally investing in his own health and partnering with fellow leaders, he has helped create a culture of wellness that truly trickles from the top down.

Wellness Success  

Wellness success at SEI is measured in a variety of ways through regular evaluation and feedback. One key measure of success is engagement. At SEI, 75% of employees have participated in at least one wellness-related activity, and more than 50% have engaged in five or more touchpoints. Additionally, one in four participants has a spouse or partner participating alongside them. Success is also defined by behavior change and personal impact, not just by numbers. Employees regularly share success stories that highlight their achievements, further reinforcing a culture of support and camaraderie.

Employee feedback helps shape the wellness strategy at SEI, leading to meaningful improvements and real change. By celebrating successes, recognizing achievements, and offering personal touches and flexibility, SEI maintains connection and community—even across a workforce that is spread nationwide.

SEI is a 2025 Well Workplace Award recipient. Click here to review a complete list of award winners.

Coming in 2026: A New Award Platform. Interested in applying for a Well Workplace Award? Learn more about the Well Workplace Award application process here.

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  Ashton Sholund

  Wellness Content and Information Specialist

  Wellness Alliance

  As a Wellness Content and Information Specialist at the Wellness Alliance, Ashton is passionate about supporting employee well-being and advancing workplace wellness initiatives. With over 12 years of experience as a certified health coach, Ashton has worked extensively in the worksite wellness sector, empowering individuals and organizations to prioritize health and create sustainable wellness strategies. Outside of work, she enjoys group exercise classes and participating in a monthly book club to nurture both her physical and mental well-being.