Highway to Health at Sandalwood

How is it done?

Whether virtual or in-person, our training and assessments can help an employee understand and practice proper ergonomics.

In-Person

Training content is developed and reviewed with customers to meet their areas of interest and it is delivered on the client site.

Ergonomist meets on-site to interview and assess the employee’s workspace. Coaching on ergonomic practices is provided to facilitate employee understanding.

The ergonomist will create a report that includes what was discussed in the assessment as well as recommendations for moving forward.

Virtually

Training content is developed and reviewed with customers to meet their areas of interest and it is delivered virtually.

Employee will send photos of their workspace to be reviewed by an ergonomist. The ergonomist will then meet individually with the employee to review pictures and use their expert judgement to provide feedback tailored to their needs. Proper ergonomic training is given to employees during the 1:1 session. The ergonomist will create a report that includes what was discussed in the assessment as well as recommendations for moving forward.

Employee Newsletter

Each month, for over eight years, the Sandalwood back office team has produced an employee-centered newsletter. The intention of the newsletter is to showcase our team, what’s happening with our projects and what’s happening internally at Sandalwood. It started out as a few pages back in 2015 and has grown to be over 50 pages each month!!

Why is it Important?

Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders emerge as a result of poor ergonomic practices. These disorders can result in costs for both the employer and worker. Examples include medical and worker’s compensation payments, absenteeism, loss of productivity, and increased administration costs. One main culprit of these disorders is not having suitable and standardized office furniture and equipment for employees.

Do you or your employees experience any pain or discomfort in these areas?

Low Back Pain
Wrist Pain
Neck Pain
Shoulder Pain
Tingling or numbing
Muscle weakness

Decreased grip strength
Cramping
Decreased range of motion
Joint stiffness
Visual fatigue
Frequent headaches

Experiencing aches and pains while working is not a “normal” part of the job. Proper ergonomic practices can help alleviate and eliminate these unpleasant ailments. After all, you spend 40+ hours per week working, why not make it pain free?

If you start to experience discomfort, listen to your body as it is trying to tell you something and address things as soon as possible.

Employee Referral Program

Sandalwood encourages our team through an employee referral bonus, to refer qualified candidates for open positions in our organization. We look at this as a great way to find new hires who are aligned with our mission, vision and core values.

Hybrid / Remote Work

The Sandalwood team are pioneers in working from home as this has been a standard practice for many of our remote team members for over a decade. Our desire to enable work/life balance for our team enables us to encourage our team to work from home as often as possible, while supporting customer work onsite as needed and dictated by individual projects.

Robust Onboarding

Each new hire at Sandalwood, whether they are in Canada, the US or Mexico, goes through our thorough and all-encompassing onboarding process. We do this to help new team members acclimate to Sandalwood, our processes, people and customers.

Interesting Project Work

One of our key annual corporate objectives is to “Perform Interesting, Highly Valued Work” and we take great measures to ensure that each of our team members is working on projects that are stimulating, motivating and exciting.

Competitive Salary & Benefits

Sandalwood strives to pay competitively but using data regarding industry standard compensation for a role. Our comprehensive benefits package includes healthcare, dental, vision, LTD & STD, life insurance, 401(K) and RRSP. Our goal is to offer salaries and benefits that are fair relative to our industry to attract and retain top talent.

Standardized Processes

Sandalwood endeavors to provide a process-driven operating culture by using predictability, repeatability, and visibility in the development of our back-end and customer-facing delivery processes. This results in a suite of tools that allow our team to focus on customer satisfaction.

Staff Days, Social Events & Team Meetings

Through Sandalwood’s history, the team has been distributed in one way or another. In order to ensure that our culture was being maintained and to meet up with the team from time-to-time, we have always prioritized in-person staff days. These days provide a chance to get together in-person, catch-up, discuss Sandalwood news, internal and external updates, new tools or partners and technologies.

Employee Recognition

Recognition helps the team see that Sandalwood values them and their contributions to the success of their team and the company overall. We get a chance to recognize our peers and leaders when they show commitment to our core values. We hope it helps our team build a sense of security in their value to the company, motivating them to continue striving for the best for our customers. Sandalwood is committed to recognizing our employees for their achievements made in support of corporate business objectives and high-quality customer service. Recognizing the accomplishments of employees helps contribute to a supportive work environment.

Mentorship

Our volunteer mentorship program provides our team with opportunities for personal and professional growth. We want to help broaden networks, participate in career planning and provide confidence building and support. We love how the mentorship program increases team engagement and helps to communicate company culture, core values, mission and vision.

Tuition Reimbursement

Sandalwood views tuition reimbursement as our opportunity to show our team that we are dedicated to helping them learn and grow on the job.

IDP & Goals

Sandalwood uses individual development plans (IDP) and goal setting as tools in our performance management suite to assist employees in personal and professional development. Its primary purpose is to help employees reach short and long-term career goals and to contribute to growing their skills in areas important to them and important to deliver of customer projects.