170. Why a Corporate Wellness Director?

The Essential Role of Employee Wellness Programs in Modern Workplaces

This episode discusses the critical importance of having an employee wellness program within companies. It highlights statistics, benefits, and trends in the corporate wellness industry, emphasizing how such programs boost team morale, productivity, and overall workplace satisfaction.

The speaker shares personal experiences and insights on the various components of wellness programs, including physical health, mental health, and work-life balance. The video also offers strategies for developing effective wellness programs and outlines career opportunities in this growing field.

00:00 Introduction to Employee Wellness Programs
00:31 The Growing Trend of Corporate Wellness
01:54 Personal Journey into Corporate Wellness
03:29 Beyond Fitness: Comprehensive Wellness
04:54 Impact on Productivity and Success
09:50 Key Components of an Effective Wellness Program
10:33 Career Opportunities in Employee Wellness
11:32 Training and Certifications for Wellness Professionals
12:34 Resources and Services for Organizations
14:07 Conclusion and Call to Action

Links mentioned in today's episode:
Corporate Wellness with Kathie: https://www.kathieowen.com/corporate-wellness
Blog post associated with today's episode: https://www.kathieowen.com/blog/employee-wellness-careers
Reality Transurfing with Kathie: https://www.kathieowen.com/reality-transurfing
Fitness with Kathie: https://www.kathieowen.com/fitness
Podcast on health fairs: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1451998/15318008-168-corporate-wellness-host-an-engaging-health-fair.mp3?download=true

Transcript

Kathie: 0:00

Today we're going to talk about something really important and near and dear to my heart. And that is the importance of having an employee wellness program inside your company, whether you're an HR representative. a CEO of a company or even work at a company that has a corporate wellness program or even doesn't have a corporate wellness program. Today's video will give you some insight into benefits that can happen when you have this in place. According to a recent survey, 85% of employers in the United States offer some form of wellness program inside their company. And this is a significant increase from just a few years ago. Does your company offer a wellness program? And furthermore, global employee wellness market is expected to reach 66 billion by 2027, growing a compound annual growth rate of 7. 2%. You, if this is growing, it means there is a trend here. And what I have found with the companies that I work with is this boost team morale. And leads to top workplace status, which is something we want to achieve because what that's going to do is attract and retain top talent. Actually, employee wellness is no longer an optional perk, but rather a necessary investment for organizations like yours. Companies are recognizing that the correlation exists between employee well being, and employee well being. and productivity, which is leading to a surge of demand for corporate wellness careers. I actually started out as a personal trainer, a certified fitness trainer, in fact, and I was hired by a CEO of a company and she said, um, we're going to be building a gym for our employees. Would you like to come work for us? As a personal trainer who worked from gym to gym to gym, I was like, a job with benefits? Absolutely. I will take it. And it just was a home gym. I have revamped that gym as just part It actually just became a minuscule part of my job as a corporate wellness professional. In fact, my title started out as just the fitness director of the gym. But when you only focus on fitness, you're only hitting a very minute. Part of the market. We wanted to expand this. I wanted the whole company to enjoy some aspect of health and wellness inside the benefits of the company to enhance this. And let me state, I've been with the company since 2012. They've been in the top workplaces in Houston and rising in the world. Exponentially every year since I've been there, not just because of the corporate wellness program, but because of the culture that's involved and because of the way that they are presenting themselves in hiring. and the way that we work as a company together. But being a corporate wellness professional isn't just about running a gym or running fitness because you're only going to get a small number of people who are going to participate in that. You're going to have people who don't want to work out at a gym at work because they don't want to be, I don't know, in their workout clothes. It just happens that way. They don't want to change. I don't know, for me personally, even though I work inside this gym, I would rather work out outside of the company in my own element, because once I get into the gym at work, it's like I'm in work mode and I can't focus. Or people will stop me and ask me questions and that's just not my cup of tea. When I'm working out, I'm in the zone and I'm focused on that. So there's several different components that come along with a corporate wellness professional. It can be physical health. Yes, running the gym. It can be mental health. The mindset that comes along with it and also the stress that comes along with the job and emotional well being. Those three things are crucial and the benefits of that is you're going to find your team has reduced absenteeism. They have increased job satisfaction. Oh, there's that top workplace status that comes in and enhanced employee retention. So how does a employee wellness impact productivity and success? Well, a healthy and engaged workforce is the foundation of any successful organization. How do we even know if a team is more productive and how do we know that they are engaged? Let's discuss. When a team is more productive, there's key benefits of investing in employee wellness. Healthy employees take fewer sick days and experience less burnout, and they're better able to concentrate on their work. But again, let's go back to a little component. How do we define their productivity? Do you have Things on site to go. Okay. This was better. This was better. And when we start talking about morale, how are you scaling that? How are you making the team feel better and better and better? There are surveys you could do. There are, uh, Assessments, you could also do, and the top workplace questionnaire is not the assessment to judge productivity. It's just different ways. Anonymous assessments are essential. As I mentioned, it's not just about productivity. It's also about recruitment and retention of those awesome team players. Because today's competitive job market, you need to pay attention to what employees want. What do they want inside this wellness program? Is it a stipend for personal development? I know a company that offers a thousand dollars per employee of a stipend to spend on personal development. This is huge because this helps the employee go, Oh wait, I feel special. I feel important. This is highly, highly valuable tool in recruitment and even retention of your employees. They're going to see that. and feel appreciated. And that's not just the only thing. You want to reward them for things that they do use. Maybe have a rewards program. it makes the company look and feel like they are promoting and prioritizing the personal well being of their employees. of the team. Like I always say, we are corporate wellness professionals and we build healthy, happy teams, one heart at a time. This means one person at a time. This person feels special and important and understood and taken care of in their health and wellness and they come to work with a different attitude than somebody who has that. illness going on or complaining or the poor mindset. So during the pandemic, it further accelerated the focus on employee wellness. First of all, the remote work and the added stress of the pandemic helped us see, wow, we need a corporate wellness professional on site to help us deal with the stress to help us deal with the social isolation that happened and even some workplaces still offer remote work. How can you benefit your team and adapt their, their wellness strategies? How can you do that? That's important to consider. But what happened with the pandemic was it made companies see, Oh, people are getting sick. For example, one thing that I offer at my company is I teach about recovery and benefits and biohacking the system so that you stay healthy instead of catching. an illness like COVID and this way your team will definitely be more productive and happier and healthier because you're taking care of the, like I said in my last video, you're being proactive instead of reactive. And work life balance, you know, it is important in the corporate industry that you don't push your team members so much that they're going to get burnout. We want to prevent burnout by promoting their health and wellness, by promoting stress relief, by promoting And educating them on how to handle stress, how to remain calm, how to be, to balance work and life, and, the team feels like there's some kind of balance going on in there. Let's discuss the key components of an effective wellness program. These encompass physical, mental, work life balance, Education, incentives, and personalization. Let's discuss. To develop a successful wellness strategy, organizations need to assess the needs, to establish clear objectives, secure leadership buy in, develop a comprehensive program, promote and communicate, and provide incentives, measure and evaluate and foster a culture of wellness. All of these strategies come into play as a corporate wellness professional. So let's take a look at some of the career opportunities in employee wellness. A wellness coordinator, a corporate wellness specialist, employee assistance program counselor, workplace ergonomist, workplace wellness coach, Organizational Development Specialist and Health Promotion Specialist, just to name a few. In fact, my title at OccuSoft is the Fitness and Wellness Director. When I first started there, I was just the fitness person. I just ran a gym. But I began to see trends in the market and trends in what's going on in corporate wellness, and I broadened my horizon of my job and made it even bigger. Because what happens when you have a corporate wellness program on site, you begin to see trends. Establish yourself as a top workplace. You establish yourself as a place where people want to work. There's certain training and certifications for wellness professionals, and these are crucial. They demonstrate expertise and help professionals stay current with industry trends. As a certified personal trainer, I constantly have to stay up to date on the market. I've been a personal trainer since 2002 and things change. And so as a personal trainer, it's super important to stay on top of these trends and continuing education comes into play. To stay certified as a personal trainer, you need 20 hours of education per year. Actually, I take more than that because I'm always. Trying to learn. And as a corporate wellness professional, in fact, I'm constantly broadening my horizons, learning how to run business, learning how to help CEOs, help human resources people incorporate a wellness program into their facility. So there are several different resources and services available to organizations. And, and these include things like Corporate wellness consulting, and this is one thing that I do for companies, but I also educate other corporate wellness professionals and human resources administrators on how to improve their corporate wellness program and how to make it better and how to stay on top of the trends. So that would be wellness coaching. And then there's also technology and solutions and wellness event planning. I talked about a health fair in my last video. I'll link to that in the show notes and description below. But a health fair really, really is. Exponentially changed my role as the wellness director because what happened was everybody became engaged because it wasn't just about fitness. It was about wellness of the team and different things that provided a diverse array of stimulus to the company and to the employees. And diversity is super important. When you have a corporate wellness program, because if you're not diverse and you're only in fitness, you're only going to get a handful of people engaged. But when you start to add variety, add spontaneity, add different things to the culture that helps your job and helps your team, it changes everything. So in conclusion, investing in employee wellness is crucial for a thriving workforce. It leads to increased productivity, reduced health care costs, and improved talent and retention. Remember, by fostering a culture of wellness, companies can empower and protect their employees to reach new heights, ultimately driving long term organizational success. Thank you for joining us today. If you found this video helpful, don't forget to like, give us a comment, comment below. What you're doing as a corporate wellness professional or what your company is providing for their team. And if you have any new ideas or trends that you see on the market, I'd love to hear about that. And be sure to subscribe to our channel and hit that little bell so you never miss out. A video from us. I trust that you found today's video helpful. If you know somebody who could benefit from this, please share it with them. And until next time, I will see you next time. Peace out and Namaste.