Since 2010 and the onset of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), businesses were incentivized to provide adequate wellness programs for their employees, especially companies with over 50 people. This is in hopes of coaxing employees to live healthier lifestyles which in turn should reduce healthcare costs for all parties involved. This is where there has been room for growth in corporate wellness!
Where do gyms fall into place? Gym owners, dieticians, and everyone in the fitness industry has an opportunity to take advantage and grow their clientele through corporate wellness.
What is Corporate Wellness?
Corporate wellness is programs designed to encourage a holistic approach to the wellbeing of employees by creating an organizational culture geared toward healthier lifestyles.
How to Get Your Gym Involved
In order to get your gym involved with corporate wellness, you need to be proactive with a plan in mind to be attractive to the HR department of businesses that will consider implementing your program.
Get Out There Marketing
Now that you’ve made the decision to implement corporate wellness programs, how do you get the word out? If you’re in a large metropolitan area or close to a big city, you can go with targeted Facebook and LinkedIn ads to reach your market. If you’re in a smaller area, you can simply call local businesses! Get in touch with HR teams via phone or email and see if they would consider a corporate wellness program. See what their needs are, where they can improve, and even if you don’t end up with a client you know how to better sell your services in the future.
Also, make sure to advertise your program on your website for potential prospects to see. This way people searching for wellness programs have a chance at coming across your business. The great thing about fitness is that coaching doesn’t even need to take place in person anymore! You can have wellness clients across the country. We will discuss this in the next section.
Delivery Method/Location
If you become an integral part of a wellness program for a company, what will be your involvement? If you decide to focus on local clients, you can do training and workshops in your facility or their corporate office. With clients further away, corporate wellness might look a little different.
Remote Wellness Program:
–Offers the flexibility to implement plans for companies all around the globe
-Will typically involve an initial company evaluation and custom-plan for the business to implement
In-Person Wellness:
–Likely to be working with local business (unless you travel to clients)
-Incorporate on-site workouts, workshops, and Q&A with clients
As you can see, there are many benefits and drawbacks for corporate wellness based on the target market you go after. If you look to target upper echelon companies, there is a chance they might fly you out to fully implement a corporate wellness program. On the other hand, if you’re going after local businesses, you will find that the experience will be a little different.
Programs to Implement
The goal for most corporate wellness plans is weight loss and better eating habits. Almost every person who isn’t in the best health is going to fall in one of these two categories. You need to challenge people and set goals for them to stick to. Setting reasonable and measurable goals is the best way to get started. Starting out with workouts from the beginning might not be the best answer. In the beginning stages, you need to warm people up to the idea for wellness. Here are a few examples:
-28 Day Soda Challenge
-8 Week Nutritional Program
-4 Week Flexibility Program
What’s most important is incorporating some form of wellness into the everyday lives of people, and THEN work in some fitness programming!
Workshops
As we have mentioned before, workshops are a great way to get people involved in a less-invasive group setting. They are a great solution to introducing people that are new to health and fitness. The sad reality is that a lot of people in corporate offices aren’t used to being fit and healthy, and this is something that needs to be highlighted to them. Workshops allow an interactive, yet comfortable experience for all parties involved. It can be an open forum for questions and teaching. Here are a few ideas for wellness workshops:
-Healthy Foods You Should Eat Daily
-Exercises for Weight Loss
-Portion Control for Everyday Meals
To Close
These tips on wellness programs are a great way to get your gym started incorporating future programs for clients. Working with businesses and their employees is a great way to help them reach their fitness goals and is rewarding for anyone who has a love for fitness.
