Last week, GHR's Christina Hunting sat down with four wellness professionals from all across the wellness industry - Bill McPeck, Consultant, Trainer, and Coach; Valerie Echter, Corporate Wellness Consultant, Echter Lifestyles; Romy Antoine CEO & Chief Wellness Officer, One Stop Wellness, Inc.; and Drew Saenz, Corporate Wellness Activist - to discuss the current wellness industry.
Their conversation stretched everywhere from fitness to incentives, to why one size fits all wellness programs don't work while they offer their perspectives and unique insights into the corporate wellness industry. This discussion is an excellent overview of how broad a wellness program can be, and the importance of tailoring a wellness program to the needs employees.
Furthermore, the discussion makes the case for the need for a holistic approach to wellness, focusing on all aspects of well-being. "A lot of people see corporate wellness as only physical wellness," Bill said. "We have to look at wellness in the broad term. Everyone has multiple dimensions the program should be built around the dimensions best suited to the employer and employees."
This is the difference between offering health as opposed to wellness.
They also share their outlooks on the obstacles wellness professionals face when introducing a new program. They found in their experience that a lack of knowledge and resources is typically the hardest thing to overcome.
Most employers offering a wellness program are not in the wellness industry and are not experts in the industry, which is why they hire a wellness professional. A wellness program requires more than just a few emails to eat healthier and move more, it requires planning to figure out what employees need to be healthier. If an employer can make it past that phase, the hardest part is over.
