A corporate wellness program seems “easy” to be done and many companies are thinking of starting their in-house corporate wellness program as they thought will reduce the cost because there’s no need to hire or liaise with corporate wellness providers. But it seems like what it seems? Let’s find out 5 things that companies should consider before starting an in-house corporate wellness program!
5 things to consider are :
How much is your budget and how do you cater this budget into a successful corporate wellness program? Many companies start their in-house corporate wellness program without considering the cost of the overall corporate wellness program such as the trainer's cost, the reward for participant cost as well as the cost to run the program itself! You might not expect that your company might need to spend more than RM500 for a participant that joined your in-house corporate wellness program! This is why the cost is the greatest challenge in deciding whether or not to start a wellness program even though you already have the idea of running your in-house corporate wellness program!
How many crew do you want to recruit for your in-house corporate wellness program? At this point, your company must have at least 5 crew to run the program and this not including the trainer that you liaise with as they have a certificate to conduct health talks or fitness sessions for example liaise with Dietitian to conduct Diet Health Talk and Medical Practitioners for Health Talk related to diseases and many more. Not to mention that if your company just started an in-house corporate wellness program, there are many things for your crew to learn and this might take time to master the corporate wellness program flow and process.
As mentioned above, there will be a lot of time consumed just to conduct a corporate wellness program! Your company might need to create the ideas and flow of the corporate wellness program, the activities, and also what are the goals for the employees’ wellness by joining the corporate wellness program. Is it to reduce weight? Is it to help them in terms of mental wellness? Several aspects to consider in a corporate wellness program. If the goal is to reduce weight or body fat, will it take about 3 months or more? In 3 months what activities will you be able to conduct? On the other hand, remember that the example of a 3 months program is the time for the participant for your in-house corporate wellness program excluding the preparation time that your crews need to do before the actual program.
What are your company goals for conducting a corporate wellness program? Is it to reduce healthcare costs? Is it because your company forces you to have “healthy” staff so that there is less absenteeism and increased work productivity? Or are you genuinely interested in the well-being of your employees? For example, if you are planning to conduct on-site diet health talks for the employees, but your company has a shift schedule, you might need to think of the solution or the suitability of the time or the programs for your staff. Other than that, you might need to consider the availability and your employees based on so that you will not conduct programs that clash with their schedule and everyone can participate in your corporate wellness program.
As a beginner in conducting your corporate wellness program, you are not an expert in this industry. You might need to accept that your program will not run smoothly as you expected. Your participants might not be very keen to engage in all of your activities and the participation level might be low, not as what you have planned in the beginning. The Health Talk that you imagine is very interesting and good might be boring to all participants. The activities you planned might not be able to be conducted as it is planned due to other factors such as cost or technical problems. In short, just expect the worst for your first time conducting the corporate wellness program!
