By Patrick Craig, Special FBA Contributor
Interestingly enough, when searching for more fitness trends for 2024, something popped up that has moved into the top ten of new trends, out of the blue: Worksite Health Promotion. Wellness programs on steroids.
Employee health has long been a priority of business owners, large and small. As healthcare costs continue to escalate, the demand for worksite health promotion programs that improve workers' health and provide a return on investment has never been greater.
Strong evidence supports the effectiveness of WHP programs targeting smoking cessation, healthy nutrition, physical activity, and weight loss. Research has also shown a positive impact on systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels among participants.
WHP programs have been shown to lower health and productivity-related costs. A report from the American Medical Journal shows employers yield a $3–$15 return on investment for each dollar invested and an analysis of the programs estimates a $3.27 decrease in medical costs for every dollar spent. Besides the economic benefits, the value of such programs is apparent. Evidence shows WHP programs reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.
Here’s a brief history. Many of today's worksite health promotion programs originated from executive fitness programs that were created in the years after World War II. Business leaders who understood the benefits of a healthy lifestyle started these, and in-house corporate programs grew steadily throughout the 1970s. Well-appointed gyms staffed with fitness instructors and masseurs were standard fare for successful companies. Unfortunately, these perks were typically restricted to upper management and, therefore, had little influence on the health behaviors or healthcare provisions of most employees. Much has changed in the last fifty years.
In the mid-1970s, The Association for Fitness in Business was organized to provide networking and conferences. During the next decade, employer benefits focused on a broad spectrum of health issues beyond fitness, and these new programs began to be offered to employees across the board. Companies established new links between occupational medicine and human resources and strengthened previous relationships. The AFB, a big supporter of the shift from corporate fitness to worksite wellness, morphed into the Association for Worksite Health Promotion.
By the early 1990s, this group had over 2,500 members and operated at national and regional levels. Then, because of widespread economic pressures and corporate restructuring, the association fractured into smaller regional groups. The adoption of the worksite health promotion agenda by the American College of Sports Medicine and its Interest Group on Worksite Health Promotion allowed for continued scaled-down service. In 2009, this group expanded into a new affiliate association, the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion. Since then, corporate programs have been blossoming, and Worksite Health Programs have become one of the top ten areas of interest in the fitness industry.
Over the past 25 years, the number of organizations and companies that offer some type of wellness information or general wellness program for their employees at the worksite has increased, to nearly 75% of all employers, and 66% of employers report broadening their wellness offerings. According to Corporate Wellness magazine, the main issues driving wellness strategies are physical activity and stress. This has resulted in a 10% increase in company-organized fitness challenges or competitions.
And this is where you, as a club owner, can jump right in. Your facility can provide corporate clients with a variety of solutions for employers seeking to improve the well-being of their employees, including special pricing for corporate groups, spaces for employees to be active, on- or off-site group exercise classes, tailored group or individual programs to improve employee health or reduce stress, access to experts such as dietitians, trainers, physical therapists, and the gold mine, management of an on-site fitness center.
The easiest place for a fitness facility to start is to give lots of consideration to going beyond the four walls of your facility. Take your best services out to the community and get into the corporate market, or make connections and bring community members into the club. Several of the clubs my company is associated with already do that: one has set up a program to solicit donations for various non-profits in their city, while another large organization has added a corporate wellness membership and are signing up members from over 100 companies in their locality, all at a discounted rate that makes wellness available to the employees of their clients.
Patrick Craig has worked in the Marketing Industry for the past twenty years. He is a published author and has written extensively about the fitness industry, particularly the gym software aspect of it. He has been with Money Movers, Inc. for the last six years where he serves as the Marketing and Operations Manager, web designer and coder, and maintains the custom websites Money Movers, Inc. develops for their Online Business Manager gym software clients.
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