From article: How To Launch a Corporate Wellness Program published by Healthie

Health issues have been an exceedingly huge concern in the workforce. Have you ever heard of the phrase, "if the employees aren't healthy and happy nor are their customers"? It's not easy to keep a successful business running without your employees doing their job efficiently every day. This is why companies have implemented corporate wellness programs to promote the importance of worker health and safety. Yet, there is a huge debate surrounding whether or not these programs are successful.

Corporate wellness programs are specifically designed to encourage a holistic approach to employee wellbeing by establishing influential ways to educate and benefit them surrounding the values of health and permanently setting health and wellness goals for these individuals. As a wellness professional, adding "corporate wellness packages," can offer a variety of advantages and incentives for your practice.

Creating a program that employees actually want to attend, can be challenging. This is where you come in. Having the education, dietitians know how to create evidence-based health promotion programs that do work.

Some ways to incorporate corporate wellness services:

Lunch + Learn presentations for small groups

A larger company-wide wellness lecture

Corporate pantry makeovers

Small kitchen-demos utilizing foods and appliances on-hand for employees

Short, one-on-one nutrition counseling for corporate employees

There isn't just a single program that is "one size fits all" for anyone in such a diverse workplace. Taking initial steps to understand the demographics and challenges to the corporate team will allow you to tailor your presentation and services accordingly. Curating a program that is general enough for the team, but specific enough to resonate with the majority of their challenges, will help you run a successful corporate wellness program.

There are a few things to keep in mind when giving an in-person educational session with respect to your own corporate wellness program:

1. Do your background research to determine the best wellness services to offer

In your initial consult, you want to better know what and who you are working with. Before any program you are hosting, you want to be able to resonate with your audience members and know the challenges and needs for that corporate team.

Some important details to know:

How big is the team you are presenting this program to.

The age range of the employees

Where is this team located

Know about their department layout. Will you be hosting your program in a cafeteria, a conference room, outside?

What are the specific challenges that this team is handling

What topics might interest the employees

Is this mandatory or optional for all the employees

It is vital for any dietitian going through this process to gain insight concerning the main message you're trying to portray to your audience members. This is your overall big idea. Moreover, what do you want the impact of your program to be? You want to educate these individuals about the values of health and, at the same time, promote your services.

Practice is key when it comes down to delivering the most time effective program. Your focus may be on meal and nutrition plans, weight loss programs, healthy eating habits, or exercise plans. Yet, you want to make sure that these plans are tailored to everyone in your audience.

You really want to sell who YOU are. Tell a personal story! When you can resonate with your audience, that's when you get their full undivided attention. It will also give them motivation to change directions concerning their lifestyle.

2. Curate a few wellness service offerings that could benefit the team

Based on what you learned about the team, their environment + their challenges - what services will best help them achieve their desired outcomes? You want to tailor your message to each attendee at your program.

You can even offer to have the team coordinator send out a survey on different discussion topics or services to learn what will be of interest for the team

It's necessary to reach everyone you are speaking to so they feel that they are important in the presentation. Every individual in a business has his or her own health differences. Customization is your answer to reach all of your audience members, and eventually help to sustain them in the future.

3. Determine your corporate wellness service rates in advance

Talking about your price rates with your potential customers is always an inevitable and awkward question. Before committing to presenting a corporate wellness program, you need to decide if you want to charge for your services. Many people underestimate the value of knowledge that dietitians have. Not everyone knows the amount of hard schooling and work you went through to get to the point where you are now. As well as this, people also undervalue your certifications. It's important to know your worth before settling on a price that might not suit the extremities of your services.

On the other hand, employers may be willing to pay a lot of money to have a Registered Dietitian administer an educational program because employers know, from experience, that having a healthy staff will create more productivity. More productivity equals more money. They do say "a healthy employee is a happy employee!" Managers are enticed by both the lower healthcare costs and the employees' consistent positivity throughout the day. A customer can't be happy if the company's members aren't. Hence, having this program lead by a professional can be essential for a business to grow.

Takeaways:

You don't want to give away your services for free. Long term, this can hinder the success of your business by conveying that you're not serious about your job to both your existing and potential clients. It can also show that you might not be confidant in the knowledge you've gained surrounding your career. This can demonstrate that you and your services have minimal value.

Be faithful in setting your prices. Don't be taken advantage of because you feel bad saying no. Do what's good for you, and if they can't accommodate you, then turn them down!

Your time is valuable. Know your budget and don't undersell your services.

Actual benefits can sometimes be hard to quantify, so don't be discouraged in setting a price. Yet, if you're having trouble figuring out how to price your services, talk to the HR person who deals with this regularly. We stress again, however, please don't give away your services for free!

4. Pitch your services, and up sell your add-on offerings

When you're pitching your services to the team coordinator, you want to make sure you are properly selling yourself. Although you love your job already, act extra involved and passionate about the work that you do and how much time you set aside for each and every one of your clients.

But how can I find corporate wellness opportunities worth my time? Just like any job, internship, or career path, everyone knows how much networking plays a role.

Leverage your friends and family members who work in companies - you can use them as a benefit and get a contact in their HR department.

Leverage existing clients that are loyal to your services - ask them if they have a contact that is worth sharing to extend your services. You want these customers to sell your brand to their friends and family.

Look locally - You have customers near and far from you, however, you always want to remain active in your community. Consumers may be finding you through word-of-mouth, through print ads in your neighborhood and around town, or through the Internet. The Internet has become a widely used medium to advertise your businesses on.

Strategically advertise in your building - if you have multiple floors in your building, you can take advantage of it by handing out flyers or business cards to the businesses located on each floor. You can even put someone in charge of giving out flyers in the lobby.

Reach out to companies who do corporate wellness events. Pitch your nutrition services to the contractors. You ultimately want to leverage a subtle list of networkers to help you grow your practice.

Besides networking, it's important to also sell your add-on offerings. Especially if you're just starting up your business, you need to coax each of your audience members. One of the most important parts of upselling focuses on creating a close relationship built on trust between you and your client, and then only offering add ons afterwards if necessary such as promo codes and discounts.

Here are some ways to upsell your business:

Creating weekly or monthly sales challenges.

Bundle your offerings. Offer a package deal on multiple products and/or services, and this will encourage customers to spend more. You can get very creative with your package deals. You can implement upgrades into these packages as well.

Limited time discounts can be beneficial for dietitians. Social media marketing recently generated a lot more upselling from businesses offering limited time discounts. You offer a discount off the add-ons for a limited time. This entices your audience to ACT quickly.

Provide an ongoing service. In the world of nutrition, there are a lot of opportunities for you to offer ongoing services. For instance, if you're a virtual RD, meaning your practice is sustained via technology, you can offer ongoing texting for any questions you have throughout your day pertaining to dieting, exercising, or whatever the case may be.

5. Deliver A Compelling Corporate Wellness Presentation

Compelling corporate wellness presentations are hard to come by. Providing realistic and actionable nutrition advice in your presentation will help you better able to resonate with participants and the team as a whole.

Create an engaging presentation to give your audience members an option in comfortably voicing their own opinions and stories. To create an even more dynamic flow between you and the team, you can tell a personal story about an adversity you went through and overcame that is related to the topic you are sharing. Storytelling creates a deeper and more organic relationship. Give them motivation to change their current lifestyle if needed. As a dietitian, it is especially important to be able to connect with your customers to understand their wants and needs. You want to try to manifest the same idea when speaking in front of a large group. Explain, in the most promising and captivating way, how your life-changing services can benefit them. Storytelling is just another creative approach to selling your services. This gives your customers a completely different way to view your brand.

6. Tailor your agenda and create an engaging experience for attendees

After figuring out who your audience is and how much your service rates are, it's time to create an agenda tailored to the audience members you will be speaking with. You want to set clear goals that will actually benefit the company's employees in the long run. To facilitate your corporate wellness program, the seminar needs to keep your audience attentive and engaged for however long your program is for. A lot of dietitians like to stage their program for a hour, but that is up for you to decide.

To boost engagement for the entire length of your program, you want to make sure that all of the employees' in the room have full view of you. You can make a presentation via video that correlates with your message. Many people find that visuals along with a presenter explaining the topics makes the whole process of delivering a message easy. It's helpful to see the information rather than just hearing it. This can suit anyone attempting to make a lesson. When they start their lunch break, it's your time to shine and start listening!

A few ways to keep your customers' engaged:

Be real, be organized, and keep it simple.

Be consistent and give valuable content only.

Collaborate with your audience members.

Appeal to your audience's emotions.

Dietitians, there are some necessities for you to bring. Some of these can include:

Pamphlets and packets with wellness goals tailored to your audience

Your business cards to hand out (your name, email, phone number, and website)

Dry erase markers for you to write with on a white board

Pens/pencils for you to distribute if you have your employees' participate in some part of your lesson

A video either on a Google doc, Youtube, Prezi, or any other site for you to demonstrate goals for your audience

7. Incorporate technology into your program

Research and find a technology channel for the employees you're educating to be able to manage their wellness goals. Wellness tech tools have become widely popular to keep their health in check, but in the easiest, most convenient way.

This is where we, Healthie come in strong. When aiming to incorporate technology into your program, Healthie is an expert app via phone or laptop to enforce your approach.

Some examples of how to leverage Healthie in your corporate wellness program include:

Adding clients into Healthie to create tailored goals

Sync their fitbits and track activity

Complete an online corporate wellness program that you've created

Make it convenient for them to book additional services for you in the future (ie. virtual sessions or ongoing message/food diary support that they can self-pay for - negotiate with the program coordinator, as the company may want to cover these services)

8. Capture potential leads from your corporate wellness program

For companies that prefer a one-time or short-term wellness program, you still have the opportunity to gain leads for your other wellness services. This can be anything from a private individual nutrition counseling to phone consults and more. It's important to check with the program coordinator initially, but most likely they will give you the go ahead to sell your other services. Some ways you can market your business post-program include:

Collecting emails

Making a pitch for your business

Provide a goodie bag with your contact details- this includes business cards, pamphlets, flyers

Offer discounts and promo codes for your initial private consult. Use our link below to help you understand how to use promo codes better.

Prioritizing the health of employees has long show to directly improve productivity of their company. Making a difference in not only other peoples' personal lives, but their work lives, can feel so rewarding.