Every club owner knows about the threatening, unhealthy consequences of obesity on Americans. However, instead of only treating obesity, a key factor to fighting it may lie in preventive efforts. Knowing this, many clubs offer corporate wellness programs in the hopes of providing employers and their employees with fitness options — options that can benefit their overall health and well-being, and hopefully stave off obesity.
Snap Fitness is doing its part to fight obesity through its corporate wellness program. According to Snap Fitness, corporate wellness programs can provide benefits such as happier and healthier employees, improved productivity and morale, and reduced absenteeism and turnover. “We have a number of offers, tools and programs available to fit any size company or health care organization,” explained Patrick Strait, the communications manager for Snap Fitness.
For example, Snap Fitness offers employees special trial offers or discounts on enrollment fees and monthly dues when they join. “We also participate in several reimbursement programs, where employees or members are provided with a monthly reimbursement paid by the employer for meeting a set number of check-ins at the club,” said Strait. “We provide these companies with reports and tracking to monitor employee usage, along with turnkey promotional tools to help increase the number of participating members.”
This doesn’t just benefit the company, said Strait. Clubs can reap the benefits of corporate wellness programs as well. “Clubs benefit from these programs because it allows them to get in front of a new segment of potential members that they may not be able to reach through other marketing initiatives,” he explained. “In addition, these members are often times more engaged in the club than others, since they have an incentive to use the club frequently. This means stronger retention rates and ultimately increased revenues for the club.”
Wisconsin Athletic Club (WAC) offers a number of corporate wellness services to companies as well. One of those services includes going into companies and teaching wellness seminars, called “Lunch and Learn Presentations.” During the presentations, WAC touches on topics such as nutrition, conditioning, office stretching and more. “Our initiative is to get people moving, and we need to be able to show people it’s not just about getting memberships — its about getting people healthy,” said Nick Neitzel, the community wellness director for WAC.
Along with Lunch and Learn presentations, WAC provides companies with services such as ergonomic assessments, health fairs and wellness challenges, help with the designing of on-site fitness facilities, and “how to” videos that explain how to make a healthy wrap, or use equipment.
In addition, corporate wellness programs give WAC exposure within the local community. “For us, it gives us access to chunks of individuals,” said Neitzel. And WAC is proactive in that effort. “If you provide that wow factor in terms of health and wellness, when people think of health and wellness, they’re going to think of you. Instead of waiting for [companies] to come to us, we come to them,” said Neitzel.
Have you tried reaching out to companies in your area? Offering a corporate wellness program could be as simple as giving neighboring businesses a discount on their employee’s memberships. Doing so may be a great way to target a large group of prospects. You have the expertise — let businesses know that you’re there to share it.
By Rachel Zabonick
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
