Be Well, St. Pete!

Defining and Achieving Wellness: Tips from a Wellness Coordinator

I like to say that wellness is the ‘fourth W’ at W3 Insurance. As the wellness coordinator for the St. Petersburg-based company, I spend my days helping clients achieve healthy workplace outcomes. That includes my own employer, which was recently named a Healthier Together Gold Partner, and it means something different to each employee group. Throughout my years crafting programs to nudge people toward healthier lives, I’ve gathered an advice tidbit or two (or four, of course). Whether you are part of a workplace that could use a revamped wellness focus or you’re simply an individual who wants to be healthier, read onward.

Here’s how to be well, St. Pete – from a veteran wellness coordinator’s perspective.

• Repeat after me: Wellness is not synonymous merely with weight loss or fitness.
  Too often, people see ‘wellness program’ and immediately think their employer is going to sanction a Biggest Loser competition or yank the break room pastries in favor for apple baskets. Both are solid ideas, but do they address a business’s unique challenges? Do they address yours?W3 Insurance client populations vary too much for such a general definition of wellness to apply. A manufacturing plant, for example, may see musculoskeletal issues among employees and need a strategy to address them. Office employees tend to have higher rates of depression and anxiety; they benefit from coping strategies. A workplace that struggles with smoking cessation needs exposure to quitting tools.
• Focused efforts are always more helpful than general initiatives.
  Wellness consultants are by nature strategists. When I work with one of our benefits clients, for example, I look at claims data and listen closely to the HR department’s assessment of needs. How can we help people with high blood pressure and other risk factors?  Perhaps we survey the employee population, anonymously: What do you need help with? What would you like to see as part of the company wellness program? Instead of being a generalist, I try to be specific and ask how I can assist this particular group with its wellness roadblocks – and then, I make a plan with the employer.Individuals striving for wellness should be similarly specific. What are you hoping to achieve? How will you get there? Make a plan – and follow it.

• Help is widespread.
  Once it’s clear where the wellness focus needs to be, it’s time to find resources. Luckily, they’re widespread. If you’re an individual seeking wellness assistance, take a good look at your insurance program. It may include more help than you ever believed possible. Often, the insurance carrier has plenty of informative materials. Many carriers offer free programs for weight loss, diabetes prevention, stress management, health coaching and mindfulness. Carriers may even offer incentives to employees who embark upon exercise plans, for example, or points to redeem for merchandise as part of activity program participation.

• Regularly take stock of what’s working – and what isn’t.
  Once I help an employer develop a plan to address the wellness concerns of their employee population, I help to promote that plan through multiple media sources. We decide on budget for the program and include any incentives. Quarterly, we review the data together and adjust as necessary to keep moving toward our goals.This review strategy works for the person looking to achieve wellness on their own as well. If you feel as if what you are doing is not moving you forward toward desired wellness outcomes, take stock of how you’re going about the journey. It may be time to pivot.

I’ll leave you with this truism: Wellness is not one-size-fits-all. Every employer population, and each individual person, has their own journey to travel in order to achieve it. Good luck to you as you embark upon your wellness quest!

Trish Blocker recently celebrated eight years at W3 Insurance. She has been in the employee wellness space for eleven years and loves her job of helping clients help their employees. She enjoys spending time with her family, whether that means boating, golfing or attending her son’s lacrosse games. On weekdays she starts her day off with an early morning bootcamp class, She also meditates, if even for five minutes, during her lunch break.