Welcome to our blog series on how to increase nutrition coaching revenue in a gym! In part 5 we will discuss all things employee wellness!
If you are a gym owner looking to increase revenue in your gym, keep reading. We will show you how offering employee wellness through your nutrition coaching program can bring you more revenue.
As gym owners we are continuously looking for ways to help people. Somewhere along that line, many of us fail to also recognize the important of helping ourselves, physically, mentally and financially. Employee wellness is a way to help a TON of people at once, and also bring in a significant volume of revenue to your gym.
Employee wellness can be implemented in many different ways. Running a nutrition coaching program in a gym offers the opportunity to put a different perspective on a traditional employee wellness program which is appealing to many employers. Creative ways to make wellness fun are important.
Let’s face it – gym owners spend a lot of time figuring out how to make exercise, which is considered by many challenging and terrible, fun. So, when it comes to implementing employee wellness, we have the skills, we just may not know it.
What Is Employee Wellness?
Employee wellness refers to the overall health, happiness, and well-being of individuals within a workforce. At Healthy Steps Nutrition, we believe a comprehensive employee wellness program should take a holistic approach and address a variety of factors that can impact an individual’s well-being. These factors include stress management, sleep, support system, lifestyle, exercise, and nutrition.
Post pandemic supporting mental, and emotional wellness has become as equally as important as supporting physical wellness. Companies are now considering offering resources like counseling services, mindfulness programs, and stress management workshops to help employees reduce workplace stress.
Encouraging work-life balance can also contribute to overall well-being, and help manage stress.
What Are The Goals And Benefits Of Employee Wellness Programs?
The goal of an employee wellness program is to create a productive workforce while demonstrating a commitment to the overall wellness of employees.
An employee wellness program should benefit both the employee, and the employer. Here we will break down the benefits for both sides of the equation.
Employer Benefits Of Employee Wellness Programs
Increased Productivity
Employee wellness programs can boost productivity! Healthy employees have improved their stress management abilities which promotes overall well-being. This leads to improved focus, and efficiency in the workplace.
Reduced Absenteeism And Health Care Costs
By providing resources that promote healthy lifestyles for employees, employers can help improve employee health. Many times these programs address health issues before they become severe through health screenings, and other health related activities.
Healthy employees results in a cost savings when it comes to health insurance premiums because they don’t take out as many claims as unhealthy employees.
When employees participate in wellness programs, their health and wellness improves. This improvement brings a reduction in sick days and employee absenteeism.
Enhanced employee retention, reduced turnover, and recruitment
When an employer offers a workplace wellness program, or wellness benefits, it demonstrates a commitment to employee health and wellness. Encouraging employees to participate in these wellness activities helps them feel cared for, and supported.
People who feel supported, and cared for are generally happier in their current state. This happiness reduces an employees desire to look elsewhere for employment.
Did you know that 87% of employees consider wellness benefits when choosing an employer? And that 80% of employees who have employers engaged in their health enjoy work? Contrary to that, only 40% of employees who’s employers did not promote healthy living, or provide employee well being programs felt happy at their job.
In addition to keeping employees, getting new employees is also necessary from time to time. When employers have an employee wellness program, new hire prospects are more likely to consider that employer over another should all other criteria be the same.
Improved work environment and culture
Employee wellness programs create a positive work environment by addressing stress, and providing support systems, leading to higher employee morale, better team dynamics, and increased employee engagement.
Many employee wellness programs involve some sort of group participation. Wellness initiatives like this are proven to boost moral amongst employees thus improving company culture. They provide employees the opportunity to engage with each other through wellness challenges, learning healthy habits, and professional development.
Employee Benefits Of Employee Wellness Programs
Better physical health
Employee wellness programs engage employees to participate in initiatives that will help them learn to live a healthier lifestyle. These initiatives include things like fitness classes, health screenings, health coaching, cessation programs, and healthy eating classes.
Taking action with all this education leads to health benefits. One study shows that thirty percent of employees who participated in a workplace wellness program reported they found a disease they were able to treat before it got bad from participating in the program.
In a different study, 57% of workers turned their high risk health scores into low risk scores by following the companies physical activity guidelines.
Enhanced mental well-being
A survey done by MindShare Partners found that the most common resources employees are looking for are mental health resources. Additionally it found that employees also wanted a more positive attitude towards the support of mental health issues at work.
How do you fit in? Gym owners using the Healthy Steps Nutrition Framework have access to an entire mental wellness course that can be sold to employers as a part of a wellness package. We believe that an employees mental health is just as important as their physical wellness which is why we promote a holistic approach to wellness coaching.
Click here to check out the details of this course.
Work-life balance & increased job satisfaction
Employee wellness programs often include initiatives like flexible work schedules. Remote and hybrid work options allow employees to better balance their personal and professional lives. This balance leads to reduced stress, increased job satisfaction, and an overall sense of gratitude towards their employer.
Personal development
Many wellness programs offer opportunities for personal growth. Educational seminars, skill-building workshops, wellness challenges, fitness challenges and many other wellness program activities allow employees to improve their knowledge beyond their job responsibilities. Not only can these skills improve their own health, but their knowledge can transfer to their family as well.
As A Gym Owner, What Are Some Examples Of Employee Wellness Initiatives I Can Offer?
In our opinion, gym owners have a lot of opportunity in the employee wellness space. As advocates for mental health, physical fitness, eating healthy, and healthy lifestyle choices, our ideas for wellness initiatives run deep.
Below is a list of some wellness initiatives you could facilitate in a company, big or small.
Nutrition Seminar Series
A seminar series is a great way to get to know an employer, and their employees over an extended period of time. Bundling 3-6 seminars into a “package” is a great way to keep yourself in front of an employer in hopes the relationship will lead up to the higher commitment of a nutrition and wellness challenge.
We recommend charging between $900 – $1800 for a seminar series which works out to be approximately $300 – $400 per seminar. If for some reason the company is not willing to commit to a series, our recommended price for one seminar would be $400.00.
These seminars can be done virtually or in person. One seminar will last about an hour. Five to ten minutes are dedicated to intros and icebreakers. Thirty minutes is the meat and potatoes of the presentation (food reference was on purpose), and the following ten to twenty minutes is dedicated to Q&A.
We love to start a seminar series at the beginning of the year with a “Healthy Reset” theme. From there topics can include things like meal prepping, reducing sugar, or debunking nutrition myths. Our HSN Mentoring clients have an entire module dedicated to nutrition talks for seminar series. All resources such as promotional templates, and power points are included.
Nutrition And Wellness Challenges
Running an employee wellness challenge is the creme de la creme of engagements. They are a lot of work, but fun to facilitate. Employees get the most results from an employee wellness challenge.
Six weeks is our recommended timeline for the challenge with the goal being to move many of these employees into an ongoing nutrition coaching membership. This ongoing program can be structured differently than your traditional nutrition coaching program, or it can be structured the same.
We will offer a group coaching format for companies that we don’t offer to our regular program participants. As an example the company will pay $1000/month to keep our program on retainer. This monthly fee includes ongoing access to our app, monthly videos discussing a habit them, and four weekly pieces of nutritional education and content.
Additionally, we give a small price break to employees who choose to participate in individual nutrition coaching should the company meet the minimum participation requirement set in our agreement.
Who Pays For The Challenge?
Our experience has been that many companies have a budget for wellness programs. Our fee is $299 per person for the challenge. Many companies will pay the entire fee for their employees to participate and encourage employees to join. Other companies will pay 1/2, but offer to take the remaining portion from the employees paycheck.
During your initial meetings with employers, the budget, cost, and details are discussed. During many initial meetings I have had with employers, the CFO has been present so we can discuss budget, and payment options.
Many wellness challenges run by HSN Mentoring gyms bring in well over $5000 per challenge.
Employee Wellness Days
Employee wellness days are a day set aside for employees to take part in wellness activities. My nutrition program facilitated one of these days at a local construction company. We set up in their parking lot before lunch to help facilitate an all body weight workout. After the workout employees enjoyed an employer provided lunch catered by one of our nutrition programs healthy restaurant partners.
This day benefited us, the employees, and also our healthy restaurant partner. They made a ton of money from company for the catered lunch, and got their name out to more people in the community.
We charged $199 for the company workout. We attended the company potluck during which we provided three different options to make a sweet stuffed sweet potato with shredded chicken.
Employee wellness helps so many people!
Break Room Overhaul
Employee break rooms are typically unhealthy!
I have a friend in the education space who states she is appalled by the amount of junk in her break room. Other teachers are constantly bringing cake, cookies, and cupcakes to snack on. Most of them are overweight, and constantly complain about their bodies.
Providing an option to clean up a companies break room is a great way to create an additional revenue stream with your nutrition coaching program. This can be done in several different ways, but one immediate benefit to everyone would be to update food choices in vending machines.
As hard as it is for us to believe, many people simply do not understand what healthy options are. Their machines are full of Snicker bars and sodas.
Doing this could be as simple as you working with an admin at the company to help them select better choices from their distributor. We have even had companies hire nutrition programs to help them pick out places to eat for employer catered meetings, or events. Helping the admin find a way to keep fresh fruit in the break room at all times is also an amazing service.
Options like this can be catered to the companies needs. Just make sure you are charging accordingly. A one time break room overhaul should be billed out between $300-$600, depending on the size of the job. If coupled with a nutrition talk, charging at the high end is recommended.
These are just some of the offerings we have seen gym owners offer to companies. Our ultimate goal is always a wellness challenge, however there are many other ways to get your foot in the door that aren’t as big of a financial commitment for a company as a challenge. Having standard offers is important, however keeping your mind open to other ideas is definitely a great idea.
Establishing Employee Wellness Programs
If you are an HSN Mentoring client, we can help! If you are not, it’s not to late to become one! We will teach you how step by step, and provide all the resources you need along the way.
The steps to create an employee wellness program are as follows…
Meet with your staff to discuss the program
Determine your offerings
Create a brochure to take to companies when you pitch
Create your contact list (companies you are going to pitch to)
Create any marketing flyers or infographics for social media, newsletters, and emails
After these steps are complete, its time to announce the program. We always recommend informing your current gym members first. Asking them if they own a company, know someone who owns a company, or work for a company that could be interested in this type of program is a great first place to start.
Moving forward with some warm leads is always a great thing. If no warm leads present themselves, then cold pitching companies is your next step. Although this seems scary, it’s not as bad as you think.
Starting with small companies in which the owner is typically involved in the business is ideal. Small construction companies seem to be always looking for ways to improve their employees health. Other places we have found success with are schools (teachers), small doctors offices, dental offices, realtors and banks.
Updating your initial contact list and your follow up is important. Nothing is worse than pitching a company you have already been turned down by simply because you haven’t kept good records. A simple Google sheet will do the trick!
Wrap Up
Employee wellness is a much needed service. Many employers just don’t know where to start. Some of them have probably been thinking about this type of service for years but haven’t taken the steps necessary to begin.
If you are to the point in your nutrition program that you have the staffing to support this type of option, then don’t waste anymore time. Get started today!
If you are not an HSN Mentoring client, email me at heather@healthystepsnutrition.com to find out how to get started, or book a free call today by clicking the button below! If you are one of our clients, speak with your mentor on your next call to make a plan.
