Corporate wellness programs can effectively increase employee productivity and company profits if properly marketed to employees. Effective marketing strategies include promoting programs through multiple communication channels like email, websites and word-of-mouth. Research shows companies that foster a sense of community among employees through wellness initiatives have higher participation rates. Model companies excel at gaining participation by integrating wellness into meetings and tailoring programs to employee needs like parenting support. However, achieving results requires addressing barriers like lack of time or awareness, and gaining employee trust that the company prioritizes their well-being.

1. Marketing Corporate Wellness:
Can it be done effectively?
Charlene Adame
4 December 2015

2. Corporate Wellness
One of the most effective ways of increasing productivity in the workplace is by giving
employees time away from their desks. Really? Research has shown that companies that
have Wellness Programs and initiatives that interest their employees also have more
productive employees (Mirabito & Berry, 2015). More productivity in the workplace leads
to an overall increase in the bottom line of a company as well. The real question is, is there
an effective way to market these initiatives and programs to get employees interested and
involved, thereby leading to this increase in productivity?
Workplace Wellness Programming
Did you know that 92% of employers with 200 or more employees offered wellness programs
in 2009? (Mujtaba, et. al, 2013). But what is workplace wellness programming? As defined
by Mirabito and Berry, it is “an organized employer-sponsored program designed to engage
and support employees – and sometimes their families – in adopting and sustaining behaviors
that reduce health risks, improve quality of life, enhance personal effectiveness, and benefit
the organization’s bottom line,” (2015).
These employer-sponsored programs can range from financial wellness seminars to on-site
gym facilities and counseling (AhealthyU, 2015). There are even initiatives in some
companies that offer lactation rooms for new mothers to help them feel more at ease being
back at work after their maternity leave.
The emotional wellness that a lactation room fosters is an integral part of what can
increase or decrease an employee’s productivity. The room as described in Mirabito and
Berry’s article allowed these 225 women who frequented the room to write positive notes
on the whiteboards to create a sense of community and wellbeing among the new mothers
(2015). Programs such as these may be few and far between, but they can make a huge
difference.

3. Other examples of workplace programming include lunchtime workout classes. I had the
personal experience of being able to utilize group circuit training classes over the summer
at my internship at CXtec, a cable and infrastructure company.
The most frequent way that the company marketed its programs was on the front page of
the internal company website. There was a center section on the homepage with all the
“happenings” coming up such as discounts at eateries, the monthly company wide picnics
[in the summer months], and their wellness programs. They also kept a listserv of all
employees that were previously enrolled in an exercise program and would send out
emails to encourage the participants to sign up for the next program.
For the five weeks I was in the circuit-training program I, along with my colleagues, would
receive reminders via Outlook of our workouts (for less than $60 for a 6-week, once a week
class). The ability to automatically add the program to our calendars helped all of us to stay
motivated and keep up with the program. It also helped that the program helped to foster a
sense of community since we were all there for similar reasons and were like-minded.
What Are the Benefits to WWP?
Although having a sense of community is a great benefit to wellness programs that are well
participated, there are individual benefits to the programming as well. Some of the most
common benefits of participating in all types of wellness programming include lower
yearly medical costs, happier employees, and of course healthier employees (Mirabito &
Berry, 2015; Marketing, 2015).
While the benefits to the employee tie into the benefits for the company itself, there are
benefits specific to the company as well. Some benefits of providing, and paying for these
programs include: higher employee retention, higher revenue per employee and fewer
disability claims (Marketing, 2015).
Although all of these benefits are welcome, by employees and employers, achieving these
results first requires participation.

4. Why Won’t They Participate?
As explained in ‘Why won’t they participate,’ there are a plethora of reasons for lack of
participation in wellness programs. Some of which include a general lack of time, or as
simple as lack of awareness of the programming itself. The lack of awareness is a driving
factor in why internal marketing needs to be done the right way. Therefore unless
employees are aware of the programs offered and their benefits, they cannot participate
(Toker, et. al, 2015).
What if they are aware of the programs? What then? The most common reasons cited in the
aforementioned article surround an employee’s sense of self and perception of upper level
management. If there is not the belief that management has the employee’s best interest at
heart, employees will only find motivation in their existing desires (Launching, 2015).
Internal Marketing of Wellness Programs
If employees are willing or unwilling to participate in wellness programming, how do you
market the services and initiatives to them?
Similar to other marketing efforts, marketing for corporate wellness programs requires
knowledge of your ‘customers.’ The marketing coordinator should be aware of the specific
needs of the employees at the institution. Are there a significant amount of new mothers?
Are there a lot of health-conscious employees? Are there a large number of employees with
chronic health issues? It is important to know what, when, and where the services can be
provided to the employees. It is not an easy task.
A few common methods of internal marketing within an organization include sending out
newsletters, posting on bulletin boards, making announcements in meetings, posting on the
company calendar, but most importantly, WOM. Word of mouth is the most powerful way
to get someone to trust and even gain interest in a product, service, or program (Mirabito &
Berry, 2015).

5. Here on American’s Campus AhealthyU is the wellness initiative. Part of their marketing
efforts include a monthly Wellness Council that meets to better represent the community
as well as gets the right info to be appropriate sources of WOM (Tasman, 2015).
The wellness initiative has several programs including monthly massages for Faculty and
Staff and their popular Pedometer Challenge in the summer months—there was a
participation of over 300 faculty and staff in 2015 (AhealthyU, 2015). The way that the
AhealthyU gets the word out about their programs includes Shuttle Bus ads, Today@AU, an
email listserv of 1500 faculty and staff, as well as on the Four Winds digital ad system
(Tasman, 2015) – Today@AU is a daily newsletter at AU.
Companies that Excel
Some of the model companies that have proven that getting active participation in wellness
programs is possible include: EMC, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, and Twitter.
Each of these companies has a different approach to their wellness programs and
initiatives. This difference is important to be aware of, because every company has a
different culture, and no wellness programs should be standardized as a “one fits all.”
EMC
EMC is a cloud computing company with over 70,000 employees, headquartered in
Hopkinton, MA (Thorpe, 2015). This company’s wellness initiatives are mostly focused on
women and families. They provide subsidized childcare on-site for their employees as well
the ability to lower their healthcare costs by signing up to a gym, or even just getting a flu
shot (Thorpe, 2015). These initiatives show employees that management is aware and not
impartial to their needs and wants as employees, and therefore increases their loyalty to
the company and increases productivity.
Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants
As a hospitality company, Kimpton has the advantage of having experience in marketing to
customers. Using this knowledge and management’s desire to integrate wellness into the
company they have been successful in their internal efforts to gain participation. The most

6. surprising, and highly interactive way of introducing their initiatives to employees is by
having a component of wellness integrated into their company meetings (Thorpe, 2015).
This means that at their company meetings there is a scheduled out time for a workout that
you don’t have to plan, or take time away from work for. How else do they show employees
that they care and gain their trust for continuing participation? The company also provides
funeral assistance and short-term counseling to help employees through times of
emotional distress (Thorpe, 2015).
Twitter
Twitter, Inc. headquartered in San Francisco, is ahead of the wellness game when it comes
to its female employees. The company has five-month paid maternity leave for its new
mothers as well as 10-weeks paternity leave (Thorpe, 2015). This might not seem like a
marketable program, but it does lead to higher employee retention, trust, loyalty, and even
can lead to WOM and the possibility of attracting new talent because of these wellness
initiatives. Another initiative that improves productivity among employees is their ‘two
global days of service’ per year (Thorpe, 2015). This helps employees with their emotional
well-being and their sense of self and commitment to the company because of the
community relations it encourages.
Observations
After reading different literature on the topic, I believe that wellness programs can be
marketed effectively. The issue becomes, what is the capital threshold on marketing and
programming? As with many other business ventures, it can take time to gain a loyal
following. In order to shorten the time between emergence of programming and the actual
‘profitable’ participation, marketing efforts must start before programming itself starts. In
the Toker article the study conducted involved issuing HRA forms to the participants
whose behavior was observed. These forms could be implemented before programs are
implemented to get employees thinking about wellness initiatives (Toker, et. al, 2015).
Another possible way to increase awareness and market these programs would be to
create interesting 4X4 cards that grab an employee’s attention and provide a link to an

7. interest survey for proposed programming prior to launch. This could help gauge general
interest in the types of programs that employees are most interested in.
Once interest is gauged, there could be representatives for each different program. While
this may seem as an exhaustion of resources, there are often people willing to be the WOM
representative for programming that they themselves are passionate about. The passion
and willingness to talk to other colleagues or subordinates could have the potential of
increasing the level of trust and serve as a call to action to participate in future programs.
The sense of community that having these representatives could create would also
promote and strengthen employee relationships which will also add to employee
happiness through involvement, and could even lead to future collaboration on work
matters.
I believe that in the future as more companies make the shift towards being more involved
with employees, and less involved with the bottom line, marketing for wellness can be a
more effective process. It is improving through the WOM methods, and the community
building methods, but still could be much further improved.

8. Works Cited
AhealthyU, AU's Faculty & Staff Wellness Program. (2015). Retrieved November 5, 2015,
from http://www.american.edu/hr/AhealthyU/ahealthyu.cfm
Launching and Sustaining a Workplace Wellness Program. (2015). Retrieved November 4,
2015, from http://www.healthyalberta.com/653.htm
Marketing Workplace Wellness to Employees (2015). Retrieved November 4, 2015, from
http://www.healthyalberta.com/1543.htm
Mirabito, A., & Berry, L. (2015). You Say You Want a Revolution? Drawing on Social
Movement Theory to Motivate Transformative Change. Journal of Service Research,
336-350.
Mujtaba, Bahaudin G., and Frank J. Cavico. (2013) "Corporate Wellness Program
Implementation Challenges in the Modern American Workplace." International
Journal of Health Policy and Management Int J Health Policy Manag, 193-99.
Tasman, L. (2015, November 22). AhealthyU Wellness Program [E-mail interview].
Thorpe, A. (2015, October 27). The 44 Healthiest Companies in America. Retrieved
November 8, 2015, from http://greatist.com/health/healthiest-companies
Toker, S., Heaney, C. A. & Ein-Gar, D. (2015) Why won’t they participate? Barriers to
participation in worksite health promotion programmes. European Journal of Work
and Organizational Psychology, 24:6, 866-881.