3 More Challenges Corporates Faced With Virtual Wellness
A continuation from our previous blog on 3 Problems With Virtual Fitness Classes & How to Solve Them.
To date, we have conducted more than 300 virtual programs for small, medium, and large companies and their employees. Leveraging on our experience, we would like to share 3 more challenges our clients faced and how we’ve tackled them to ensure the best experience for the companies’ wellness committee when organizing their employees’ health programs virtually.
1. Finding the optimal time for virtual wellness programs
A senior human resource executive wrote in to us and shared that she was unable to find a suitable time due to staggered hours and alternating Work-From-Home (WFH) and Work-From-Office (WFO) arrangements.
This challenge also applies to companies with branches and teams located outside of Singapore with different time zones, such as India and Australia.
Source: Our Founder’s LinkedIn
Our Solution
To manage the staggering work hours, we proposed having at least two fitness classes per week so she could cover the different preferred timings from the two groups of employees with staggered hours.
Regarding the WFH/WFO arrangements, we suggested having a hybrid class of both virtual and face-to-face happening at the same time. At the physical class held at the office, either your staff or vendors like us can be in charge of the virtual call that is happening, making sure the camera is following the instructor and ensuring that the audio is clear for the virtual participants who are working from home.
Another way to solve this problem is to have two classes in a day! For example, the original LIVE teaching class (either virtual or physical) is in the morning, and then have a replay of the morning class video recording in the evening. Problem solved.
2. Low attendance/ participation rate from employees
This is the most common challenge as it was brought up by every company wellness in-charge whom we’ve spoken to before they engaged us. They would like to get as many employees to participate and attend the wellness activities planned out but the turnout may not end up the way they hoped it will be. In addition, the responsibility of utilising the company’s budget also lies on their shoulders, therefore we understand the importance of offering a quality and highly interactive session for the employees.
Our Solution
ASK Your Employees What They Want
At SgFitFam, before we go about proposing a huge list of activities to do, we encourage the company to do up a survey first for their employees to indicate their level of commitment to a healthier lifestyle and their interest in fitness classes, nutrition, and mental wellbeing activities. Honestly, if the survey results come out to be a majority of the employees expressing low interest in being healthy, there may be other underlying issues the company needs to work on before engaging in health programs. Is it the culture? Are the employees overloaded with work?
We also suggest you set regular days and timing of the sessions, e.g. having a “FitDay” every Wednesday evening at 5 pm. This is so that your employees are able to manage their time well as they can expect when the sessions will be held and can plan their work schedule accordingly.
Reward & Incentivise
When sending out the invites for the virtual session, give the participants a heads up to turn on their camera for the session so they can fully benefit from it and are mentally prepared to show themselves on screen. Assuming this is a fitness class, the instructors would be able to ensure that they are executing the exercises correctly, that is why people hire a trainer right? Not just to offer a good workout but to ensure nobody gets injured!
After much exploration, we found that taking a group picture before each session starts encourages participants to leave their camera turned on. This is because participants will have to make the extra effort if they want to turn off their cameras and if they see all their co-workers’ video turned on, they don’t feel so “paiseh” (embarrassed) you know.
On top of that, we will also gamify the program by creating challenges for employees, such as friendly inter-departmental competitions where each participant who attends each session will earn points for their team. In addition, attendees that participate actively, for example as simple as turning on their cameras will earn their team additional points as well. These are just a few ways to increase participation!
Say No More, It Has Got To Be Interactive
Nobody likes a one-way conversation. Your speakers or trainers got to be INTERACTIVE and have to be familiar with utilizing the available tools on different video call platforms. For example, our nutritionist likes to begin her talk by asking questions related to the day’s topic via zoom poll as this helps her understand the attendees better and will be able to cater her presentation to address their needs.
Whether it’s polling, acknowledging participants, having eye contact with participants, or planning for breakout room discussions, it has to be a mix of activities happening throughout a one-hour session. Got to keep everyone on their feet and be involved as much as possible.
3. Not achieving any results out of the wellness programs
Most companies organise workplace wellness programs with the intention of promoting employee engagement or improving their employee’s health but may tend to miss out on setting a measurable end goal in mind. Back to the first step, have you asked your employees what they want? And are you gathering feedback in between all the programs you have planned out?
Our Solution
Plan For The Long Run
Just like following a proper fitness regime to achieve your own fitness goal, planning a proper program is recommended if you wish to improve the health and fitness of your employees. At SgFitFam, we do not simply just provide a one-off Zumba class or nutrition talk, but we plan for companies’ year-long worth of employee wellness program with an end goal in mind. Setting a goal has to be time-specific and measurable! The end goal could be to getting 80% of your employees in the healthy BMI range or even as simple as reducing 90% of employees’ stress score to 3 and below (assuming the survey is a scale of 1 to 5), you got to set the goal to see the results!
Ask For Feedback Regularly
Even after planning out what we think is a “perfect” program, we need to observe the participation rate and ask employees again for their feedback for the ongoing program. Could there be a chance the timing is starting to get inconvenient for them because of the change in project timing? Do they feel the class could be smaller in size to get more attention from the trainer? So many possible reasons for a regular participant to stop attending the weekly fitness class or health talks. Considering sending out a feedback form once a month for a start and slowly moving to once every quarter.
If you ever feel that planning a year’s worth of workplace wellness program is too much of a chore, this is where fitness service providers like us come in to help you. From the planning to the execution, we’ve got you covered. We would like to offer you a COMPLIMENTARY 30 MINUTES CONSULTATION with our workplace wellness consultant so as to understand better what to expect and how we can value add you.
