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| Corporate Wellness Coaching
You work for a corporation and have been hearing about 'Wellness Coaching'. The information on this page and resources it links to can help you to de-mistify the industry. Here's some of the most commonly asked questions I hear and don't forget to check out the links at the bottom of the page. These resources have been compiled so that you can make better decisions as you build or expand upon your health promotion strategy.
What is Wellness Coaching?
Think of sports. A coach is a partner, a guide, and an educated partner to support you in excelling to reach your goals. A wellness coach is an employee's partner that can help identify health risks, supports them in making healthier lifestyle decisions, and holds them accountable to their goals.
What happens when you meet with a coach?
Models vary based on whether or not a coach is onsite and the background of the coach. If the meeting is face to face, often the initial appointment provides an opportunity to gather biometric data (ie: weight, height, body fat, blood pressure, waist/hip measures, sometimes a fingerstick cholesterol test) and to get to know the client. Typically the first meeting is used to establish relationship and to understand the participants desired outcomes for the program as well as to get a feel of their readiness to change. This may be a determinant of how much coaching that client will receive. For those supported by a telephonic model, much of the same can be accomplished, less the measurements (which can potentially be collected via different venues such as health fairs).
How does a Health Risk Assessment fit into the picture?
Most wellness coaching models that I am aware of require an HRA (Health Risk Assessment) or PHA (Personal Health Assessment). This is a data set that can be mined to determine program success, but it also gives the coach some feel as to the background of the person they are meeting with. When time is limited - having this information can be extremely useful to the coach. Most corporations, however, see it as an opportunity to evalate their program results (typically this is done as an aggregate such that individuals can not be pointed out).
Whats more effective, In person or telephonic coaching?
Thats a tough question. I don't know of any studies that have been able to confirm the efficacy of one model versus the other. In my years of coaching, my preference is working face to face with a client - travel schedules and other logistics do not always make that possible. Without performing any formal analysis, I would have to say that face to face is more effective. It's more personal and there is more accountability. That being said, I've worked in both models and have had huge successes, and plenty of non-compliance in both models.
How often to clients meet with coaches?
That depends. Some corporations design a tiered approach where risk stratification is used to determine the number of coaching sessions offered, others set a fixed number of meetings for everyone. This depends on corporate culture and the investment that a company is willing to make.
What is the ROI I can expect from Wellness Coaching?
This is the magic question and everyone is trying to gather the data. Needless to say, its difficult to determine - mostly because wellness coaching is in the infancy stages for most companies. With only a couple of years of data for most corporations implementing wellness coaching programs its hard to provide definitive results. Companies are in the process of gathering data and I suspect in the next 2-3 years we'll see numerous publications on the topic. One thing to know is that most corporations do not single out 'wellness coaching' as they recognize this is one component of a wellness program. One of the most useful tools on the web can be found in the tools/links below to help you determine the potential cost savings of implementing a wellness program. Generally, I've heard studies range from an ROI of 1.5 to 8. I've yet to hear a study mention that wellness programs have been mostly ineffective.
Tools/Links
ROI Calculator for Wellness Programs
Dee Edington's Zero Trends Review - Implications on Wellness Coaching
Need help unraveling the mystery? Contact me - I am happy to provide a consultation at no cost.
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