It has been a long time since I’ve penned anything on this blog. I’ve enjoyed creating and sharing my videos here to try to show just how much fun I am having living an active and healthy lifestyle. However, I’ve had something brewing on my mind that I felt could be better communicated with a short blog post. So, I present to you the reason why I believe there is an incredible opportunity for corporate America to impact real lasting change in their employee’s and community’s health and wellness. Enjoy.
ADDRESSING THE HEALTH AND WELLNESS CHALLENGE
Being a company these days is hard. There are a lot of opinions on what a corporation should be responsible for and what they need to keep their nose out of when it comes to their employees. It is often a struggle for companies to manage and balance the rising cost of health insurance and employee expectations of pay and benefits while maintaining a sustainable business model. Oh – and retaining good employees and keeping them engaged seems to be harder than ever in our current state of work culture. So, it is quickly becoming an important function of HR to find ways to promote programs that engage employees and promote healthy lifestyles. I know this because I see what products and services HR managers are buying on a regular basis.
In my day job working at a venture capital firm I read and evaluate hundreds of start-up decks from founders working on health and wellness issues attempting to address the rising cost of medical care and/or the declining physical, mental, and financial health of Americans (spoiler alert: they’re related). I’ve also watched as corporate America searches for, tests, buys, and implements employee wellness technologies and services to help reduce the cost of health insurance and increase employee retention. Many of these solutions use buzzwords such as AI, blockchain, Telehealth, nanotechnology, mindfulness, and CRISPR to validate their effectiveness in impacting health outcomes. And to be fair, some of them work. Insurance companies are also beginning to offer their own wellness incentives like offering small rewards or credits toward Apple Watches for leading an active lifestyle. But after evaluating all of this technology, maybe there’s a simple solution: fund and incentivize activities that people actually find fun and engaging.
One example of that is natural trail creation for the use of biking, running, hiking, and similar snow sport activities. Over the past 10 years that I’ve been involved with mountain biking, I’ve witnessed and experienced communitythrough fun and exciting exercise, encouraging and spirited competitions, and altruistic philanthropy of time and resources. It is a powerful community that looks to attract anyone and everyone interested in riding a bike. Because of this, I believe that companies who help fund recreation facilities and promote/incentivize those activities within their workforce are companies who truly invest in the wellness of their communities and their employees.
WAYS TO PROMOTE WELLNESS THROUGH TRAILS
When it comes to fostering a culture of health and wellness, both at the organizational level and at the community level, there is no silver bullet. But it does start with asset and access. So here is a ranked list of ways corporations can begin to impact wellness:
- Invest in local trail systems – it provides a long performing, recession proof, community building return. It’s also a great private/public partnership as most trails are on publicly owned property. This is where it starts and where the largest direct impact can be made.
- Sponsor local events and promote them internally. Sponsoring events simply supports the ecosystem and provides a little recognition for being an engaged company.
- Sponsor local teams and clubs and promote them internally. People who find community in their personal activities are more likely to stay with it.
- Encourage employee participation by fully or partially reimbursing event entry fees. Removing friction for employees to participate in events has a ripple effect that people then train for these events. Whether they train to compete or train to complete, encouraging event participation truly is an ‘activity breeds activity’ scenario.
CASE IN POINT
At MEMBA in 2018, we had a member put forward our Mosquito Creek (a new trail in Muskegon, MI) fundraising campaign for consideration in their employer’s corporate giving program (thank you Luprino!). What I love about this example is that the company had put together a program to support local non-profits and projects that met certain goals of the company (in this case health and wellness was one of them). They engaged their employees to provide the projects they were passionate about and select which top projects would become recipients. By contributing to our trail build, Luprino made a long-term investment into health and wellness that will directly benefit both their employees and the community.
TAKE ACTION
If your company is interested in learning more about how they can participate in something like this, reach out to your local trail building association. In West Michigan that’s Michigan’s Edge Mountain Biking Association (www.ridememba.com) (Allegan, Ottawa, Muskegon, and Oceana counties) and West Michigan Mountain Biking Alliance (www.wmmba.org) (Barry, Kent, and Newaygo counties).
joseph lampen 