Woodfield CC’s year-long “wellness challenge” benefits employees through a series of healthy programming.
Many clubs are catching on to the wellness trend by offering members health- and fitness-related programming, understanding that healthy members stay members for a long time. Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla., has extended that idea to its employees through its year-long “wellness challenge,” running from April 2014 to April 2015.
“Woodfield Country Club is an active country club community that encourages its residents to be healthy and physically fit,” says General Manager Eben Molloy. “It stands to reason that we would have the same philosophy when it comes to our employees.”
To organize the initiative, the club gathered results from its annual employee survey and determined which health-oriented efforts might have the most appeal for employees. Wellness-challenge programming is divided into three categories: nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle, with activities including healthy cooking classes, one-on-one meetings with the club’s registered nutritionist, gardening tips, a 5k employee run, and annual physicals.
“Our research indicates that organizations that promote healthy lifestyles among their staffs have fewer sick days, higher employee evaluations, and less turnover,” says Molloy. “The bottom line is that we care about our employees and want them to excel professionally and physically.”
To incentivize the program, employees receive points for participating in each activity, which they can then accumulate to qualify for a variety of awards, with a grand prize of $500, or 40 hours of paid time off.
An extra benefit, Molloy notes, is the fellowship that has been fostered among the employees as a result of the program.
“The activities inspire team-building among employees and allow them to socialize with workers in other departments,” he notes. “We’re seeing increased camaraderie among employees, which translates into better service to our members.”
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