In a sponsored interview for PassionFit, host Ashley talks with Reena Vokoun, co‑founder of PassionFit, about the significance of corporate wellness during Global Employee Health and Fitness Month. Reena highlights the high levels of work‑related stress (77% per APA) and argues that organizations should reboot their culture by training leaders to have holistic conversations with employees and by offering engaging programs such as charity races, nutrition workshops, mindfulness sessions, and fitness classes. She discusses how companies can creatively reallocate budgets—shifting funds from low‑ROI areas to pilot wellness initiatives—to support employee mental and physical health without cutting essential resources. Reena also addresses the hybrid work reality post‑2020, emphasizing the need for flexible, blended wellness delivery that combines in‑person events with online classes and workshops. Finally, she outlines PassionFit’s year‑round corporate wellness offerings, including workshops, educational sessions, livestream fitness and yoga classes, and speaking engagements, positioning the company as a partner for ongoing employee well‑being.
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This segment is sponsored by PassionFit. Reena, you are such a good friend of the show, and we normally talk about individual health and wellness or things you can do at home to stay healthy, but corporate wellness is a huge part of PassionFit. How so?
Yeah, so PassionFit has a corporate wellness program, and since day one, we have focused on both consumer and corporate wellness. And for me personally, it's very important to get in and help companies because employee well-being and engagement is so important. May is Global Employee Health and Fitness Month. Month, and, you know, according to the American Psychological Association, 77% of employees surveyed express work-related stress and anxiety.
And it makes sense. I mean, you think about the amount of time we all spend at work and with our work family. It's important. So you think we all need to start with a little bit of a reboot?
Absolutely. I think every organization should kind of look at maybe doing a company culture reboot because times have changed over the last 4 or 5 years, and now that we're into 2024, it's important to train leaders and managers on Having important conversations with their employees, not only about their jobs and their career goals, but ask them how they're doing. Ask them how their families are, you know, making sure that they feel well respected and regarded as whole people, not just employees at the company or the organization. Also making work fun, right? Having programs, whether it's charity races that everyone can do together or nutrition workshops or mindfulness sessions or fitness classes. There's so many things that can be done to create an engaging workplace, and that's actually going to help employee well-being overall and performance as well.
Well, a word that we all hear thrown around every office, no matter where you work, is the word budget. And budget comes into play when it comes to wellness.
It really does. I think naturally when we're in tough economic times, companies want to cut, right? They want to cut budgets, they want to reduce employee numbers and all those types of things. But employees are the biggest asset that a company has. So you could maybe take certain budgets, and you don't have to cut everything, but maybe you reduce them and then shift or redistribute those budgets to other areas. For example, if maybe some of your administrative costs are not serving you as well, or perhaps there are some marketing initiatives that are not generating a positive ROI, maybe reduce those costs and put some of them into a corporate wellness pilot and see if maybe you can create a program within a limited budget to start. And if that resonates well and you're seeing a positive impact on employee mental health, physical health, and overall performance, then you can kind of adjust accordingly. It is something that every organization has to look at. It's going to be different for everyone, but I do think thinking about budgets in a different way could help.
What are your thoughts when it comes to hybrid work schedules? I mean, that's got to be kind of good, right?
Yeah, I mean, I think since 2020 the world has gone hybrid, right? Especially coming into 2022, 2023, when we really started to have people return to the office. So if we are living in a hybrid sort of world now, taking a hybrid approach to work and wellness is equally important. I think it is important for employees to be in person whenever possible, whether that's for team offsites or executive meetings or things of that nature. But at the same time, employees need flexibility to better manage their work and their families. So really thinking about how you can create that hybrid approach that's going to work for everyone is really important. And then also when it comes to the wellness programs, you can offer so many things online, right? Online fitness classes, online nutrition workshops or meditation education sessions, and you can also offer that in the office as well. So having that hybrid approach can make a huge difference as well.
Well, it's great that in the month of May there is this day for employers to kind of recognize and think about corporate wellness, but how can they utilize your services year-round?
Yeah, absolutely. So as mentioned, PassionFit has a corporate wellness program. So it consists of workshops and educational sessions, online courses, livestream access to fitness and yoga classes that people can do from the office or home or anywhere, and so much more. And then I often go and speak at companies. I actually have spoken to companies for Employee Health, Global Health and Fitness Month because that's the time to get everybody thinking about it, get employees excited. So PassionFit could come and do speaking engagements to help support this month, but also all year round corporate wellness as well.
