Corporate wellness has become a critical pillar for organizations striving to boost employee morale, productivity, and retention. In today’s fast-evolving work environment, creating programs that truly resonate with employees is essential. In this exclusive interview with Corporate Wellness and Health Magazine, Jessica Domann, Advisor in Benefits and Total Rewards at Phillips 66 with nearly a decade of experience shares her personal journey and professional insights on well-being. His story illustrates how personal health challenges can fuel a passion for creating transformative wellness programs that put people first.
How important is well-being to you personally?
As a former athlete well-being was at the center of my life long before it became my career. Prior to receiving a cancer diagnosis in early 2023, my way of engaging in my personal well-being was to get in an intense workout 6 days a week, go to my preventive screenings and eat well. Now my lifestyle of well-being is to ensure I can live the longest and healthiest life possible. I still enjoy an intense workout, but now I incorporate much more self-care such as massage therapy, counseling, downtime reading a book, traveling and spending time with the people I love.
Where do you see the industry headed?
Technology already plays a big role in the well-being industry, but I see it continuing to evolve. Everyone already owns or at least knows about wearable devices, but these devices will keep surprising us with their capabilities. Corporate fitness and wellness facilities are still needed, but making virtual and at-home options available for a diverse workforce with unique work environments will be needed for organizations to be attractive to current and prospective employees. AI is a hot topic and will be part of the continued evolution of the industry. I’m excited to see how technology can help us to make people more engaged and healthier.
What are the most important focus areas for you in corporate wellness for the upcoming year?
There are a few things that stand out to me as focus areas in corporate wellness. A primary focus will be on benefits-related support through access to primary care physicians (PCP), adherence to preventive screenings, health management programs, and mental health support. Additional focus areas will include recognition, social connectedness, and continuing to build a culture of well-being.
What was the most valuable takeaway of the CCWS program for you?
When I first became certified, the most valuable takeaway from the CCWS program was the content about the latest regulations required to offer a corporate wellness program. Compliance must be considered when designing a program but gaining a better understanding of those guidelines was very eye opening. Now that I continue engaging in CEU learning and webinar sessions, I have learned a lot from my peers. The CCWS community has a lot of value.
The personal significance of well-being and how it influences your work in corporate wellness.
Because of my own personal health journey, I know health and life can be fleeting. So, my personal well-being is even more of a priority now than it ever has been and that has trickled into my work in corporate wellness. Not only do I want to provide the right benefits, education and engagement opportunities for employees to be healthier, I want to help them to understand why these things matter.
What Recent trends or changes in the corporate wellness field that you find impactful?
Recognition has become a recent trend entering the wellness space. Workplace culture and corporate wellness have a huge impact on morale, productivity and retention. The right recognition strategy will positively impact workplace culture and in turn, employee wellness. Recognition isn’t just a service anniversary award, it is celebrating an employee becoming a parent, giving peer-to-peer shoutouts, and giving employees a voice and a “seat at the table” to tell organizations what recognition means to them.
How the CCWS certification has contributed to your professional development and your approach to wellness?
I went through the CCWS program because I needed more tools in my “toolbox.” I knew the future of corporate wellness was ever evolving and I wanted to be armed with the right tools to provide the most engaging resources for our population to make the most impact. I’m thirsty for knowledge and the CCWS program was the right fit to arm me with knowledge during and following the certification program.
One piece of advice you would offer to those developing wellness programs
Get to know your population and listen to them. Ask them what they need and what matters to them, collect data and then work to find ways to provide what is needed to support them in their personal well-being journey.
Your program needs to be driven by the need to create a healthier population and improve individual health measurements while also being engaging. As leaders of wellness, we cannot just provide programs and resources that we think are best, we need to give our employees a voice and provide them with what they are asking for help with.
