Now more than ever, employees are driving a paradigm shift in the workplace, demanding greater priority for safety and wellness. This will be a key determinant of a thriving business In the post-pandemic era of work. However, integrating wellness into your organizational culture requires specialized skills and training to take the proper steps. The Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist (CCWS) Program, designed by the Corporate Health and Wellness Association, offers this and more, providing up-to-date training and skills in corporate wellness strategies in line with global best practices.
The Corporate Wellness Magazine sat with a recent graduate of the CCWS program, Dr. Federico Gallegos, to talk about corporate wellness and how the specialist course has redefined his perspective about corporate wellness practices. Dr. Gallegos is a specialist in health services administration based in San Jose and Costa Rica, and he is the Director of Go Care Costa Rica.
Q: How Important Is Well-Being to You Personally?
Dr. Gallegos: I've always believed that one needs to lead a healthy, balanced life; however, well-being is not something taught in college. My experience learning through the CCWS program has personally helped me to make healthier lifestyle choices, which have improved my physical, mental, and emotional well-being. In addition, all that knowledge has made me grow as a professional as I continue to share and teach everything I learned and positively influence my clients, family, and friends.
Q: What Change Have You Noticed Over the Last Year In Corporate Wellness?
Dr. Gallegos: In Costa Rica, wellness at the corporate level was not a thing before the pandemic. Companies largely invested in corrective and non-preventive medicine and relied more on traditional Western medicine. However, Covid-19 came to show that maintaining a healthy lifestyle really makes a difference in terms of lowering the risk of acute and chronic diseases, and this has significantly influenced companies’ attitudes toward health promotion and investing in corporate wellness programs.
Q: If You Could Give Our Readers One Piece of Advice Regarding Wellness Programs, What Would It Be?
Dr. Gallegos: First, structure your programs as well as possible, and create low-cost health indicators to help you create an accurate picture of your workers’ health status and, thus, objectively measure the year-on-year outcomes.
Furthermore, create engaging content that is based on practical concepts which your workers can easily relate to. For example, teach them how switching the light of their mobile phones to warm light at night as well as putting off other sources of blue light helps with sleep induction. Other examples are providing tips on easy and healthy recipes to improve your nutrition and demonstrating that moderate physical activity of 150 minutes a week lowers all-cause mortality by up to 10%.
Q: Why Did You Go Through the CCWS Program?
Dr. Gallegos: Since I did not know how to plan a program nor how to communicate it with the collaborators of the companies where we are providing services, I looked for options that were accessible (virtual) and worth the investment and CCWS fit the mold.
Q: What Was the Most Valuable Takeaway of the CCWS Program for You?
Dr. Gallegos: It helped me reach my first objectives and set more realistic wellness indicators and goals. Overall, I have received adequate training on how a wellness program should be planned.
If you are interested in the CCWS course, you can find more information here. To keep up with the latest and most powerful trends in corporate wellness and employer healthcare and benefits, register for the Healthcare Revolution conference for free. It is America's largest event for self-funded employer healthcare, benefits, and well-being. Registrants can look forward to executive speakers from Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, Royal Caribbean, MarineMax, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and more. We hope to see you between April 26-27 for an event filled with keynotes, pressing debates, expert panels, advanced workshops, and more.
