To thrive in the new era of work, employers and managers need to build the requisite skills and resilience to cater to the growing health, wellness, and safety needs of their employees. The Corporate Health and Wellness Association designed the Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist (CCWS) Program, to provide these skills and the resources needed for building effective wellness initiatives.
This pioneering employee benefits and wellness course contains best practices from leading employers such as LinkedIn, PepsiCo, Delta Air Lines, Gallagher, and more. The Corporate Wellness Magazine sat down with a recent graduate of the CCWS program, Sahara Rose De Vore, to learn how she has benefited from the course. Sahara is a wellness travel coach and CEO and Founder of Sahara Rose Travels, LLC
Q: How important is well-being to you personally?
Well-being is extremely important to me personally because as a female entrepreneur, there are countless things to work on, figure out, and juggle alongside our personal life, which is why putting my self-care first is always a priority.
Q: What change have you noticed over the last year with corporate wellness?
There have been many changes primarily around mental wellbeing and company culture. Corporate wellness used to revolve around wellness apps, healthier meal options, and gym reimbursements. Now, corporate wellness is looking at the well-being of employees as a whole, especially to attract and retain valuable talent.
Q: Where do you see the industry headed?
The industry needs to continue to push boundaries and forget legacy concepts. If the industry breaks down the walls around ROI and instead, focuses on getting creative, flexible, and tapping into travel, a key desire for most people, then the industry could have a bright future. It's about providing resources, education, and training on all aspects of well-being including emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, social, financial, and professional.
Q: What are the most important focus areas for you in corporate wellness for the upcoming year?
I focus on helping companies embrace the value that travel can have on employees whether they work remotely, in the office, or in a hybrid setting. The elements of travel, such as human connection, being in nature, learning new skills, confidence-boosting, and more, can help form and strengthen company culture, increase productivity, lower medical costs, attract valuable talent, increase retention rates, and boost overall company success.
Q: If you could give our readers one piece of advice in regards to wellness programs what would it be?
I would advise readers to consider hiring a travel coach to help integrate the wellness elements of travel or provide proper guidance and resources for employees' paid time off.
Q: Why did you go through the Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist program?
I went through the program to gain a well-rounded perspective on corporate wellness.
Q: What was the most valuable takeaway of the corporate wellness certification program for you?
One important thing I learned is that a lot of updates need to happen within the program and corporate wellness itself because times have changed and so have people's behaviors and mindsets around the corporate world.
