More and more government officials and workplace decision makers are looking to our industry for help with health and wellness programs.
More companies are working to promote better employee health because good health is good business, too. Healthy employees miss less time at work and have a higher morale which typically translates into lower health care costs for the company. And a well designed employee health program is usually seen as a valuable benefit, which can reduce employee turnover and be a useful incentive for recruiting new ones, too.
The bottom line is that if you haven’t yet been asked to revise your offerings to reflect a focus on health and wellness, you will be soon.
Vending operators need support
While school and work accounts might look to our industry for help, many of our members have no idea how to create or deliver vending programs that embrace health and wellness successfully. In addition, many are reluctant to promote health and wellness because they are afraid it will affect their company’s profitability.
Other members have expressed interest in incorporating health and wellness into their accounts but are unsure where to find the right products, how to choose ones that might be available, and how to market or price them.
NAMA’s recent consumer survey confirms that the buyer’s focus on health and wellness is here to stay, and we need to help everyone in our industry respond.
To help our members, NAMA has created a special new resource, a manual titled, “Health, Wellness & Vending: How To Make It Work For You.”
NAMA’s manual offers a tool
In the manual you will find:
- What operators who are interested in integrating health and wellness into their vending program need to know before they get started.
- How certain demographics of an account might impact the overall product selection.
- How pricing issues affect product selections and examples of successful pricing initiatives.
- Techniques for effectively educating customers about the benefits of health and wellness choices.
- Successful experiences in introducing health and wellness products to school officials, parents, and others in the community.
- Resources that are available through NAMA to help operators with their health and wellness programs generally.
In addition to the manual, NAMA has also created a “Walk Your Way to Wellness Game” for operators to share with accounts to get people active. To participate, operators should call NAMA to order pedometers which will be used to track the steps taken by each participant.
Walk your way to wellness contest
Participants can play individually or in teams, marking their progress on a map of the U.S. Once the designated miles have been reached, contest participants can mail their pedometers to NAMA to receive a Balanced for Life t-shirt.
To begin, operators should visit the operator toolbox at www.balancedforlife.net where they can download a “Walk Your Way to Wellness Contest” packet with materials to share with their accounts. The materials include:
- contest instructions
- contest promotional materials (posters, fliers,)
- a map of walking routes
These are just the latest tools offered through Balanced for Life, NAMA’s national health and wellness initiative designed to help operators communicate that they want to partner with accounts to be part of the obesity solution.
The campaign includes everything from point of sale materials, games and contests to new nutrition standards programs. For more information about Balanced for Life, visit www.balancedforlife.net. To order materials, contact Jackie Clark at (301) 987-7113 or e-mail her at [email protected].
