If you are an HR professional or a business leader interested in improving employee health, getting the right training can help you learn effective strategies.
What is a Corporate Wellness Certification?
Corporate wellness certification programs are courses that teach HR professionals, business leaders, and other worksite wellness managers how to run a successful wellness programme.
A typical certification course will teach you how to structure wellness programming, how to ensure long-term success, how to improve participants’ health, and how to generate ROI.
Do you need a certification to run a wellness program?
No. Without any formal training, HR professionals have been running worksite wellness programs for years. You can even find free corporate wellness resources online that will assist you in managing a wellness program without having any wellness credentials. Furthermore, because there are few regulations governing workplace wellness aside from basic health and safety laws, there is no legal requirement to obtain certification.
However, having someone on your team who knows how to run a successful programme, on the other hand, will significantly increase the chances that your wellness initiative will be more effective, improve participants’ health, and generate ROI in the short and long term.
There are several alternatives to corporate wellness certifications, including partnering with a wellness provider who provides ready-to-go wellness programming. You’ll be working with well-trained wellness professionals, many of whom have bachelor’s or master’s degrees in health promotion.
These advanced degrees in wellness typically require 4-6 years of training and provide the ideal educational foundation for managing a high-quality, successful, and long-term corporate wellness program.
Different Wellness Approaches
Because hiring a full-time wellness professional with an advanced degree in wellness is often unrealistic, many businesses choose one of two approaches:
- Train a current employee (usually in HR) in one of the certification programmes listed below, or
- Collaborate with a worksite wellness company to gain access to a wellness professional with an advanced degree in wellness, years of relevant experience, and the tools to power a high quality program. Working with a wellness company is less expensive than you may believe, even for a small business.
There are many differences between wellness certification programmes: some are made for experts who currently manage worksite wellness initiatives, while others are made for those who are just getting started. On-site training is sometimes provided, online training is provided in other cases, and frequently both online and in-person training are combined. Depending on the level and length of training, they can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks.
One of the top Corporate Wellness Certification programmes internationally is offered through the Chapman Institute in the US.
The Chapman Institute’s certification program, called the WellCert, draws from best-practice solutions and proven research to provide wellness staff, benefit managers, brokers, HR staff and others with the skills they need to plan, implement, manage and measure employee wellness programs that deliver results. Designed by founder Larry S. Chapman MPH, WellCert synthesizes 40+ years of experience with over 1,000 organizations. WellCert offers four levels of professional certification:
WellCert offers four levels of professional certification:
- CWPC: Certified Wellness Program Coordinator
- CWPM: Certified Wellness Program Manager
- CWPD: Certified Wellness Program Director
- CWWPC: Certified Worksite Wellness Program Consultant
These WellCert Programmes are exclusively offered in South Africa through the Wellness Council of SA (WELLCOSA) and they offer discount to local professionals.
Source: Dr Martin Combrinck (PhD): Corporate Wellness Strategist