Wellness Program Implementation: Travel + Leisure’s Success with WellRight
Inflexible and Inaccessible Wellness Offerings
The Problem:
Travel + Leisure Co. is the world’s leading leisure travel company, with nearly 20 resort and lifestyle travel businesses in its portfolio. With over 14,000 team members and associates across the United States and Canada, Travel + Leisure’s mission is simple—to put the world on vacation through responsible tourism, human rights, and philanthropy.
As part of its rebuilding strategy after the pandemic, T+L evaluated the strength of its long-standing wellness program. Given the complexity of T+L’s employee base, Brandy Parker, T+L’s Manager of Health and Welfare Benefits, realized the company needed a wellness offering that could accommodate a variety of workplace wellness needs and offered flexible accessibility options.
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“Our associates range from resort operators who are working on their feet all day to sales and marketing employees who are usually seated in front of their computers,” explained Parker. “So when we were setting out to relaunch our wellness program, we knew we needed a partner who could meet the needs of all our employees.”
To accommodate the diverse geographic locations of its employee base, T+L holds a vast network of regional health coaches spread out across North America. With that in mind, Parker also needed a platform that could seamlessly grant admin access to T+L’s existing team of health coaches, actively include those coaches in the decision-making process, and provide them with hands-on technical support.
Customized Brand Interface with Centralized Vendor Data
The Ask:
Brand identity is everything to T+L. Finding a wellness partner who could maintain the company’s brand guidelines while also providing more dynamic customization options was an essential part of the selection process.
“We take our brand very seriously,” said Parker. “So when we were going into the relaunch of our wellbeing program, partnering with an organization that could personalize our platform and white-label our brand was top of mind.”
Another factor that played a major role in T+L’s vetting process was the ability to seamlessly integrate data from a wide variety of vendors into one centralized platform. With nine different benefits vendors to consider, Parker’s team needed a vendor-agnostic wellness partner who could proactively organize all vendor information and manage deadlines before implementation.
“The biggest piece of a wellness program implementation is the data involved,” Parker said. “All of our vendors need to be included so employees can be properly rewarded for participating. It’s a huge process keeping track of what data is coming in, where it’s going in the platform, and how data is coming out through reporting. We needed a platform that could manage that for us.”
White-Labeled Customization with Seamlessly Integrated Vendor Data
The Solution:
When it came time to check off essential criteria for its new and improved wellness program, Parker and her team knew WellRight was the only solution that could get the job done.
From the start, Parker’s team worked closely with a dedicated WellRight Implementation Manager who provided high-touch client management throughout the process. From integrating data from all nine vendors to providing step-by-step training to keep the process moving, having a hands-on WellRight Implementation Manager leading the charge was exactly what T+L needed to succeed.
With the strategic support of the WellRight Implementation team, intricacies of T+L’s vendors could be addressed in real time. While some integrations were easily automated, others required in-depth technical support and creative solutions–even manual workarounds–to keep the project moving forward. The real-time expertise and technical expertise of the WellRight team ensured that the T+L team was supported every step of the way and that implementation timeline remained on track.
When it came time to design T+L’s wellness platform, WellRight made sure that the T+L logo, brand colors, tone, and voice were front and center. Not only did everything look and feel like it came straight from T+L’s website, but WellRight worked with T+L to understand where the company was going in the future and created design elements consistent with that vision.
To accommodate T+L’s diverse associate population, WellRight delivered curated content served to employees based on their individual needs and customized the platform to incorporate T+L resources and clearly communicate deadlines. Prior to launch, WellRight ensured activity categories could be uniquely configured, incentive progress bars could be displayed at the top of the program’s page, and extra language was provided so associates could easily understand which rewards were pending versus which were completely met.
As an added bonus, WellRight granted admin access to T+L’s health coaches so they could leave feedback and be actively involved throughout implementation. To ensure proper training, WellRight met monthly with T+L’s health coaches and benefits team to provide step-by-step support and technical guidance, as WellRight’s platform is one of the only platforms that gives health coaches admin access.
“We wanted our implementation to be a smooth process,” Parker explained. “Even though we have thousands of employees, our benefits team is quite lean. We needed a strong implementation team and a seamless implementation process, and the WellRight team provided the service, expertise, and technology to accomplish our goals.”
Rejuvenated Participation, Responsive Health Coaching, and Renewed Wellbeing
The Outcome:
T+L’s diverse associates can now redefine what wellness means to them thanks to their refreshed wellness program with WellRight.
Coined “Jumpstart,” associates can discover new challenges, easily see reminders for deadlines to complete activities, and keep track of their progress via desktop, mobile, or wearable fitness devices. The entire platform is continuously updated based on input from T+L’s team and health coaches, who offer feedback on areas such as where forms and FAQs should be placed, which images and tiles should be displayed on the homepage, and how to easily reach WellRight support.
To encourage participation in Jumpstart’s challenges, Parker, her team, and WellRight’s team have developed a platform that allows associates to earn up to $1,500 off of their medical premiums. Associates complete various activities throughout the platform and have the flexibility to choose how they earn this discount, whether by receiving annual physicals, well-woman exams, colonoscopies, mammograms, or other preventive exams. With complete flexibility being placed into the hands of the associates, T+L’s wellness program participation has profited as a result.
T+L’s health coaches are also highlighted on Jumpstart’s homepage so associates can take advantage of their services. By actively visiting the “Coach’s Corner” section of the homepage, associates can earn rewards for utilizing health coaches and track their progress at the top of the page.
“WellRight steered the ship throughout implementation and well after the launch of our program,” Parker said. “They were very proactive as far as customization was concerned and acted as the perfect middleman between us and our vendors. They also made sure everything was in place and set us up for success as we went out and promoted our program after launch.”