Throw Your Wellness Spreadsheet Away

Many employers still track wellness programs using spreadsheets, emails, and other manual tools. While the effort is commendable, there is a better way to manage a wellness program. This better way involves leveraging a technology tool to automate wellness tracking. If you think a wellness technology tool is complicated, expensive, or time consuming for your company to utilize, think again.

The rise of the quantified self (QS) movement has led to the proliferation of tools and technologies to help consumers track, measure, and engage in wellness activity. Apps like RunKeeper allow users to track distance, calories burned, rate, route, and many other data points for running, cycling, walking, and other movement-based activities. Wearable devices like Fitbit allow users easily track total daily movement and automatically synch activity to a dashboard. The quantified self movement isn’t limited to the consumer wellness space anymore.

Technologies like RunKeeper and Fitbit have led to the consumerization of the employee wellness industry. Employees are using consumer-oriented wellness technology in their personal lives and are demanding the same quality, easy-of-use, and functionality with their corporate wellness technology. Clunky wellness portals that are difficult to use don’t cut it anymore. A new type of employee wellness technology has emerged to meet the needs of this new bread of wellness consumer. As a result of the consumerization of the wellness industry, technology tools and services now offer easy-to-use, resource lite, and seamless ways to track wellness activity and manage program logistics, and these solutions can be utilized for a fraction of the cost of older wellness technology solutions.

It’s time to get rid of your Biggest Loser spreadsheet or gym challenge email campaign and embrace the benefits of a new generation of consumer-oriented corporate wellness products.