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3 Tips for Hiring a Corporate Wellness Expert
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How to hire a workplace wellness trainer or speaker

Andrea Holwegner Health, Wellness & Productivity ExpertHealth, nutrition, stress management and productivity are highly relevant to the success of your workplace. When employee health and nutrition are not maximized, employers have higher health benefit costs and experience more employee absenteeism, safety concerns and lost productivity. Studies repeatedly show that healthier, less stressed-out employees are happier, more creative and ultimately more productive.

Workplace wellness programs are an opportunity for a business to deliver nutrition and wellness solutions to their employees. All employee demographics benefit from improved wellness, from employees with young families to baby boomer to workers just launching their careers. Statistics prove that an investment in employee wellness programs can provide as high as a 6:1 return on investment

3 Tips for Hiring a Corporate Wellness Expert

1.  Hire a nutrition and wellness expert: When hiring a nutritionist make sure they are a Registered Dietitian, not just a nutritionist. All dietitians are nutritionists but few nutritionists are dietitians and therefore lack high-level education in nutritional science. In my province of Alberta the titles Registered Dietitian, Dietitian and Registered Nutritionist are all regulated protected titles to help ensure you are working with a credible expert. 

As CEO of nutrition counselling practice Health Stand Nutrition, our nutritionists are all Registered Dietitians, with advanced training and expertise in areas including:

  • Meal Planning and Family Nutrition
  • Nutrition’s Impact on Employee Productivity
  • Eating Disorders
  • Weight Management
  • Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes
  • Sports Nutrition

2.  Hire a professional speaker: A nutrition and wellness expert must have more than good information: they must be able to deliver their wellness message in a way that:

  • entertains
  • motivates
  • is memorable

A message that is delivered in a way that is boring, too technical or lacking practical applications results in your employees tuning out on the speaker and their message. (see Andrea Holwegner speaker kit)

Andrea Holwegner, Registered Dietitian and Professional Speaker:

Andrea Holwegner RD is one of a handful of Registered Dietitians in North America who are qualified professional speakers. She knows how to deliver relevant content mixed with humor and fun, capturing corporate, association and government audiences with a buzz that’s better than caffeine! Her simple ideas elevate productivity, work-life balance and health.

                                         ~ See Rave Reviews for Andrea Holwegner

Speaker Demo:
Andrea Holwegner: Health, Wellness and Productivity Expert

With extensive media expertise including regular TV and radio appearances as well as an in-demand wellness and productivity speaker, Andrea knows how to engage an audience and deliver important information in an entertaining format. Andrea is a member of CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers; other certification organizations for professional speakers include NSA – National Speaker’s Association and GSF – Global Speakers Federation.

3. Hire practical experience: Your corporate nutrition and wellness consultant should have practical experience working with clients facing nutrition and wellness issues, and not someone with research credentials but no practical experience. A Registered Dietician nutrition consultant and educator has experience counseling individuals on wellness challenges and providing solutions that get results. (see Andrea Holwegner client list

Workplace Benefits for Hiring a Nutrition and Wellness Expert

Your corporate wellness consultant should work closely with your team to ensure their nutrition services are relevant to your employees and contractors personally as well as directly impact the needs of your workplace.

Top 5 Benefits of A Corporate Wellness Program:

  1. Enhanced resiliency, work-life balance and ability to combat stress.
  2. Increased stamina, energy and productivity for demanding workloads.
  3. Improved bottom line related to the high costs of health benefits, medications, sick leaves, burn-out and employee turnover.
  4. Address costly and unfavorable health concerns from biometric screening and health risk assessments such as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and other health issues.
  5. Enhanced health confidence for your corporate team and improved wellness, safety and productivity for field workers and those that travel for their jobs.

Corporate Wellness Takeaway

A Corporate Nutrition and Wellness Consultant must understand how to achieve health and productivity without guilt or complexity: Advice that is too complicated or takes the pleasure out of eating can result in your employees choosing not to follow the advice of your wellness consultant. A corporate nutrition and wellness program should demonstrate that:

  1. Achieving good health and optimal energy can be simple.
  2. Nutrition and eating habits can have a profound impact on your overall health, wellness and stress as well as workplace productivity, safety, confidence and creativity.
  3. Food and eating should be fun! You don’t need to sacrifice your favourites to be successful.

How Andrea Holwegner Can Help Your Employee Wellness Initiative:

  1. Professional Speaking: Keynotes, Workshops & Retreats
  2. Monthly Nutrition Club
  3. Onsite Nutrition Counselling
  4. Nutrition & Wellness Video License
  5. Custom Solutions

Workplace Wellness Articles by Andrea Holwegner, RD:

a version of this article originally appeared on LinkedIn

Do you have a specific theme or specialized need for your workplace? Andrea Holwegner can help you customize employee wellness programs that will meet the health, nutrition, stress or productivity needs of your company. Contact Andrea to discuss your needs. 

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Success stories

"I am a psychologist in private practice and it is very important to me that my clients have the best care with other health care professionals. For that reason Health Stand Nutrition is my only source for exceptional Dietitians. Andrea and her team provide highly knowledgeable, compassionate, and real world support to my clients who require assistance with food lifestyle. I trust my clients to them and you would be in excellent hands making them part of your health care team."
Adele Fox, Psychologist
“This is the first time I feel satisfied; my cravings have diminished dramatically and I have a whole new relationship with food. I am eating guilt-free for the first time in my life. My energy has also dramatically increased and I feel great!
Rhonda Jenkins, Nutrition Counseling Client
“The Dieticians at Health Stand Nutrition help you to take action on the science behind eating well by making it practical, understandable, and fun. Their office is cozy and not at all clinical or intimidating. I felt like I was sitting down with a really smart, caring friend who wanted to help me make the best choices for my lifestyle and food preferences. They really are the best in the business.”
Marty Avery, Nutrition Counseling Client
“I have come to think of the program as a one stop shopping excursion for everything one needs to know about creating a joyous relationship with food and our bodies. In a single word, the course has gifted me with freedom from the punishing rigidity of disordered eating, old stories that never were true, and body dysmorphia that did nothing but make me lose sight of a body that has done everything I've asked, despite my careless dismissal of her needs. Now when I look in the mirror I find myself shifting from harsh criticism to gentle gratitude.”
Lynn Haley, Pursuit of Healthiness Online Course Participant
“I spent 3 hours when first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I learned more from my Dietitian about food in those 3 hours than I had learned in all the years of my life. I also love the newsletter, there is always something to learn.”
Peter Whitehead, Nutrition Counseling Client
“I didn’t realize how strong my “diet mentality” was, and all the rules I had in my head about food. I was in a cycle of reward/punish/binge/cringe. I booked with your business very reluctantly, on the repeated advice of my doctor, to get my slowly rising cholesterol levels in check. I thought I knew everything about food, and my behaviour with food, but I was definitely re-schooled. My weight is creeping down, I feel good about my diet, exercise, body image, and lifestyle.”
Amy Floyd, Nutrition Counseling Client
“Thanks Andrea for an amazing presentation, I have heard all positive remarks from attendees and the evaluations show the same sentiment. It is really gratifying when a speaker does their “homework” and weaves in our profession’s day to day challenges within their content, you did an awesome job of this! You truly took the “die” out of Dietician! Your information on healthy eating and simplifying how we can work towards this as we are all so busy really hit the mark. Andrea connects very well with her audience; she is energetic, funny, and very approachable.”
Carole Ann LaGrange, Transfusion Medicine Safety Officer

Event Planner for Laboratory Diagnostic Imaging Annual Event

I am a family physician who sees patients with a myriad of eating concerns – from wanting to know how to plan healthy meals for active families, to weight loss, to eating disorders, and so on. I cannot recommend the Health Stand team highly enough. I have worked with (and been to!) other Dieticians in the past and too often find that they just ask for food logs and make suggestions that are easily obtained online or in books. The Dieticians at Health Stand offer much more than just telling clients what they “should be eating.” In contrast, the team really does more of a counselling practice, and they work hard to help their clients learn more about why their eating habits may be off track and not optimal for them, as well as helping people to effect change at a deep level that, most importantly, is sustainable for lifetime health.”
Dr. Deb Putnam, Family Physician

Nutrition Counseling Client & Referring Physician

“I am a busy mom, with kids in high level sports, working full-time downtown, and running our home acreage outside the City. I now have the knowledge and tools I need to plan for and manage the chaos of meal planning.”
Gillian Gray, Pursuit of Healthiness Online Course Participant
“As a construction company, we select speakers who can relate to our industry and its employees. Andrea’s message was delivered with humor and empathy. She makes people feel as though they can make changes without leaving behind every favorite food. Andrea focused her presentation on healthy eating as a way to keep energy high throughout the day. This message and the way it was delivered resonated with our predominantly male, blue collar culture. I would highly recommend Andrea as a speaker for groups such as ours. She will get your message across without alienating anyone in your audience – which is a huge hurdle when trying to introduce a wellness program in the workplace!”
Stephanie Wood, HR and Safety Manager

Fisher Construction Group, Burlington, WA

I found my Dietitian warm, funny, and skilled at teaching nutrition concepts without the overwhelm. The general approach of each session was to mix science with emotion, which was exceedingly effective in helping me shift my perspective on food from one of anxiety to one of joy and curiosity.”
Erin Kronstedt, Nutrition Counseling Client
“Excellent presentation! What a refreshing change to have a speaker inspire rather than “lecture” about nutrition. Your captivating stories, tips and overall approach to healthy eating uplifts and puts people at ease. It was great to hear we don’t need to strive to be perfect eaters, and that small changes really can make a difference in how we feel and in our health. Thanks to Andrea, we have solutions to our everyday nutrition challenges that can actually work in real life!”
Tina Tamagi, Human Resources

ARC Resources Ltd.

“Had I not joined this course I would have struggled with no focus, low energy, and mindless eating. Excellent teaching and motivation. This is not just a course, it is a nutrition club with mentorship, support, and connections with other people with similar situations.”
Lorri Lawrence, Pursuit of Healthiness online course participant

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