Finding a single focus has driven this wellness adviser’s career

Many businesses investing in a wellness program opt for a physical challenge or a change in nutritional provision in the office. Others take a financial approach as the wellness core, offering fiscal advice or incorporating a debt forgiveness programs for employees.

For FCCI Insurance Group, one wellness expert made such an impact on their firm’s wellbeing program they brought her on as a permanent member of their team — making the decision to build wellness around “focus.”

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Finding inspiration from the book, “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, Kristi Hoskinson, wellbeing, performance and development consultant for FCCI, says she took the first steps by asking the company’s 808 employees to review the eight dimensions of wellness: “Emotional, physical, vocational, environmental, intellectual, social, financial and spiritual,” Hoskinson says.

Entering the corporate wellness world
Beginning her career in corporate wellness, Hoskinson worked as a wellness coach for Manatee County, Fla., school district to assist with constant increasing health insurance costs. As she gained recognition for her work, other school districts in Florida began to contact her, asking for wellness advice.

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“They were looking at our numbers, in terms of our health insurance cost, and saw that this wellness program was having tremendous impact, not only just on the financials, but in engagement and productivity,” Hoskinson says. “It was in a conversation with Fresno Unified School District that the individual on the other end of the line said to me, ‘You have given me so much good information tonight. You’re providing basically consultative council, have you ever thought about starting your own business?’”

It was after that phone call Hoskinson then decided it was time to open her own wellness consulting firm, Totasola Wellness. After gaining a solid client base, Hoskinson was brought on as a wellness adviser for FCCI, a property and casualty firm. Eventually, she was hired on full-time, where she now initiates and leads programs like “One Thing,” and is a certified worksite wellness program manager.

“I knew that it was a culture that I wanted to be a part of and I immediately felt a sense of inclusion, even when I was here as a consultant,” Hoskinson says. “I knew that would obviously grow once I became a teammate.”

Hoskinson still owns her own wellness business, but has scaled back the amount of work she does with Totasola by narrowing her workload down to several speaking engagements over the course of the year.

“In some cases I’m apt to speak on very specific topics,” she says. “I’ve turned jobs down if it wasn’t the right time, if it didn’t necessarily align with having my business still open and having FCCI being my no. 1 priority.”

Beginning the journey
Hoskinson has implemented various wellness programs for her clients over the five years she owned her own business, and even when she consulted for the Florida school districts, while also ensuring that clients always had one goal in mind when beginning the process.

She says the book, “The One Thing,” was only recently introduced to her and was merely reaffirming her strategy when implementing a wellbeing program for a client, or in this case, specifically FCCI.

“When you’re at a stage to make some changes in your life, in whatever area of wellbeing you feel motivated to do, it’s best to focus on one behavior at a time,” Hoskinson says. “I think often we get overwhelmed with the suggested behaviors one would need to do to create change and why the quit rate is so high.”

After selecting and writing down the behavior employees want to work on, teammates begin a personal journey for 30 days, keeping track of daily progress toward their goal. “It is self-monitored on an honor system using weekly checkpoints,” Hoskinson says.

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Nearly 300 FCCI employees have participated in the voluntary personal development program, and more than 200 completed all the weekly check-ins. Successful teammates were recognized with a variety of health-oriented prizes.

At the end of the challenge, Hoskinson would ask employees how participating benefited them. “The answers were off-the-charts amazing and completely exceeded my expectations,” Hoskinson says.

While comments were optional, nearly 200 participants shared their views. Some of the comments included:

  • I’m not as tired anymore.
  • Sleeping better at night.
  • Daily 30-minute workout, more fruits/vegetables – done.
  • I smile more often.
  • A feeling of confidence and starting to see change.
    Hoskinson says she absolutely will do this program again and Lisa Krouse, executive vice president, chief HR officer and member of the FCCI’s board of directors, says this program can work for any business of any size.

“It’s basically a zero-cost program with virtually unlimited potential that any business can do to benefit its teammates,” Krouse says.

Unifying personal and professional development
Hoskinson added that she is entering into her ninth year in the corporate wellness industry and says she truly appreciates how FCCI considers personal and professional development as one, and how working to improve one will help with the other.

“This recent challenge that we did really hit home for me because if an individual is feeling good about themselves they truly are going to come to work and be a more productive and higher preforming employee,” she says. “I am just so proud of FCCI for taking that stance that wellbeing is as important as your professional development track.”

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