White Label Wellness Programs in 2024(Private Label): Pros and Cons
To offer an effective white label wellness program companies need to provide 3 things:
- Personnel that are qualified to plan and administer the program,
- Effective behavior change interventions or activities
- A web-based data platform to administer, communicate, and evaluate the program
There are many pros and cons of a White Label Wellness Program. Only the largest corporations have the personnel and financial resources to successfully do all three. The biggest challenge is developing and testing an online wellness platform, a process that requires engineers to write all of the computer code so that a wellness data management platform will work on any type of computer or mobile device.
These technology platforms have to measure and track both health behaviors and health risks. They have to track program participation and monitor progress towards incentives. They have to engage participants and be tools in program communication and marketing. Lastly, a technology platform should always help employees improve their health.
Good wellness platforms can handle pretty much any wellness activity or challenge.
All corporate wellness programs will follow one of these 3 paths:
- Use the wellness platform offered by a wellness vendor
- Use a wellness platform offered by a wellness vendor but white label it so it appears that the company has its own wellness platform
- Develop their own wellness platform
For most companies it is unrealistic to develop and maintain their own wellness platform, but some do.
Among the hundreds of clients that use WellSteps, about 80% use our wellness platform. The other 20% use a white labeled version of our wellness program.
How do you know whether a white label wellness platform is right for your organization? If your organization is accustomed to doing the daily work associated with your wellness program, a private label wellness platform might be right for you.
What is White Label Wellness?
WellSteps has created a robust wellness management platform that does everything a wellness program could ever need. Some clients use a white labeled version of this software. In this version, the name “WellSteps” and the WellSteps logo are removed from every page. Some refer to this as Software as a Service (SaaS) and there are many software companies that do this.
The only thing that retains the WellSteps name is the internet domain name. And even that can be customized to be something like this: www.wellsteps.com/ACME.
With a white label wellness platform, worksites can have a robust wellness software platform that has their own company name and logo. It’s as if they created their own wellness platform.
What is the Difference Between White Label Wellness, Private Label Wellness, and Reselling Wellness?
When referring to software, the terms “white label wellness” and “private label wellness” are used interchangeably. However, Reselling Wellness is a bit different.
Wellness Resellers
Some clients who are using the WellSteps white label wellness platform want to resell this wellness service to other companies. For example, a large hospital, such as the John Doe Medical Center, can use the white label wellness platform to offer their employees the John Doe Medical Center Wellness Program.
The wellness software and app look like they all come from the John Doe Medical Center. In addition, the medical center can offer wellness programs to businesses and companies in their community.
They mark up the price and sell their wellness services to local businesses. They use a white label wellness platform and sell it to others as if it were their own. This is called reselling and it is an extremely popular revenue generator for many companies. You can read more about reselling wellness here.
With a white label (private label wellness) program, employers provide the wellness staff, but they outsource the behavior change programming, the wellness activities, the data management, and the security to the platform.
When they use a white label wellness program, they take an existing wellness program, such as the WellSteps Wellness Solution, and make it their own. They get the WellSteps Wellness Solution labeled as if it were their own wellness program.
Once employers are properly trained to manage the system, they can begin offering their new wellness program to anyone. It is like having their own branded wellness program, but it is created, maintained, and improved by WellSteps. There are many reasons to consider this approach to wellness.
The “Pros” of Using a White Label Wellness Program
1. Avoid the need to develop your own software system. It has taken 12 years and over $10 million to develop the WellSteps platform. It is constantly improving and innovating. I used to worry that our competitors would copy what we do and develop their own similar platforms. I don’t worry about that any more. To any competitor who wants to spend a decade to build what we have built, I wish them good luck.
2. Keep your current brand or even expand your current brand. The white label wellness platform becomes your wellness platform. It has your company name and logo. Having a branded wellness platform makes you look extremely professional and gives you a competitive advantage.
Offering a branded wellness platform allows resellers to scare the pants off their competition. WellSteps resellers include hospital systems, insurance companies, other wellness providers, insurance brokers, and even business consultants.
A white label wellness program gives you access to a branded wellness program that works and helps market your brand.
3. Get the cost of wellness programming as low as it can go. When brokers, consultants, insurance carriers, insurance co-ops, hospitals and others white label a wellness platform, they are able to offer an outstanding wellness program to all their employer groups at an extremely low price.
Depending upon the number of employees, white label wellness programs can offer the same wellness program as WellSteps does for as little as $.50 per employee per month. Very large groups can get pricing even lower.
4. Avoid the hassles of running and maintaining the technology. When was the last time your wellness committee spent weeks completing a rigorous HIPAA compliance audit? That is the last thing most wellness professionals want to be involved with. The best part about using a white label wellness program is not having to worry about the technology. Computer servers need constant maintenance and updating. Just keeping everything HIPAA compliant and secure is a monumental task that nobody wants.
Wellness should be about helping employees adopt and maintain healthy behaviors, not figuring out why your wellness PHP code and SQL databases are not properly integrating with the API code that goes with your boss’s Fitbit. With a white label wellness program, WellSteps takes care of all the noise, and you focus on your employees’ health.
5. Keep your wellness program HIPAA compliant and secure. I have never heard of a wellness vendor that has been subjected to a rigorous HIPAA compliance audit. I have also never heard of a wellness program that has been subjected to rigorous data security audits. The WellSteps wellness platform does both.
The WellSteps white label wellness platform is subjected to every possible data security protocol and procedure that is available today. As the CEO of WellSteps, I sleep well at night knowing that all data on our server is fully encrypted and carefully protected.
When you use a white label wellness program, you leave all of these concerns to your wellness vendor. This frees you up to do what your program needs most: helping employees adopt and maintain healthy behaviors for life.
6. Have complete control of your wellness program. If you can think of it, chances are that a good private label wellness platform can help you build it out and deliver it to your employees.
You can do anything you want, including health coaching, special events such as lunch and learns or special speakers, behavior change interventions, team or peer challenges, integrating wearable fitness devices, and much, much more.
With a good wellness platform, there is almost no limit to what you can do and provide for your wellness participants. In an earlier blog, I shared the top 10 features that every wellness platform should have.
7. Generate revenue and expand your brand with white label wellness. Resellers love using a white labeled wellness platform because they can sell their wellness services to any other groups on the planet while they improve market share and generate additional wellness revenue at the same time.
Resellers are able to provide an outstanding wellness program to their employer groups and generate additional revenue. Not only does this give them a leg up against their competitors, but it allows them to expand and improve their brand. With white label wellness, they can do this without having to expend the resources and capital to create and maintain their own software platform.
8. Deliver your white label wellness program through web enabled computers AND mobile devices. Around 20% of all wellness program participants are using mobile devices to participate in their program. Every year that percentage increases.
A robust wellness platform will allow you to conduct your entire wellness program for any person who has a mobile phone. Mobile devices are the future of wellness program technology.
With a white labeled wellness platform, you get not only a desktop-based wellness platform but also apps for both IOS (Apple mobile devices) and android devices. Employees won’t participate in your wellness program unless they have easy access.
WellSteps offers a mobile app that gives users access to all their program center elements – behavior change campaigns, Rewards, fitness trackers, peer-to-peer Challenges, and more. WellSteps has also created an app called the Fast Food Guide, where users can see a list of menu items from different fast food restaurants and their health rating. You can download the Fast Food Guide for free from the App Store or Google Play.
Click here to see the WellSteps app in action!
9. Keep your wellness program fresh and relevant. New wellness program design ideas, new interventions, special project development, team challenges, individual challenges, gamification, and creative incentive design plans happen automatically when you use a white label wellness platform.
Wellness vendors have years of experience working with actual clients to solve problems and create new systems to make wellness programs better. When you use a white labeled wellness program, you can take full advantage of all of that technology and development without having to do the development yourself.
Why reinvent the wheel yourself when you can rely on hard core wellness professionals to create exciting wellness challenges and events that will be loved by all employees, including millennials!
10. Get more than customer tech support, get a wellness partner. The key to making any white labeled wellness platform work is to have a strong customer support strategy.
That means you should be receiving constant updates and training on all the new applications and resources that are being developed. You should also have careful and comprehensive guidance and training on how to get the most out of your wellness program.
Unlike most software users, you get a real person who is available to help with all your wellness questions, challenges, and problems. You will have challenges when creating an effective wellness program. When you do, your wellness support staff should be there.
The “Cons” of Using a White Label Wellness Program
With your own private label wellness program, you will get full control of your wellness program. You will offer employees a branded wellness experience. However, using a white label wellness program is not the best option for some employers.
Despite the extremely low price, there are some times when using a white label wellness program might be a mistake.
A white labeled wellness platform may not be the best solution for you if:
1. Your worksite is just getting started with a wellness program. Seasoned wellness programs have successfully overcome many of the initial challenges, cultural nuances, and participation problems that can arise when first rolling out a corporate wellness program.
Rather than start from scratch, new wellness programs will benefit greatly from having a wellness partner who can do the heavy lifting the program requires.
An experienced wellness partner will still use a wellness platform, but they will provide all the guidance and program oversight every program needs in the beginning.
2. There is no one at your worksite who has both the time and qualifications to help run a wellness program. Learning how to use a wellness platform won’t be enough to produce positive wellness outcomes.
Many worksites that start a wellness program simply ask an existing employee in HR or some other department to take on the project. Most often they are asked to do this in addition to their regular job. Programs that take this approach almost always fail.
Having a wellness platform will greatly reduce the amount of work that needs to be done. But, like every successful business initiative, there must be sufficient staffing to make it work.
3. Your worksite has no experience at running a wellness program, tracking incentives, or staying compliant with wellness regulations. Most companies with less than 500 people fit this description.
They are looking for wellness expertise, guidance, and direction on how to organize and administer a wellness program that works. This is why over 80% of the entire WellSteps book of business uses our full service wellness solution.
They need more than just a wellness platform – they need a wellness partner that can help them create a wellness program specifically aligned with their companies culture and employee health objectives.
So What?
Technology is constantly changing and employee wellness programs must use a robust wellness platform if they are to be successful. Established wellness programs or wellness resellers are the perfect candidates to use a white label wellness program.
These branded wellness platforms are inexpensive and provide employers with everything they need to have a healthy and productive workforce.
