Developing Wellness Programs with Heather Collins

What if a comprehensive wellness program could significantly boost workforce productivity and mission readiness?

Join us on the HRchat Show as we sit down with Heather Collins, the dynamic President of Millennium Health and Fitness, who reveals the transformative power of employee wellness initiatives. With a unique background that spans high-performing athletics and collaborations with the US Navy and federal agencies, Heather offers a treasure trove of insights into the strategic importance of prioritizing employee well-being.

Listen as Heather opens up about her journey from a Division I college volleyball athlete to becoming a leader in the health and fitness industry. She shares compelling stories about her work with the Department of Defense and various government agencies, underlining how these experiences have shaped her approach at Millennium Health and Fitness. Whether you're an HR professional seeking to enhance employee engagement or a wellness enthusiast looking for inspiration, Heather’s real-world examples and practical advice make this episode a must-listen for anyone committed to fostering a healthier, more productive workforce.


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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit HRGazettecom.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, Bill Bannam, and joining me on this episode is Heather Collins, President at Millennium Health and Fitness, a company on a mission to improve the health and well-being of employees around the US and elsewhere, and in this episode we're going to consider how and why we need to keep the employee wellness agenda at the top table. Heather is a fitness enthusiast and wellness advocate who works with the federal government, military and others to provide contracted health and wellness promotion services. When not working, you can find Heather exploring and having fun with her husband, two amazing kids and their dogs. Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazettecom. And now back to the show. Heather, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the HR Chat Show today. Thank you very much for joining me and being my guest.

Speaker 3: 1:36

Good afternoon, bill. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm thrilled to be here and excited just to dive into our conversation today, and it's just always a pleasure to connect with new audiences and share insights about wellness.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Well, let's get into it. Firstly, you have a very interesting career background. You've done lots of things, you've worked with lots of different brands and organizations, and you've even worked with the US Navy for a couple of years. Why don't you take a couple of minutes and tell our listeners a bit about yourself?

Speaker 3: 2:07

I am currently the president of Millennium Health and Fitness. We are a wellness and health promotion service provider. As a company, we support worksite wellness programs encompassing both on-site and virtual services, when we deliver a range of programs from fitness center services to health promotion services as well as wellness and fitness screenings, all of which are customized to our customer. We also are servicing a large customer base within the Department of Defense, which kind of leads back to your original question with my Navy background. Kind of how has my career background led into where I am today?

Speaker 3: 2:48

So I originally started off in wellness and fitness and in this industry as a sports athlete myself. I played three sports during high school, was a Division I college volleyball athlete as well and kind of really continued to see the need and continued to enjoy being in that wellness and fitness activity realm, and so I pursued my education within exercise science and facility management services services. So I started working with the US Navy with a program for enlisted senior enlisted personnel as well as officers, really showing and showcasing the impact that a wellness program can have on a workforce and a workforce like the US Navy. You can really really highlight and showcase the impact very, very clearly when leaders tend to engage and work under these programs and see those impacts and see the differences that it can make in their lives, it tends to trickle down into the workforce as well, and for the US Navy that workforce is those sailors and ensures that mission readiness.

Speaker 3: 4:07

I served in that capacity with the US Navy for two years as a fitness specialist and then continued with the Navy in supporting a facility in Italy, in Sicily, actually, in Italy, in Sicily, actually. And then I actually met my husband, who was recently retired after 28 years in the US Navy and moved to Washington DC for his next duty station. And that's where I began my career in government contracting and started working with companies such as Federal Occupational Health, which falls under Health and Human Services, also working with National Cancer Institute and a large variety of other work agencies within the federal government. And that's where it leads me here today to Millennium Health and Fitness, currently as the president.

Speaker 2: 5:09

Okay, wow, I think, is what I say to that. What an impressive background. So, with this cool background in high performing sports, with an understanding of the public and the private sector, how does your experience impact the ways that you run your business today? You've got all these different, unique experiences and perspectives. How does that trickle down into what you do?

Speaker 3: 5:35

Within what our company does.

Speaker 3: 5:36

So we work and all of our team members are highly qualified, certified health and fitness professionals and many of us are either spouses veteran spouses we are veterans ourselves or we actually do have current active duty military spouses, and so a lot of all of our DOD direct services work.

Speaker 3: 5:57

We have that really really direct connection with our customer base. Within my other diverse backgrounds and kind of working with athletes and as well as various workforces across the federal government, you know having that diversity, being able to see, you know each workforce in their different environments, not just you know operationally within an active duty workforce, but also within, you know an agency that is typically more desk-ridden or behind you know the screens all day and have very little movement or activity in their lives. So I have really seen from a workforce perspective all of those realms from where they are you know boots on the ground day in and day out, to behind the screens, and really how our programs can impact both of those workforces lives and really showcase, you know, those tangible benefits back to them. I think that's really the key component.

Speaker 2: 7:07

Okay, thank you. So is that your USP? Is that your unique selling point? Is that what distinguishes MHF from others? Or is it something else? Is it your sunny personality, for example, because I'm sold already.

Speaker 3: 7:17

Well, I would like to say the sunny personality would play a little bit into that, but I do think our people, you know, professional team members, our staff distinguishes us far above our competitors and also our diversified markets that we serve.

Speaker 2: 7:37

So you know, we definitely are distinguished above all of our competitors so why should health and fitness be a top priority for hr departments? Then, uh, we'll get into that a bit more later. We'll. We'll talk about you know how, uh, employee wellness was obviously number one during those awful couple of years of the pandemic um, but is it actually now falling down the agenda? Is it falling down the list of priorities when it gets to those conversations at the top table? We'll get to that later, but just at a higher level. Why is it important? Why should health and fitness be a top priority for HR departments?

Speaker 3: 8:16

Well, I think most HR departments, you know, within benefits, you know there are the traditional, you know benefits for medical, you know for EAP and there is a wellness component that I think is integrated into most HR departments. It's just at what level you know the HR departments and the direct leaders determine that the needs are of that workforce.

Speaker 3: 8:52

So I think you know health and fitness is always going to be in the top tier of potential benefits that an HR department can add. They are, you know, some of those benefits that can be cut, but also they are benefits that can add tremendous, tremendous support to a workforce. You know I've mentioned the tangible benefits. You know back to the employee that that is a huge benefit. You know that they, that they see, you know that they can, you know, really kind of have in front of them to be able to say you know the medical benefits. You know, I think most employees EAP. It's like that's something that will traditionally always happen. You know the medical benefits. You know, I think most employees EAP. It's like that's something that will traditionally always happen. But you know, not all HR departments or companies provide those health and fitness benefits and or you know wellness benefits.

Speaker 2: 9:34

You work with some pretty amazing and impressive organizations, brands that folks will be familiar with. Just briefly, I want to challenge you I like to mix things up sometimes, heather. I'm going to challenge you, in 60 seconds or less, to mention a few brands that you work with, a few organizations that you work with that you're particularly proud of. The impact that you guys have had.

Speaker 3: 9:58

So we currently support Department of the Air Force. We work with Defense Finance Accounting Services, defense Health Agency, defense Contract Management Agency, missile Defense Agency and others serving over 400,000 users.

Speaker 2: 10:20

You emphasize providing customer-tailored health and fitness services. Of course can. You can maybe talk a little bit more about how your team's customized services uh to to meet the needs of different workplaces. We've spoken in more general terms so far. You work with lots of cool organizations, but maybe you can, you can hone in and say you know, for if someone is in banking as a sector, how would that be different to something you tailor, perhaps for someone who's in the public sector?

Speaker 3: 10:50

Millennium provides really a dynamic approach and solution for all organizations, so we collaborate directly with if it is the HR representative or leaders within that, or if it's a full brick-and-mortar fitness center management service, it could also be a curtailed approach for maybe a health promotion initiative or a health promotion program that that company would like to see. And those services we provide, you know, on-site as well as virtual program delivery options. We have interactive wellness portal opportunities with programs and incentive programs that can be launched. Health risk assessments as well as wellness and fitness health screenings assessments as well as wellness and fitness health screenings. Those screenings can be really great for identifying those early detection screenings.

Speaker 3: 12:07

So cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure. We also do provide some ergonomic assessments and bone density assessments as well, based on the feedback of the customers. But all kind of packaged into that it's really based on what the organization is looking for. We will provide individual health fair support. So if you're looking for a health fair for your organization and wanting to highlight certain capabilities, we also do health coaching and health education kind of preventative health education approaches as well for presentations.

Speaker 4: 12:47

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Speaker 2: 13:21

Okay, rock and roll. We are already coming towards the end of this conversation, heather. A couple more questions before we let you go, and I now just want to make sure that folks can learn more about you and connect with you. So, first off, you guys have got a network of health and fitness professionals across the US. I understand, how does MHF ensure the consistency and quality of its services when you've got all these people all over the place? How do you guys centralize that? How do you delegate? How do you train folks? How do you ensure that the levels remain very high? Uh, give us, give us that and again I'm going to challenge you. Uh, just because I'm feeling mean, um, in in 90 seconds or less. Uh, give it, give us an overview of how you guys, you know, keep those consistent, high standards of course.

Speaker 3: 14:11

so we, we do. Um, as I had mentioned earlier, we hire certified health and fitness professionals. All certifications and certifying bodies are nationally recognized. Those certifying bodies also have various continuing education credits that are required and we work with our team members to be able to provide some of those resources to meet those either one or two-year guidelines and regulations. We also train, you know, as you had mentioned, from across, you know, the world. We have contracts in Japan, we also have contracts in Italy, Alaska, all over the United States as well, and we make sure you know from our team members when they're hired in, you know those certifications are from those valid resources, the national standards, and that those are being maintained. And then training is conducted on an

Speaker 2: 15:08

annual basis as well, to ensure compliance for internally as a company, but also for our contracts okay, thank you, and just finally, how can, how can folks connect with you, and so maybe that's linkedin or email or other social medias how can they learn more about millennium health and fitness? And, uh, are you going to be at any events that folks can meet with you in person, or anything else you'd like to share with us before we wrap up today?

Speaker 3: 15:41

yeah, you can check us out at millenniumhealthandfitnesscom, um. You can also follow us on social media, um, and, and you can reach us uh through, uh through email as well. If you'd like to reach out to me directly, it's hcollins at millenniumhealthandfitnesscom and we definitely look forward to seeing you out. We will be at a few organizational events and showcases for some certification bodies. There's a tactical strength and conditioning expo that is being held next week that we'll be in attendance for um and that will definitely keep you updated for any human resources specific that we'll be attending okay.

Speaker 2: 16:27

Well, that just leaves me to say for today heather collins, thank you very much for being my guest on the hr chat show thank you, bill, for having me have a great day and and listeners, as always new in the world of work subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.