Kelli LaPage, CEOIn a conversation with the editorial team at Manage HR, Kelli LaPage, The CEO of WellTrail, we discuss at length the company's background, their clients' major challenges, and how they assist customers in seamlessly on-boarding to their platform and the future direction of the company.
Could you provide a brief overview about WellTrail?
I founded WellTrail in 2008 in response to a void I saw in traditional wellness company programs that offered nothing more than one-size-fits-all programs and scripted coaches who gave everyone the same set of recommendations. Having worked as a D1 collegiate athletic trainer for almost a decade, I learned first hand that no two people are the same, and even two people with the same injury (or illness) have different variables that affect what they CAN do and what they are WILLING to do. So WellTrail was founded to bridge that gap – and provide employees with customized support that takes into account their goals, their barriers, their lifestyle and all of the other variables that make them who they are. Our model is unique in that we utilize WellGuides, (healthcare professionals who are trained in WellTrail’s proprietary health and injury management process), who are assigned to one or more workplaces to interact with every employee in real time on the areas of health and well-being that are of interest to them. Sure, we offer a lot of traditional wellness programs like lunch and learns, wellness challenges and fitness offerings, but we also offer injury management, ergonomics, and individualized one on one health and well-being consulting. We started with one client in Syracuse, NY in 2008 and as of 2020 have worked with locations in 8 states supporting thousands of lives annually, both with onsite and remote WellGuides. We have integrated additional online resources over the years to better support all employees, whether we work with them face to face or remotely, and those new modalities have really proved beneficial during the current pandemic environment. As many of the employees we worked with had to transition to remote work we were still able to maintain our relationship with them, and be available to answer questions and provide support as seamlessly as when we were onsite.
What are the major challenges and pain points that your clients generally face and how does WellTrail solve them?
Over the years, we have noticed that most individuals and organizations have an oversimplified expectation of wellness programs. Traditional wellness models have failed to fully address, let alone sustain, improvements in overall worker health and have done little to transform institutional culture. In contrast, we focus on the concept of health and injury management since it encompasses all aspects of employee health and well-being. WellTrail performs an upfront needs and goals assessment with every client including questions about their ultimate goals, how they want to support their employees, and how we can best integrate into the workforce.
We utilize this information to lay out a structured approach to working with all employees, in a combination of one on one and group interaction opportunities. This allows us to apply a “Wholistic” approach where we access and respond to every employee’s needs and deliver a customizable solution based on their own personal and medical circumstances. Recently, we developed a robust online personal health portal—”MY WellTrail ™” that can supplement our onsite WellGuides or act as a standalone platform for remote employees or those where an onsite WellGuide is not an option. This platform provides a number of resources, including a robust library of health information, wellness challenges, healthy recipes, fitness and injury rehab videos and instruction as well as the ability to integrate with over 150 wearable devices or even your own Doctor’s health portal. It is one stop shopping for employee health that is backed by the ongoing support of their assigned WellGuide. All of these resources are available to all employees at all times, and the employer receives regular (at least annual) progress updates, aggregate participation and risk management data and recommendations for future programming and support that would benefit their employees.
WellTrail follows a unique “Wholistic” approach where we access and respond to every employee’s needs and deliver a customizable solution based on the medical information gathered
Before the pandemic, most of our clients provided onsite introduction meetings for all employees. Depending on the needs of the business we could accommodate 5-100 individuals in a room for the initial introduction and screening processes. For example, we had a client who had 2,500 employees in 27 locations, and our WellGuides engaged with them for three weeks onsite at all locations and across all shifts to provide face-toface introduction meetings, screenings and consultations. The introduction meetings include an overview of what WellTrail can offer and how we will interact with employees at each location. The meeting is followed by access to our customized health risk assessment (which can be offered in paper pen version or via an online portal). During these meetings we emphasize maintaining a high degree of confidentiality, and our clients are made aware that our utmost priority is to cater to and support their employees' wellbeing and health. Following the meeting and health risk assessment, our WellGuides perform blood pressure and heart rate screenings, as well as a segmental body composition analysis, to derive additional information for review and consultation. Based on the assessments gathered and employee and organizational goals, we develop and provide customized health and injury management solutions specifically designed to meet their unique needs. Our ultimate goal is to derive positive results for our clients. Our solutions aim to create meaningful, sustainable behavior change, at both a corporate and employee level. We also offer our proprietary WellCredit program to provide reductions in insurance premiums based on the employees’ overall health improvement and activities.
What does the future hold for your company?
One of the biggest compliments we have received from our clients during this pandemic is our ability to stay on-board and provide physical and mental support to each employee through personal interactions and solutions. Our goal is to continue to be available to our clients and their employees, no matter what external barriers may come between us. These challenging times forced us to make necessary alterations to our service offerings to make our process even more accessible to a broader array of clients, both now and in the future. In response to the current pandemic situation, our RESET 2020 platform seamlessly supports safety, compliance, and individual health accountability across the clients’ workforce environment. A series of educational modules (scheduled across 6-12 weeks) with targeted support resources are designed to educate and help employees, and employers, navigate these new workplaces challenges. Additionally, we have added new features such as our new online personal health portal, MY WellTrail™, that offers an online health risk assessment, health, fitness and nutrition resources, physical and mental health assessments, and the ability to link information from other healthcare providers or wearable devices like fitness trackers to provide a one stop health snapshot at any moment in time. A HIPAA privacy protected messaging system is embedded within the platform so that employees can easily connect with their WellGuides for further consultations. As we maintain complete confidentiality between our customers’ datasets, companies can also securely link their insurance benefits with the platform for future reference. We believe that our portal's recent transformation will help us cater to more clients and simultaneously allow WellTrail to expand further within the Northeast and the Midwest.
