Thrive Summit

5 sessions, 9 speakers, invaluable insight

Happy employees are more productive employees – this we know. Through this track, in-person Thrive attendees heard real-life examples of how others are leveraging Virgin Pulse within their organizations to instill a culture of acceptance, inclusivity, and engagement to increase employee productivity, retention, and their overall health. 

Relive and/or learn about some of the creative ideas and best practices we heard from many of our innovative expert speakers below.

Top takeaways

1. Organizations should foster an inclusive culture that supports members in remote, hybrid, and in-person work environments.  
   • Don’t let technology be a hindrance to making these connections as well as protecting work/life balance.  
   • It’s also important to acknowledge the reality of life and work in a pandemic and pivot from a culture focused on productivity to one focused on member wellbeing. 
2. Promote the support services and benefits to your members to help improve their perceptions of how your organization supports their physical health, mental health, and career development. 
   • Encourage leadership to be visible role models of positive behaviors.  
   • These efforts can positively impact member health (body and mind), team building, job satisfaction, work productivity and motivation, engagement, and workplace health promotion programming. 
   • HINT: Consider establishing a Champions Network to help motivate, lead, and rally your members around the common goal of a healthier workplace. 
3. Take advantage of Virgin Pulse’s actionable, inclusive, evidence-based, data-driven content designed to support members’ health and wellbeing. Motivate behavior change by: 
   • Tying rewards to high-value actions 
   • Integrating reward messaging into promotions 
   • Accommodating on/offline options 
   • Fulfilling quickly and without hassle 
   • Providing a one-stop-shop  
   • HINT: Contact your Client Success Team to learn about the new and refreshed content updates as part of our Summer ’22 Season Launch. 
4. We rise by lifting others. Take time to recognize and thank your members—and encouraging members to recognize each other helps make members’ actions and work feel valued and appreciated. 
   • HINT: Use Virgin Pulse’s Shout Outs feature to recognize others. 
5. When building your social responsibility programming, consider surveying members to discover what matters most to them. This valuable insight will pave the way for a successful and engaging give-back culture.  
6. It’s important to shift our approach so we can screen future leaders on their Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Leadership for tomorrow will need to follow the C.O.P.E. Human Intelligence Platform: 
   • Courage: Adept at navigating as well as anticipating uncertainty to inspire others to create meaningful change. 
   • Optimism: Shift your mindset to believe in possibilities to be inclusive. Be generous, give before you take. 
   • Patience: Trust the hard process with persistence and celebrate the small progress. 
   • Empathy: Stay curious and listen to create a culture of inclusivity and belonging. 

Impactful speaker quotes

"Only about 40% of eligible employees participate in wellness programs. If we’re to improve participation, then practitioners need to understand the factors that influence participation across their organization." - Dr. Victor Tringali, University of Virginia 

In terms of marketing and getting the most out of your intrinsic rewards, “it all goes back to your population. It depends on your audience. What’s going to most resonate with [your members]. Usually, it’s a lot of the personalization we talk about, what’s right for them, what’s being brought to them in the experience that they care about. And it’s things like content that’s relevant to what they’re going through.” - Erica Schnellenberger, Virgin Pulse

Breakout Sessions