Chair massage and other workplace wellness services are now an accepted and expected aspect of the modern corporate culture, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. More and more companies are taking advantage of the proven benefits of these wellness services. What are the benefits of corporate massage? How did this specific service niche develop? Most importantly, how can your company utilize these services, with maximum benefit and minimum cost?
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Massage has proven health benefits

Time and again, medical research links massage therapy with a range of physical and psychological benefits for health. Massage is shown to soothe muscle inflammation and pain. It is effective treatment for lower back pain, an extremely common health concern in the office. Massage therapy fights fatigue. It restores mental clarity and improves focus. Even a short chair massage session can have profound benefits!
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Employees love it!

An excellent corporate massage and wellness program can be a huge draw for courting talent, retaining talent, and most importantly, helping your team feel healthy, supported and inspired on a long-term basis. We work with clients who assert their company’s corporate massage service was the deciding factor in choosing that position. One theme we hear a lot of from employees is how deeply they appreciate and value their corporate massage and wellness program. Our clients have said, “I never dreamed I would work for a company that provides on-site chair massage.” Corporate massage and other wellness services are transformative and productive resources for hard-working teams.
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The company benefits

Through workplace wellness programs, companies improve team productivity by helping to reduce the effects of stress and fatigue. Therapeutic treatments, such as chair massage or acupuncture, provide tangible benefits for corporate teams. Even short massage sessions in the office setting can be highly beneficial. These health and wellness boosts for your team include:

• Less stress
• Less pain
• Less fatigue
• Improving clarity and focus
• Counteracting the effects of sitting
• Dramatically boosting employee morale
• Improving productivity
• Attracting talent

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Corporate Massage and Wellness Programs: an ongoing saga

Within the last decade, annual health fair events increased in popularity. These events typically feature services such as physician wellness checks, flu-shots, chiropractic assessments and chair massage. Companies would also book chair massage service during major crunch times, before or after big project deadlines, or as part of celebrations of milestone successes.

Cutting-edge companies, recognizing the obvious benefits of these programs, began contracting workplace massage and wellness services more frequently. Within a short time in-office chair massage service became common in the corporate world. By now, a company’s workplace wellness program is an important factor in attracting and retaining talent, and maintaining an optimal workplace environment.
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Typical structures of workplace wellness programs:

Wellness fairs
Many companies provide an annual wellness fair. These often include wellness check-ups by doctors, assessments by chiropractors, and chair massage service.

Quarterly
Quarterly wellness events are a much more attractive scenario than an annual event. With festive themes, quarterly wellness events can help boost morale and get the gears turning towards a health-conscious lifestyle.

Monthly
With on-site chair massage and other services provided throughout the workday this arrangement allows meaningful, routine contact between wellness professionals and your team. The company and entire team benefit from the long-term wellness care.

Bi-weekly
Bi-weekly wellness service is literally twice as beneficial as monthly service! These programs constitute an attractive draw for talent and incentive for talent retention. It is great for morale and boosts productivity. Employees will look forward to multiple in-office chair massage treatments each month.

Weekly
A lot of companies provide a weekly chair massage service, to the great benefit of their team. These services build a productive rapport between employees and wellness practitioners. With weekly treatments, employees can see improvement in a great range of health concerns, and maximize their stress and fatigue reducing benefits.

Full-time, in-office, on-demand services: Your own onsite spa & wellness center!
The most advanced wellness service package is a daily service system of corporate massage and wellness care. Most companies with daily programs develop an in-house spa and treatment space where employees enjoy restorative time and therapeutic wellness treatments. The top companies such as Google, Apple and LinkedIn offer full-time on-demand massage and wellness services. Having one or many treatment rooms available where employees can pay out of a health spending account already provided by the company or an HSA/FSA, makes this type of program very attractive, especially to your CFO! It also means you won’t be spending extra money on a service that not all of your employees value.

Upsides include:

• Services offered every day
• A dynamic range of treatments
• Chair massage
• Table massage
• Acupuncture & Specialized Treatments
• Health Coaching
• Extended treatments available: 25-90 minutes
• Ongoing personalized care
• Improved mood, energy, sleep and focus
• Effective management of stress, fatigue, and other conditions

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Onsite Massage and Wellness Services: work space and logistics?

Onsite chair massage and other wellness services are possible in almost any corporate office space. Wellness practitioners format their services for limited spaces and limited treatment times. The general rule is: “small space, short time, no problem!” Some common ways to set up wellness services include utilizing office rooms, conference rooms, break rooms and staff lounges, nap rooms or other spaces. Of course, the more time and space we can invest in our wellness services, the better. However, your corporate wellness team can transform even a modest space into a private, comfortable, ambient treatment room that your staff will greatly appreciate!

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Wellness package models: fully-subsidized to cost-neutral

Company fully-subsidized
In this type of wellness program, the company fully-subsidizes everywhere from yearly to weekly corporate massage services for their staff. 15-25-minute services are ideal for these programs. This is a common and effective model for companies in the Bay Area. Companies such as Slack offer fully-subsidized weekly wellness services.

Company Partially-subsidized with health account programs
Some companies partially subsidize their in-office wellness services while working with various wellness health account programs. Health savings accounts (HAS), flexible spending accounts (FSA), Healthy San Francisco, and other plans can cover part or all of the cost of in-office health and wellness services.

Cost-neutral wellness programs
Cost-neutral wellness programs enable companies to offer a full-time, on-site spa and wellness service, at little or no cost. Most of these services can be compensated by or directly withdrawn from HSA, FSA and company health and wellness accounts. Many companies have wellness funds they as part of their comp package which may expire with unused funds. What a waste! With cost-neutral, in-office wellness services, employees can draw from their accounts to receive table or chair massage, acupuncture and other wellness services. It is a wonderful opportunity for smaller companies to bring greater benefits to their teams. The best part, this structure is the easiest way to have a full-time onsite spa and wellness center. It is the win-win solution.

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Corporate Massage and Wellness Providers

There are many national and local providers of corporate massage and wellness services in the market, and it might be tricky to know who is the best. Always look for someone who will be wiling to work with your company’s specific needs, space, budget, and your unique employees.
Before following advertising and choosing one of the well-known national massage providers you should know that they mostly work with the same pool of massage therapists, and while they always check their contractors’ background and expertise, the quality of practitioners can be mixed and not tailored to your company. In addition, they often take a huge cut and don’t pay the massage therapists enough to make a living! Last but not least, most of the large national companies are not able to setup customized packages with ongoing care.

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Sowa Wellness: A deeper approach to corporate wellness

Being a locally owned and operated company, Sowa Mobile Wellness provides a personal and customized wellness experience for each of our clients. Having worked with big wellness providers we found the best of Bay Area talent in holistic healthcare and wellness services, people who are passionate about wellness and have specialized training, especially in Eastern modalities. As wellness practitioners ourselves, we believe that good work comes from the people who know their time is valued. We offer our team the most competitive pay rates in the market. This is also how we make sure that wellness services you receive from us are the best.

Sowa offers customized treatment packages, tailored to your company, your available space, and your employees, which include advanced therapeutics from our team of professional practitioners:

• chair massage
• table massage
• acupuncture
• cupping
• heat therapy
• yoga
• mindfulness practices
• health consultations
• health lectures and more!

We are happy to come for one-time events, but what we are greatly passionate about setting up ongoing wellness atmosphere with a wellness package of your choice. We evaluate your space, work with your budget and address your team’s needs with a customized package of wellness services. Sowa Mobile Wellness is at your office with a deeper approach to corporate wellness. Check out our Corporate Wellness page for more details on the services we offer.