The challenge for Wellco these days isn't convincing companies to adopt a health-and-wellness program. It's making the ones that exist work. That makes the Royal Oak-based business more a fixer of these programs instead of an establisher of them.
"The three biggest pitfalls include a lack of employees participating, a lack of leadership support and a lack of return on investment," says
Scott Foster, president of
Wellco. "Wellco achieves all three of them."
The 17-year-old business sells software and programs it has developed that allows companies to document and track the health of their employees. That has allowed it to grow to 16 employees and the occasional intern. It has hired two people over the last year and plans to add another five employees over the next 12 months.
Driving this growth is acceptance and employment of health-and-wellness programs to help lower the overall bottom line by trimming health-care costs and improving productivity. The institutions of things like Obamacare have helped make them more popular in recent years.
Wellco has watched its revenue jump by 30 percent over the last year. Foster says a majority of that business is from companies that are looking to maximize near-dormant health-and-wellness program to help improve their overall profit margins.
"We're finding a tremendous need from employers to provide dependable results," Foster says.
Source: Scott Foster, president of Wellco
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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