3 Ways Justworks Makes the Most of Peloton Wellness Benefits

This article comes from a Peloton For Business partner Justworks, an HR technology company on a mission to help entrepreneurs and businesses grow with confidence. 

Bringing a new wellness benefit offering to your company is a unique challenge. You want to find the right balance between achieving good levels of adoption, strong ROI, and engagement and satisfaction across the team. How do you make sure you and your employees get the most out of the offering? 

Justworks specializes in helping small businesses access great benefits for their teams. We're also on our own journey to attract and retain the best talent possible for our growing team of 1000+ Justworkers. We implemented the Peloton benefit for Justworks last year, and through a corporate partnership launched in January, Justworks' small business customers can now access this benefit as well. 

Conor Harrington, People Experience Manager at Justworks, shares key learnings from going through this process, and advice on how to maximize the Peloton benefit as you roll it out for your organization.

1. Get Creative With Communication

Communication is a crucial component of maximizing employee benefits. When it came to educating his teams and building awareness around Peloton, Conor leaned on classic methods like the company's weekly email newsletter and various Slack channels. Justworks has a channel for general wellness, but he also created a Peloton channel where he can drop messages specific to that audience.

In the early days of launching the benefit, Conor was very aware of a misconception among many people that Peloton is just about cycling. "How do we market this internally without people writing it off because they don't have a bike?" he said. "I didn't want people to think it wasn't for them just because they don't have space for the Peloton Bike in their studio apartment in New York City. My main goal as I started to promote Peloton was to be hyper-conscious to lead with classes like body weight strength, yoga, and meditation, and save cycling or treadmill options for later." 

For ongoing communication, Conor looks for opportunities to tap into big company moments where Peloton is relevant as a reminder for people to engage with the benefit. One example is when Justworks launched Peloton as part of the benefits offering available to Justworks PEO customers. Conor found this to be a great moment to remind the team internally that the benefit is not only accessible to the small businesses Justworks serves, but also to all Justworkers—and that they could sign up now. 

Seasonality and cultural moments offer great opportunities to drive adoption and engagement, as well. During the holiday season, Conor shared inspiration around ways Peloton can help people unplug throughout that especially hectic time of year. He also leverages Peloton's heritage month programming to promote Pride classes in June and mental health classes in October.

Conor also made a point to emphasize Peloton in his benefit communications. By focusing on the range and breadth of what the Peloton App offers—and in fact avoiding terms like “fitness app” or any “break a sweat” language—he felt he could bring more people to it. "Everyone is coming to the App from a different fitness level and ability. I wanted people to understand that you can move in any way you want to, and you can tap into an experience that works for you and your body, whatever that is. Maybe that's guided walks, meditation, or slow stretching.”

What did that look like in practice? He launched a challenge for the Justworks team intentionally titled “JustSweat.Stretch.Breathe.” to reiterate the many activity options available to Peloton users, both for physical fitness and mental wellness.

2. Leverage Your Super Users

While it's the benefits or HR leader's job to communicate and promote benefits offerings, let's face it: you can't do it all yourself. People also want to hear the message from folks who already use and love the benefit. This is where it can be incredibly helpful to find any Peloton Members who are already part of your organization.

"If you can get an influencer or cheerleader to be on your side to help with promotion, that not only speaks volumes, it also gets people hyped up," says Conor. "They're the first to share favorite classes or chime in to answer questions from fellow employees."

Conor found a handful of Peloton fans within Justworks. Lisa Tricarico, CS Trainer, and Nadira Byles, Senior HR Consultant, are two of these employee influencers. As passionate Peloton users, they get involved in a multitude of ways, like helping create a Justworks community hashtag, setting up a challenge within the employee group, and asking conversation starters in Slack. Lisa, Nadira, and other super-users at Justworks encourage people to drop their leaderboard names and follow each other on Peloton, even giving high fives for encouragement. 

"Because of our group, I've tried different class types and instructors based on recommendations, and I've definitely shared my recommendations as well," Lisa says. "I've also just been supporting people in the group if they're having trouble with the App or setting up the corporate benefit. I just love Peloton and want people to get to experience the perks as well."

"To help build a supportive community at work, we’ve had friendly competitions and challenges to connect with each other," Nadira says. "But most importantly, we share our success stories, favorite classes and instructors, and lean on one another when we need motivation." 

Having an engaged community of employee users can help people tap into the benefit by providing motivation and ideas, and helping people connect. "Get those people to spread the good word, and don't put it all on yourself," Conor says. "Having those super-users is the real secret sauce."

3. Tap Into Your Unique Company Culture

Prior to implementing the Peloton benefit, Conor thought a lot about the Justworks culture and what would make a good fit for the team. With a primarily hybrid workforce based out of an HQ in NYC, plus offices in Tampa and Toronto, he needed something that would work for everyone. He wanted a benefit that would have the community aspect that many employees crave post-pandemic. Peloton ticked the boxes for the culture of the Justworks organization. 

Conor taps into the company culture to promote the benefit and drive engagement. As a people experience leader, there are many cultural moments in his day-to-day work that provide an opportunity to highlight benefits. "I do try to weave a lot of the work my team does together," Conor says. "If I'm talking about World Mental Health Day, I think about how I can tie Peloton into that, like talking about all the ways Peloton supports movement and meditation. When you can tie those elements together, you create a holistic employee experience where all the benefits support these larger moments."

Slack is also a part of the company culture, in addition to being a communication tool. Building a culture around looking to the Slack group for community can help drive engagement and build awareness—especially beyond the Bike. "In our Peloton Slack channel, people have chimed in to say things like, 'The 20 minute yoga flow class is great', and that's an option that you only need a yoga mat to do," Conor says. "It helps reinforce the idea that Peloton is a great option even without the Bike."

Community-building aligns with the company values of Justworks. One of the business's core values is Camaraderie. Belonging is also important—the B in our DEIB team speaks to that. Employees who are involved in the Peloton community at work feel it and appreciate it.

"I think sharing experiences about Peloton workouts can help build a sense of community and belonging within the workplace through shared interests and goals," says Nadira. "Being active and sharing advice with other Justworkers positions me to be the go-to person for new users, fostering a mentorship role and contributing to a supportive environment, which is deeply satisfying and contributes to my personal growth." 

Try These Strategies With Your Team

These stories and examples are specifically for Justworks, but they're also repeatable. Consider the communication styles and culture of your own organization, and you'll uncover the unique ways you can tap into them to drive adoption and engagement for Peloton. Find the super-users within your team (they're out there!) and leverage their expertise and enthusiasm. You'll be maximizing the Peloton benefit before you know it.

Interested in bringing Peloton to your small business? Visit Justworks to learn more.