The wellness budget that quietly does nothing
Most companies have a wellness line item. Most of it goes toward things employees barely register — an app subscription with a 4% activation rate, a healthy snack delivery nobody specifically asked for, a once-a-year health talk during lunch. None of it is a bad idea in isolation. Together, it adds up to a budget that looks good in a slide deck and does almost nothing for how people actually feel at work.
What we think the budget should actually be testing for
Three things, in our experience, separate wellness spend that works from wellness spend that doesn't: does it ask something real of the person (not just offer them something), does it happen at a fixed, recurring time (not "whenever you get to it"), and does it involve other people from the team (not a solo app on a phone).
A recurring Muay Thai session hits all three by default — which is less about Muay Thai being special and more about how few corporate wellness offerings are built around any of the three at all.
What "recurring" actually buys you that one-off events don't
A single wellness day generates goodwill for about a week. A standing weekly or fortnightly slot becomes part of how the team experiences work — something people start building their schedule around, which is a very different relationship to wellness spend than a once-a-year event ever creates.
How to actually budget for this
For most teams, a recurring corporate training slot costs less per person, per month, than a single team lunch — and unlike the lunch, it keeps happening without anyone having to organise it again. We work with companies to find a cadence (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) that fits both the budget and the calendar, rather than pitching a single fixed package.
What we'd actually recommend testing first
If your wellness budget already includes a one-off team activity this year, we'd suggest trying a single corporate session before committing to anything recurring. It's the cheapest way to find out whether this is the right fit for your specific team's culture before scaling it.
Common questions
What's a reasonable corporate wellness budget per employee per year in Singapore?
It varies widely by company size and industry, but recurring, participation-based activities (like a fortnightly session) generally deliver more sustained engagement per dollar than one-off perks or app subscriptions, based on what client teams tell us about their own usage data.
How do we measure if a wellness program is actually working?
Attendance and repeat sign-up rate are the simplest honest signals — a program people keep choosing to show up to is working; one that needs reminder emails every time usually isn't.
Can this be part of a larger, multi-activity wellness program rather than a standalone booking?
Yes — several of our corporate clients rotate us in alongside other activities on a quarterly or monthly cadence rather than running us exclusively.
Talk to us about your wellness budget →
