If you’re considering a corporate wellness program for your employees, you might want to think again.
On the one hand, investing in corporate wellness is on an upswing. According to Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health, medium-to-large employers spent an average of $521 per employee on wellness programs in 2014, double the amount they spent five years prior. However, in contrast, a recent Gallup poll revealed that while 85% of larger companies have a corporate wellness program in place, just 24% of employees engage in the program. These low levels of employee engagement don’t exactly lead to the best ROI.
You’ve invested a lot of money, resources, and good intentions by offering these sweet company perks. Why don’t more of them participate? Why isn’t your current wellness program driving change?
Before we offer applied examples (see below) to boost employee wellness program participation, let’s first take a step back and think about why we offer wellness programs in the first place.
For many companies, a healthy workforce leads to a reduction in health care costs. Research conducted at Steelcase Corporation by the University of Michigan found that unhealthy behaviors resulted in dramatic increases in health care costs. For example, an employee who had excessive alcohol consumption cost $597 more per year in health care costs. A sedentary employee cost $488 more. For every employee with hypertension, the company paid $327 more. Smokers cost the company $285 more, etc. A similar study at DuPont also found that unhealthy employee lifestyles cost the company more in health care costs.
“Sedentary employees cost more than smokers? Time to get off my hiney!
There are many reasons why it makes sense to invest in wellness activities:
Cost Savings:
What CFO wouldn’t want to save $488 spent on a sedentary employee who takes even minor steps to a more active lifestyle like getting a health screening exam, taking stairs over an elevator, and using that fancy stand-up desk more often?
Absenteeism:
Healthier employees mean fewer illness-related sick days or time off to visit the doc. Let’s not forget that healthy employees are less likely to be carrying some contagious thingamabob. That means fewer nasty colds spread throughout the office.
Productivity:
I don’t know about you, but I’m way more focused after a few downward dogs or time at the gym. Plus, one less sick days means I’m one day closer to finishing my to-do list. Yeah, right!
Employee Retention:
There’s a bit of pride that comes from improving one’s health. And loyalty to an employer that cares enough to reinforce a healthier lifestyle. Employees that take advantage of corporate wellness programs start to feel better about themselves and their company.
Connections:
Employees that train for a 10k race together collaborate together. Sharing a group wellness experience leads to stronger friendships, trust, and likelihood to cooperate back at the office. One of my favorite wellness activities is a group yoga class with co-workers. Not only does it feel good to stretch for a bit in the middle of the day, but I also get to share the good energy with my peers.
YouEarnedIt Group Yoga
Halo Effect:
One of our customers shared a compelling employee wellness story with us. It started with a small incentive to encourage employees to get a health screening. After taking that first step, one of their employees made a complete lifestyle change and spread his new enthusiasm to others by forming a walking group with fellow employees. Read more about his success story here.
Recruiting:
According to SHRM and the 2012 National Employee Wellness Month Employer/Employee Survey, nearly 90 percent of workers say the range of a company’s health and wellness benefits is important in their choice of an employer. Offering opportunities to live a healthier life serve as a recruiting differentiator.
So, corporate wellness can impact employee health and the company bottom line. It’s one of the drivers that has the potential to attract, retain and engage top talent. Yet only 24% of employees take advantage of these programs? What’s up with that?
According to Steve Bygott, assistant vice president at Colonial Life, “Just offering a wellness program and expecting a majority of employees to participate—the ‘if you build it, they will come’ scenario—is prone to failure.” Bygott goes on to say in SHRM.org that “Communication that clearly delineates the benefits of participation to employees is the first step to long-term engagement in wellness programs.”
Consistent communication plays a vital role in encouraging wellness program participation. But what happens when employees reach a wellness plateau? Some of them hit the road running and begin doing all the right things towards a healthier lifestyle. They take advantage of your suggested wellness ideas, hit the gym, and start making healthier lunch choices. Cholesterol levels and waistlines drop.
Then “IT” happens. The holidays, a vacation, late nights working on a big project. Or donuts. Come on. You know what I’m talkin’ about!
“I Pity the Fool That Don’t Eat Me. Right. This. Instant!” – Donut
To encourage ongoing participation, some companies (and their health care providers) give employees a little somethin’ somethin’ for their commitment. According to Healthylife.com, approximately 39% of businesses offer either an incentive or a disincentive to motivate employees to improve their health behavior. Incentives put money back into workers’ pockets and reward employees for doing something that benefits them, their families, and the company.
Example incentive approaches include:
Charging less for health care plan contributions
Offering lower coverage levels
Subsidizing health club memberships, like Blue Cross Blue Shield does for YouEarnedIt employees
Providing reimbursement for wellness programs
Giving premium discounts to employees who engage in healthy lifestyles
Giving gifts, such as T-shirts, water bottles, golf equipment, etc., to those who participate in wellness programs
Offering reward points based on wellness activities redeemable for Fitbits, bikes, gift cards, yoga classes, etc.
Applied Examples To Boost Wellness Program Engagement
Now to the good stuff. How to effectively communicate and incentivize wellness program participation in a way that leads to desired outcomes. I’ll begin by sharing a real world example of how we increase employee engagement for our wellness initiatives which recently won an award as one of the 2016 Healthiest Employers of Central Texas.
Recognizing that one size does not fit all, we decided to create a wellness program that was employee-driven, based on a diversity of personal interests, and that had a built-in positive reinforcement component. One employee may want to join a gym while another prefers to skip out mid-day to take a hike with a co-worker. Some employees may prefer a paleo diet while others are strictly gluten-free vegetarians.
While very subtle, we’ve found our communication approach to be more efficient than traditional awareness-building methods like posters in the break room, mentions in a newsletter, or a few-minute overview during onboarding. Moreover, by combining public recognition and a low-cost reward element, employees are gently reinforced and incentivized to engage in our wellness program.
Here’s how it works. Like a Facebook or Slack feed, YouEarnedIt’s social recognition wall is visible to all employees throughout the day. It provides visibility into who’s giving and receiving recognition and rewards.
When an employee chooses to earn bonus points for a completed wellness activity, they select from several incentivized options within our “Behavior Bonus” reward catalog (see image below). Completed activities appear on the social recognition wall, and points are deposited into the employees YouEarnedIt account.
Here’s a small sample of wellness activities and associated Behavior Bonus points used by some of our customers:
Walk to Lunch (5 points = $0.05)
Annual Flu Shot (500 points = $5)
Enroll in a Self Help Program (1,000 points = $10)
Group Wellness Activity (1,100 points = $11)
Individual Race Entry (2,500 points = $25)
Break a Sweat (210 points = $2.10)
In addition to the point incentive, the behaviors are visible to all within the company. Fellow employees show their support, model the same behaviors, and healthy behaviors are reinforced in an organic way.
For example, I exercise a few times a week at a gym. After a workout, I can earn Behavior Bonus points in YouEarnedIt for “Breaking a Sweat.” We also offer points to employees for getting an annual physical or for walking to lunch. Not a lot of points mind you (usually valued between $0.50 – $10.00), but enough to encourage ongoing participation. All of this takes place in real-time, and it’s funny how quickly you notice others remembering to post and earn points for their healthy behaviors. It becomes contagious!
Employees can redeem their reward points for a variety of experiences, products, donations, gift cards, company swag, professional development–you name it. Several employees have redeemed their points for Fitbits to track their daily walking habits while others use their points to support a local animal shelter.
Personally? I go for the custom Chucks.
So, we not only encourage employees to live a healthy life, but we also incentivize it within our employee rewards catalog with a diversity of Behavior Bonuses (see how it works here).
Encouraging active participation in corporate wellness programs is a challenge for most companies. The benefits of active program engagement are plentiful, so it’s worth your time to experiment with more efficient ways to both communicate and incentivize participation.
Related White Papers, Blogs, and Videos:
18 Awesome Wellness Program Ideas for Boosting Employee Participation
It’s Time for Total Employee Engagement
Video: See how Bazaarvoice has boosted participation in their employee wellness program by offering Behavior Bonus points to their global workforce.
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About YouEarnedIt:
YouEarnedIt is a SaaS HR technology platform that redefines the way companies engage with their employees. By providing tools to connect, reward, reveal and report in real-time, YouEarnedIt can consolidate employee engagement initiatives into one, easy-to-use mobile platform for teams of all sizes. Since launching in 2012, YouEarnedIt has delivered its flexible software to small enterprises and Fortune 500 brands across several industries. Visit youearnedit.com for more information or schedule a quick demo here.