Making Incentives Work for You!

Having a well-designed wellness incentive initiative is a great way to ensure success with your company’s employee wellness program. Studies show that offering a wellness incentive increases participation, and increases the adoption and maintenance of a behavior change by as much as 20 percent.

Companies have used a wide variety of things to reward employees who participate in wellness programs such as gift certificates to a grocery or sporting goods store. When selecting incentives, be careful not to place too much emphasis on the incentive because the incentive item quickly loses value. Employees should understand that the real value to participation is the intangible benefit such as “You will feel better.” The message then becomes, “Engage in this activity and you will experience (list quality of life benefits here) AND you will qualify to win a paid day off!” Also, the value of praise and recognition cannot be overstated.

Using wellness incentives is only half the battle though! Identifying the activities in which you would like your employees to engage and having those activities well organized and easy to report will help you run a successful wellness incentive program. Having the right, customizable tool will make tracking incentives and points simple for both employees and the wellness team!

For a great wellness points tracker, see the WellSteps solution by clicking here.