How should employers reward wellness?
The first step to creating an effective wellness program is to develop a formal change management strategy that includes:
•Sponsorship by leadership
•Involvement of employees
•Targeted communication
•Education/tools to support learning
•Measures to assess progress
•Linkage to broader culture of health philosophies.
As part of the strategy, implementing incentives for wellness will create behavior change.
Incentives generally are used in three areas with varying levels of effectiveness: Annual Health Risk Assessment (HRA), participation in programs such as weight management and achievement of long-term goals (cholesterol levels, body mass index, or BMI).
Rewards generally are designed around three common approaches:
•Cash awards ranging from $35 to $500 per activity
•Reduced medical rates ranging from $5 to $10 per month
•Mandatory requirement to complete a health-related activity in order to be eligible for a certain medical plan.
Towers Perrin informally gathered information on the incentive programs of nearly 30 clients and found that the most prevalent goal of incentives is to encourage employees to complete an HRA no teletrak payday loans. Many employers also are now requiring that, where indicated, employees participate in an additional health-related activity based on the results of the HRA. It is important that the employer define the level of participation needed to earn the incentives.
Examples of health-related activities include biometric screening, wellness programs and disease management programs.
Once implemented, incentives are difficult to remove without employee backlash, so developing incentives that link to the broader change management strategy is critical.