Wellness Program Incentives Rewarding employees for completing wellness program activities has become standard practice within the corporate wellness industry. According to data from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), nearly 60% of employers were already using incentives to drive wellness program engagement in 2022, doling out an average of over $700 per employee for completing incentivized wellness activities. . That’s a lot of money, so it begs the following question … Do incentives really make enough of a difference to produce a positive ROI? When it comes to participation, the answer is a resounding Yes. When The RAND Corporation conducted in-depth research regarding wellness programs a few years ago, they found that incentivized wellness programs achieve double the participation rate of non-incentivized programs. Not surprising really – after all, most of us were trained to react to incentives by our parents. “If you finish your homework I’ll give you a treat,” etc. But the real question is, do these incentives really work to create healthier, happier, more productive employees? This question has caused much debate and controversy over the years. On one side of the argument about the efficacy of incentives are those who point to the increased detection of undiagnosed health problems due to higher participation rates in health screenings. There are also those who believe that if you can get someone to do something for three weeks, it becomes a habit. [Sidenote: This is an urban legend; research shows that it typically takes anywhere from 18 to