Men are the hardest group to pull into a wellness program, and the numbers are stark. According to a Cleveland Clinic survey, roughly two-thirds of men put off seeing a doctor as long as they can, and 72% would rather do household chores like cleaning the bathroom or mowing the lawn than go at all. If your program depends on employees opting in, you are structurally set up to reach the women on your team and miss the men.
The Gap Is Real, and It's Expensive.
Men don't just skip the annual physical. They under-use nearly every part of the health system employers pay for, and the bill lands later.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that women are roughly twice as likely as men to seek preventive care and about a third more likely to see a doctor at all. That avoidance compounds: a 2025 analysis in The Lancet Public Health found that across most countries, men had higher rates of conditions like hypertension and diabetes yet were less likely to be diagnosed or to complete treatment.
For an employer, that pattern is costly in the worst way. Conditions that are cheap to manage early, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, early-stage depression, get caught late, when they are expensive and disabling. The financial logic mirrors what we lay out in the cost of unhealthy habits at work: avoidance is not free, it just moves the cost downstream.
Why Men Opt Out.
This is not a motivation problem, and treating it like one backfires. Men opt out for reasons that are predictable and, importantly, designable around.
The EAP Trap.
The most common employer answer to men's health, "we have an EAP," is also the clearest example of the gap in action. The resource exists; men just don't touch it.
More than 80% of employers offer an Employee Assistance Program, yet utilization sits in the low single digits, well under 10% by most measures, according to SHRM. Among men, the number is lower still. A benefit used by a few percent of the workforce is not a men's health strategy, it's a line item. The problem isn't the counselor on the other end, it's that reaching them requires a phone call men are unlikely to make. For alternatives, see our take on modern EAP alternatives.
How to Design Engagement Men Actually Take Up.
Because men are the least likely group to come forward, the goal is to meet them where they already are instead of waiting for them to ask. Five design choices do most of the work.
Proof That the Right Design Reaches Them.
When the design fits, men engage, and the behavior change follows. This is where employer wellness stops being a poster and starts moving numbers.
In a controlled Avidon study of 300 non-incentivized participants, program completion rose from 17% with no coaching to 36% with coaching plus technology, a 112% improvement, detailed in our efficacy and outcomes report. Crucially, the gains show up in exactly the risk areas where men lag.
The lesson for HR is simple. Men are not a lost cause for wellness, they are a design problem. Build the program to be private, low-friction, and framed for how men actually think about their health, and the hardest group to reach becomes one that quietly shows up.
