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 254 days to form a new habit depending on several factors, with the average being 66 days.]
On the other side of the incentives argument are those who point to the evidence that external (or extrinsic) motivators are not only ineffective in producing sustained behavior change but may also encourage negative behavior such as cheating. In addition to the tendency for behavior revert to its previous state once the reward is earned, the industry is littered with stories about wellness program participants doing things like tying exercise trackers to their dog, ceiling fan, etc. In one case, an eye-opening lawsuit revealed that Kansas City employees defrauded their health insurance program of more than $300,000 in wellness incentives by falsely claiming to have run marathons and competed in triathlons.
Beware the Double-Edged Sword
As you can see from the above, incentives are truly a double-edged sword and need to be used wisely. They should be thought of simply as a catalyst, not as a primary driver of sustained behavior change. Their job is to entice people to participate in something … perhaps a one-time activity like a screening, or a new wellness activity or behavior pattern. However, it is unlikely that incentives will achieve a lasting benefit unless they motivate an activity designed to cultivate an inner sense of motivation (known as intrinsic motivation) that gradually replaces the extrinsic motivation created by the incentive.
At Avidon Health, a key requirement when we develop wellness programs and tools is that they must in some way create real intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. For example, many of our clients’ participants register for our self-guided digital courses partially (or wholly) because their corporate wellness program has lured them there with an attractive extrinsic incentive. However, as they progress through the course, they soon discover a new sense of purpose, a vision and motivation that is deeply personal and enduring. It is this intrinsic motivation that keeps them engaged and drives genuine, lasting behavior change.
I hope you’ve found this article helpful. To ensure your organization gets the best bang for the buck from its incentive program, we invite you to download our free e-book, Best Practices for Wellness Program Incentives
