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Wellness In The Workplace
October 2006 - Vol 1, Issue 4
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Workplace Wellness Challenges
carrot

Do You Need Incentives to Motivate Healthy Behavior?

Q: What's the bottom line for employers considering an employee wellness initiative?

A: It must be an investment that will reduce health care costs and absenteeism, create a work environment that fosters well being, be sustainable, easy to implement and deliver a verifiable ROI.

Simple enough. Now, how do you do that?

One key factor that can make the difference between success or failure in instituting a wellness initiative is getting employees fully engaged—and encouraged, motivated and involved. But, how do you motivate employees to make the necessary changes to adopt a healthier lifestyle? How do you inspire employees to eat healthier and increase their level of physical activity? How do you motivate employees to participate in a wellness program?

Incentives.

It's easy to get fit employees to participate. What's needed are incentives to motivate those employees most resistant to making positive lifestyle choices.

Almost 50 percent of companies that initiate a wellness program offer an incentive to motivate employees to improve health-related behavior. Incentives vary from company to company and include motivators such as: charging less for plan contributions, providing reimbursement for wellness participation, premium discounts, gifts, prizes, or gift certificates. Some companies offer monthly gift certificates and prizes, with a grand prize (cruise, cash prize, home entertainment systems) at the end of the program. And to continue to reinforce the new healthy behaviors, monthly gift cards can be made available to employees who continue to maintain and improve their wellness goals.

These are carrots rather than sticks.

In addition to individual awards, companies and organizations have the opportunity to promote what LoneStart calls its “Team Esteem” program, through friendly competitions among groups of employees, departments and sites.

The benefits of Team Esteem work for the employees as well as the employer.

  • Teams tend to create their own identity, become self-regulating and evolve to promote and maximize their potential.
  • The quality of relationships among team members develops and further optimizes performance.
  • A conscious contribution to a shared purpose enhances motivation.
  • Interaction among members with a shared purpose boosts "work life."
  • Team members care about their "mission" and each other.
  • Teams tend to save time, money and are more productive.
  • Developing the team's identity improves and sustains a high level of performance.

By promoting Team Esteem through friendly competition and group incentives, employers have the opportunity while integrating their wellness program to improve the company culture, reduce the risk of failure, and truly change unhealthy behaviors. And, by promoting wellness success stories, employees see others’ positive results and want to become a part of that success.

While the object of an employee wellness program is to improve the health of a company’s workers and reduce health care costs (and at the same time improve productivity and reduce absenteeism), using incentives to motivate employees helps ensure the success of the employer’s long-term strategy for behavioral wellness changes. The right incentives will help form the framework for an effective, lasting wellness program and the behavioral changes that lead to healthier employees.

manatwork
No doubt about it, corporate wellness makes a bottom-line difference. Many employers offer wellness programs simply because they think the benefit is worth the cost, and for many companies, medical costs can consume half of corporate profits or more. Some employers are looking to cost sharing, cost shifting, managed care plans, risk rating and cash-based rebates. But these methods only shift costs—work site health promotion is the only long-term answer for keeping employees well in the first place. And, work site wellness is health care reform that works.

Employees with chronic conditions such as overweight and obesity and diabetes are considered to be high-risk employees. They tend to have health care costs that can be 100 to 500 times greater than costs for healthy employees. A critical element in any work site wellness initiative is attracting the participation of employees at risk for high benefit use. And these may be exactly the employees most resistant to changing their lifestyle.

Workplace wellness programs designed to address modifiable risk behavior for employees in high risk groups focus on those behaviors that can be changed, targeting related health care costs before they happen. It is now accepted that integrated programs geared at those areas where employees can modify lifestyle behavior will have a significant impact on overall health—and related costs. A targeted wellness initiative may not even be your only wellness program, but it may be one of the most critical you can offer.

All an employer has to do is look at what claims are being driven by a modifiable behavior such as obesity, and where the highest costs are, and then choose a program that addresses those types of behaviors, and choose it with tangible results in mind, by measuring the benefits and offering real and long-term health solutions.

It really comes down to concentrating on preventive care to eliminate problems before they appear. And while it’s important to be conscientious about measuring return on investment, there’s also the satisfaction that comes with knowing there’s a program in place that educates employees and helps them, and their families lead healthier lives.

Click here if you are interested in kicking off the LoneStart Wellness Initiative in your workplace to address these concerns, and in how to motivate high-risk employees to participate.

success
Did you know that women generally make 80 percent of health care decisions in their families? Or that, employees account for only about 30 percent of corporate health care costs, while dependents account for the remaining 70 percent? A wellness program that reaches only employees and not their dependents is therefore going to limit reductions in health care costs. And that’s why communication materials, self-help kits, or programs that go home to be used by the entire family are beneficial.

While the workplace is critical to laying the groundwork for success (both from a corporate and individual perspective), achieving sustainable wellness requires the entire family to reorient behaviors in such a way that physical activity and nutrition become a priority for each member. Behavior-focused programs such as LoneStart help employees and their families improve their health by taking sustainable solutions, turning them into action, and generating real results.
candy
Eating only 3 Christmas cookies a day can add 1.5 pounds in a week.

With Halloween approaching, thoughts turn to the holidays. The holiday season can be a stressful time for everyone, and can be an especially difficult time to get active and watch what and how much you eat. Given the parties, gifts of food, big holiday dinners and celebrations, it's easy to start the New Year with a little something "extra." But you don't have to.


The LoneStart "Get Me Through The Holidays" e-newsletter will help your employees make it through the holiday season in the healthiest way possible. With portion control tips, recipes, nutritional advice and ways to find opportunities to add physical activity into individual everyday lifestyles, employees can get from here to there, ready to start the New Year healthier, happier and on the path to sustainable new behavior.


From October 20 through January 5, this newsletter can actually help your employees make it through the season without adding the average 7 to 15 pound weight gain. It is a challenge.

For the next twelve weeks we'd like to show you and your employees how to meet these challenges, find a balance, and build and maintain a healthy lifestyle--even during the holidays.

If your organization is willing to take responsibility for promoting healthy lifestyles and a healthy work environment, LoneStart is an effective, low-cost and easy-to-administer employee wellness program, which functions equally well as a stand-alone initiative or as a high-impact jump-start to existing or proposed employee wellness strategies.

Contact us today to find out how the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative will change your workplace.

Please share Wellness in the Workplace with colleagues.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and associates who will benefit from a workplace wellness strategy such as the LoneStart Wellness Initiative.

A Challenge. An Opportunity. A Solution.
The LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative
phone: 512.894.3440