Incentives are a powerful tool for your wellbeing program as they can motivate or encourage a desired behavior. Incentives can be anything from inexpensive raffle prizes to extra days off to reduced health care premiums or HSA contributions.
When used appropriately, they can motivate employees to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors that will improve their wellbeing. Adopting healthier behaviors is the key to minimizing health risks, lowering the prevalence of chronic disease, and improving overall wellbeing. Employees who feel better are more engaged in their work, contributing to improved productivity and lower turnover.
Incentives are the fastest way to increase participation in a wellbeing program, motivating even those employees who would not otherwise participate. A well-designed incentive strategy can be an important component of a comprehensive workplace wellbeing strategy, but the incentive should not be the whole program. An effective wellbeing strategy helps employees sustain healthy behaviors and includes understanding employees’ needs, engaging leadership, providing supportive resources, and creating a work environment that makes the healthy choice the easy choice.
The ultimate goal of an incentive program should be for employees to feel the benefits of their healthy behaviors and no longer need the external incentive. Although this won’t happen with every employee, incentives are a highly effective tool at nudging people down the path toward healthier behaviors.
To learn more about creating a best practice incentive strategy, refer to the resources provided or contact an Excellus BlueCross BlueShield account manager or wellbeing engagement consultant. The toolkit below includes an incentive best practice guide, communication templates, reporting criteria and metrics, healthy choices in the workplace guide and preventive services checklist.
Get Our Best Practice Incentive Strategy Resource (ZIP)
