Jeff Archer wrote a great article on justifying spending budget on wellness incentives during the recession that was featured this past April on EzineArticles.com. Archer provides useful information to any company planning on implementing or redesigning a wellness incentive program and I would like to expand upon each of his points and give some insight based on my experiences with wellness programs.
1. Surely Wellness isn't a priority right now?
Employees who have survived layoffs make up a company’s most loyal and talented workers. An economic downturn is the time when these committed employees need to feel motivated and recognized the most due to the stress of the economic uncertainty and increase in workload. The fact that wellness incentive programs carry a three to one return on investment means that not only can your company effectively reduce healthcare costs but that you can effectively motivate and recognize employees to reach their health and wellness goals.
2. How do we ensure the wellness message is received positively?
Successful wellness incentives are designed so employees can easily access communication and information on the wellness program at both work and home. Almost all of the wellness programs that I administer have an online wellness website that functions as wellness program hub for employees. Online wellness programs allow employees to learn about the goals they are eligible to achieve, what goals and awards they have already achieved and usually allow a person to look at their performance in comparison to their peers. Wellness program websites increase participation and involvement in the incentive program because employees have access to wellness information, program details and employees see their progress over time.
3. Wouldn't staff just prefer extra cash at the end of the month?
Merchandise-based wellness programs motivate employees to earn wellness awards by accruing points that can be redeemed for gifts from variously priced collections. There are many reasons why tangible wellness awards are more effective than cash incentives-please see my previous post Top Ten Reasons to Award Tangible Corporate Gifts Instead of Cash. In addition, cash and gift cards may carry a federal tax whereastangible wellness awards may not. For instance, if an employee was required to pay the top tax rate for 2008 of 35% and you also had to pay the 15.3% self-employment tax, the total tax would be 50.3%.
4. How do we justify the extra spend internally and externally?
Wellness incentive research clearly shows that properly implemented programs impact healthcare spending and premiums, lower costs due to sickness or leaves of absence, workers’ compensation costs, disability-related costs and costs due to presenteeism. Wellness programs also have intangible benefits such as increasing employee motivation, morale and teamwork. When the wellness program is launched, be sure to include a letter or email to participants on the overall goals and specific expectations of the initiative. Depending on the size of the company, at the start of a new wellness program it might be a good idea to launch a press release and externally communicate the overall goals and specific expectations.
5. Is wellbeing the right place to be spending money?
Motivating and retaining your survivor employees is the name of the game this year for human resource professionals. Your remaining talent and knowledge base is an important part of the company’s long term viability and competitiveness. By investing in this valuable asset, your organization will help to motivate employees to be reach their wellness goals while reducing healthcare and related costs- establishing a program is a win-win situation for employers and workers.
6. How do I make the right decision about what to spend the money on?
Fortunately, online wellness incentive programs offer companies very low start up costs and little to no maintenance costs as participants interface with the wellness program via the corporate wellness website. From the wellness goals and personal wellness account information to the wellness award catalog and checkout process, corporate wellness websites allow employees to easily access the information they need in order to reach their health and safety goals. Aside from the wellness program website, employees who reach wellness milestones should be recognized for their achievements. Employee recognition awards can be personally or publically presented and truly motivate and thank a person for a job well done.
Employees need to move beyond the survival mode they are in due to the numerous layoffs and increased workload and work towards learning how to deal with their workplaces in healthy and safe ways. Staff wellness incentives are a priority now more than ever for companies looking to motivate and retain their loyal survivor employees.