Worksite Wellness Program Incentives

If you are in charge of yourcompany's worksite wellness program or you are trying to get a program started,you may have a difficult job getting people to participate. Much like stickingto diets or quitting smoking, participation in wellness programs is oftenfraught with excuses from those who need the program most. Some individuals mayeven deny that they need the program. Your job can be divided into threeportions: generating interest, getting the participants started, andmaintaining membership and participation. These tasks can all be accomplishedthrough the help of worksite wellness program incentives.

Step One: Generating Interest

It's well known by advertisingexecutives that the one word people like to hear most is, "Free."Although wellness programs in the workplace are almost always free, you couldsuggest these worksite wellness program incentives:

Free health screening bycertified medical personnel

Coupon for a free dinner out ata healthy restaurant for committing to the program

Free exercise monitoring deviceof some kind, such as a heart rate monitor or pedometer

Step Two: Getting Started

Much of the secret to yourprogram is staying organized. However, you could also offer incentives forthose who carry out the commitment they made to the program during Step One.

For instance, you could offerwellness days off for those who participate in a certain number of activities.Try offering a half day off per month or a full day for a certain number ofmonths as wellness program incentives for consistent participation in weightloss programs, anti-smoking campaigns, or other programs. For employees whodon't need weight loss, healthy eating, or coaching to give up bad habits,offer them a de-stress exercise or yoga class. De-stressing is a big part ofstaying healthy even for healthy employees.

Step Three: MaintainingMembership

While the idea of"free" might get people interested in your program, offering constantfree meals or devices may not work. Instead, think about changing the externalmotivation into internal motivation for long-term success. Here are some waysto do that.

Offer Feedback. Regularfeedback on successes will help keep people motivated. Instead of saying,"Well your goal was to lose ten pounds but you only made five," youcould offer the feedback positively. "Your goal was ten pounds but thatwas probably too aggressive for the beginning of a program. You lost five andthat's a great start!"

Offer Rewards for LoweredHealth Insurance Costs. It's no secret that high risk equals highcost in the insurance industry. Work out a plan of wellness program incentiveswith your health insurance provider: offer rewards for those who do their partto reduce premium payments.