Time For A Checkup
How employees feel about corporate wellness programs
Posted on 09-25-2018, Read Time: Min
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Is your organization struggling to strengthen employee satisfaction and engagement? These are important components to a company’s success, and many businesses specifically design reward programs to encourage both. But while you may offer reward programs to employees for professional achievements or meeting sales goals, you could be missing the opportunity to better engage them through wellness program sponsorship.
Ultimately, the goals of wellness programs are to keep employees healthy, happy and engaged—a win-win for everyone. Organizations that manage these programs well can benefit from boosted morale, reduced absenteeism, increased retention, improved work performance and reduced healthcare costs. And employees benefit from living healthier lifestyles, a sense of camaraderie with colleagues and a supportive company culture.
If you’re a business deciding whether to create a wellness program, or if you have a wellness program that’s producing mediocre results, here’s some food for thought on why you should offer one, or step-up what you have in place:
- People Want Wellness Programs. Interest in corporate wellness programs is high; new research from Hawk Incentives1 found that 79 percent of those surveyed who are currently offered an employer-sponsored wellness program participate. If you don’t currently offer a wellness program to your employees, consider it—these programs are in high demand and incorporating one alongside other engagement efforts makes employees feel valued and lets them know you care.
- Few Employees Are Offered Wellness Rewards. According to the employees surveyed by Hawk Incentives1 only 38 percent of their employers offer rewards for participating in wellness programs. What’s the point of offering a wellness program if you’re not encouraging your employees to participate? Providing “carrots” to your wellness program participants for their achievements can help stretch the value of your program and entice employees to participate.
- Employees Have a Wellness Reward Preference. Although points, insurance discounts, and merchandise are common wellness reward options, Hawk Incentives research1 found that physical prepaid cards are hands-down favorites. The research1 also found that some businesses are hitting the mark; half of survey respondents report being offered a prepaid or gift card as a wellness reward. Because employees love these options, think about offering a mix of physical and digital cards to further satisfy wellness program participants across a diverse employee population.
- Pay Attention to Wellness Reward Value and Frequency. While high-value rewards are attractive, employees are generally more interested in immediate lump-sum rewards than those paid out slowly over a longer period of time; this is especially true among millennials. Hawk Incentives research1 found that 53 percent of millennials prefer on-the-spot rewards delivered as quickly as possible for achieving a wellness goal compared with 44 percent of respondents ages 55 to 75. As baby boomers retire and millennials take over the workforce, this is going to become an increasingly important nuance in your wellness reward strategy.
Wellness programs can be an effective way to build employee engagement and create a positive workplace culture, but of the few companies that do offer wellness programs and rewards, employees report lackluster sentiments toward them. And employees who are not offered wellness programs or wellness rewards want them. Now is a perfect time to create a wellness program or give your existing program a checkup.
[1] *The “Efficacy of Employee Rewards” research was an online survey conducted independently by Murphy Research on behalf of Hawk Incentives between Jan. 29 and Feb. 7, 2018. The sample size included 1,472 American respondents ages 18+. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/- 2.5% 19 times out of 20.
Author Bio
| Theresa (Wabler) McEndree is the VP of Marketing at Blackhawk Network. Visit www.blackhawknetwork.com Connect Theresa (Wabler) McEndree Follow @Blackhawk |
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