Posts Tagged ‘health and wellness incentives’

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The Power of Incentives in Workplace Wellness Programs to Reduce Employer Healthcare Costs

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Growing employer healthcare costs are forcing companies of all sizes to take a look at how wellness programs can help decrease their company’s bottom line. This SlideShare will review the growth of employee wellness programs, reward-based wellness and what works, incentives as the solution, a government update, and ROI studies from wellness programs.

Check out the SlideShare:

The Power of Incentives in Workplace Wellness Programs to Reduce Employer Healthcare Costs

from GiftCard Partners 

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Workplace Wellness In a Time of Transition

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

Corporate health care costs are on the rise, making it more and more difficult for employers to provide healthcare benefits to employees. As the healthcare industry transitions to comply with the Affordable Care Act, more and more employers are looking to a proven solution- workplace wellness programs, to help employees control organization healthcare costs. Workplace wellness programs have, in some cases, enabled employers to continue to offer healthcare benefits to employees. Wellness programs encourage employees to set health and wellness goals for themselves and work to fulfill those goals. Goals could include weight loss, cessation of unhealthy behavior like smoking, or other biometric goals such as reaching a healthy blood pressure or cholesterol range. All of the workplace wellness goals set help mitigate risk of preventable diseases, increase overall employee health, and help control organization health costs.

By making your workforce healthier, and controlling costs, your workplace wellness program can create a unique win-win situation where employee and employer goals are different means to the same end. Since both sides are equally invested in the end goal, it should be equally easy to motivate employees to participate, as it is to get an employer to institute a program. However, for employees who need an extra incentive to participate in a workplace wellness program, using small denomination incentives as a motivation tool can be extremely effective. Incentives can include an extra afternoon to do a fitness activity, or small denomination gift cards to healthy retailers such as CVS/Pharmacy, GNC, and Whole Foods Market to help encourage employees to maintain their healthy lifestyle. Incentives should be cost efficient, and can just be a small token of support from employer to employee. Mutual respect and motivation is key to the success of workplace wellness programs, and creating the mutually successful win-win situation for both employers and employees.

For more information on creating successful workplace wellness programs check out this article from The Hill.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.

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The Rise of Digital Health in Employee Health and Wellness

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

As we see a rise in the number of employee health and wellness initiatives from employers around the country, we see a unique trend growing alongside: digital health. Digital health programs help facilitate employee health and wellness programs and provide a streamlined easy delivery method for employers to carry out their health and wellness programs. With a majority of employers offering some kind wellness program, 22% of that population using some kind of gaming to leverage those initiatives, digital health companies are finding a market for their unique products.

Digital health companies help streamline the tracking of employee progress, can help foster friendly competition when needed, and prominently provide a seamless way to offer rewards for the 79% of employers offering health and wellness programs who incorporate a reward or incentive into their program to motivate employees. Digital health companies also offer a variety of implementations, from mobile apps, internal dashboards only employees have access to, and stand-alone interfaces where employees can sign in and track progress. For employers, these applications bring relief and automation to track employee progress, rather than having to track each participants progress and give rewards at the appropriate time, digital health products can often automatically deliver a bonus, or an e-gift card to a healthy lifestyle retailer like GNC, Whole Foods Market, or NutriSystem. These rewards keep employees motivated and on track towards their long term health and wellness goals, which helps organizations control their healthcare costs.

For more information on Digital Health and employee health and wellness programs check out this article from MobiHealthNews.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.

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Improve Health & Increase Performance with Incentives in your Corporate Wellness Program

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Incentives are a powerful thing and are used virtually everywhere. They come in the form of discounts for loyalty members, dessert for the veggie hating toddler, and more and more often being used as rewards for employees to get healthier through Corporate Wellness Programs.

These Corporate Wellness Programs are popular among organizations looking to do a number of things, be it effectively foster a healthier work environment, increase employee productivity and reduce absenteeism, and even offset rising healthcare costs.

In an effort to shine a little light on the constantly growing and evolving topic, Corporate Research Group, CVS/pharmacy and GiftCard Partners come together to bring you the educational webinar, “Maximizing the Value & Benefits of Using Incentives in Corporate Wellness Programs to Improve Health and Increase Performance.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the presentation from Cheryl Larson and Neal Sofian and learn more about:

  • Innovative engagement strategies for high-risk employees
  • Understanding and overcoming barriers from preventing people from participating in benefits and wellness programs
  • Creating a work place culture that supports health promotion
  • Making the business case for health and productivity management
  • Tailoring incentive strategies to maximize participation to meet the unique needs of your population
  • And much more.









The author:

Lauren McAuley is on the marketing team at GiftCard Partners. She is a recent graduate who enjoys diving head first into several aspects of the business including social media, graphic design, marketing, business development and public relations. Her passion for challenging herself keeps her trying new things every chance she gets, vegetable lasagna this week, maybe skydiving next week?

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Incentives to Eat Less and Increase Employee Productivity

Monday, April 15th, 2013

Do you notice your employees coming back from their lunch break just a little slower than when they left? Well studies show that it might be due to that large lunch they ate. A U.S. study by Wellness & Prevention, Inc., published in the April issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed the relationship between a large lunch and a slower worker.

According to the report, a company of 1,000 employees had an annual productivity loss of $107,965 due to binge eating. The issue with binge eating is not one to overlook. It not only costs your company money and but also affects the health of your employees. So what to do? ”These findings suggest that efforts to improve the health, productivity, and performance of employee populations should include routine screenings and interventions for binge eating behavior,” said Richard Bedrosian, Ph.D., Director of Behavioral Health and Solution Development at Wellness & Prevention, Inc.

So encourage employees to participate in programs that address the issue of binge eating and look to solve it. CVS/pharmacy gift cards or the CVS Select Card, a selectively filtered card that filters out items not supporting a healthy lifestyle, not only offer the perfect incentive for participation in these kinds of programs but also send your employees the right message about the importance of their health.
The author:

Lauren McAuley is on the marketing team at GiftCard Partners. She is a recent graduate who enjoys diving head first into several aspects of the business including social media, graphic design, marketing, business development and public relations. Her passion for challenging herself keeps her trying new things every chance she gets, vegetable lasagna this week, maybe skydiving next week?

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Energizing Employees Toward Health and Wellness

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

New research released from Fidelity Investments shows employers across the country are doubling spending on health and wellness programs. The study shows that corporate employers are planning to spend an average of $521 per employee on health and wellness programs in 2013, up from just $260 4 years ago. The increased cost is indicative of the success of health and wellness programs in controlling overall organizational healthcare costs. Over the past several years organization health care cost has been rising at a phenomenal rate, that is prohibitive to some employers. Since the largest percentage of the cost comes from preventable conditions caused by employees bad habits such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol,  employers are looking to promote a healthy lifestyle among their workforce to bring overall cost down. Here are a few easy strategies for energizing your workforce around an organization-wide health and wellness strategy.

Incentivize Health and Wellness: Employees are motivated by incentives. Offering modest rewards for reaching health and wellness goals, whether it be losing the extra 10 pounds, quitting smoking, or reaching a healthy cholesterol or blood pressure range. Health and wellness incentives are proven to work, and can range from extra paid time off, to a travel voucher, or even a gift card to a health and wellness retailer such as GNC, Whole Foods Market, or Nutrisystem. Giving gift cards to promote employee healthy lifestyle is key because the incentive also shows that the organization and health care provider are supportive of the employee’s lifestyle changes.

Think Small, Gain Big: Setting small, attainable health and wellness goals for employees are the key to success. If an employee sets out to lose 50 or 100 pounds to improve overall health, the goal is long term and can take a significant amount of time to achieve. However, if an employee sets out to lose the first 10 pounds as a goal, they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and are more motivated to get there because it seems less daunting. Setting multiple smaller goals for employees throughout the life of a health and wellness program will keep employees engaged in a healthy lifestyle and will have greater longevity to ultimately help the organization maintain lower healthcare costs.

Add Interactivity to Boost Engagement: Adding an experiential website or application where employees can track progress, or even compete against one another to see who can reach certain health and wellness goals is a great way to boost and maintain engagement over an extended period for any size employee group. Tracking progress and competing to reach goals either individually or in teams helps employees stay active and engaged in their health and wellness journey. The more involved they are in the process, the more progress they will see, and the lower the healthcare costs are for their employers.

For more information on engaging employees in health and wellness programs to control your organizations healthcare administration costs check out this article from CNBC.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.

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Using Corporate Wellness to Cover the Cost of Stress

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

Stress in the American workplace is front and center for organizational leaders at companies of all sizes across the country. Management is constantly balancing the general stress that comes with work, and the negative effects that stress has on company culture and employee health. As corporate wellness initiatives gain prevalence as a solution to the cost of stress here are some staggering statistics that illustrate the importance of corporate wellness and stress management in the workplace.

  • According to the World Health Organization, the monetary cost of stress on American businesses is as high as $300 billion, and climbing
  • Recent studies from Harvard Business School indicate American employers spend 200-300% more for the indirect costs of health care, hit on costs of absenteeism, sick days, and lower employee productivity, than those companies spend on actual health plan costs
  • The CDC estimates that 75% of all health care spending is on chronic, but preventable illnesses

Statistics like these prove the case for corporate wellness in every workplace. No matter the size of your company, or healthcare budget corporate wellness proves out its ROI based on recent research. Using simple tactics like offering incentives to employees for healthy behavior that mitigates risk factors for preventable, yet costly stress related illnesses such as obesity, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol. Rewarding employees for reaching health and fitness goals, like weight loss, or reaching and maintaining a healthy cholesterol level fosters an environment of corporate wellness that indicate to employees that organization wellness is important. The incentives given do not have to be big. Small denomination gift cards to healthy retailers like Whole Foods Market, NutriSystem, and GNC can still fit well within your budget, and help control the budget by improving corporate wellness across the board. Stress is an epidemic in our country and our workforce, using corporate wellness is an easy way to combat stress and all get better together.

For more information on corporate wellness and combatting the effects of stress in our workforce check out this article from Ariana Huffington of the Huffington Post.

 

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.

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Cutting Costs with Employee Wellness Programs

Monday, March 25th, 2013

Employee health should be a top priority for any organization and that’s where a health and wellness program comes into play.

Let’s take diabetes for example. HealthDay News reported that nearly 26 million adults and children in the U.S. have diabetes and another 79 million have prediabetes. And what’s this costing? The rising cost of diabetes in the U.S. has jumped from $174 billion in 2007 to $245 billion in 2012 and 62% of that cost is provided by government insurance groups like Medicare and Medicaid. In many cases taking responsible steps, like keeping your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol under control, can prevent diabetes problems in the first place.

So how do health and wellness programs come into play? Good question, glad you asked. Prevention is key to controlling this issue. A company’s health and wellness program may ask employees to participate in regular health screenings, hold regular “wellness presentations” to inform employees on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, or it may reward employees for meeting health goals like reaching weight loss targets or lowering blood pressure or cholesterol.

Offering “healthy incentives” in your health and wellness programs brings the whole process full circle. Interested in learning how to include healthy incentives in your corporate health and wellness program?

Learn more, ask questions or check out more great gift card incentive options from GiftCard Partners.

Check out National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse for more ways on how to prevent diabetes problems or keep diabetes under control.

The author:

Lauren McAuley is on the marketing team at GiftCard Partners. She is a recent graduate who enjoys diving head first into several aspects of the business including social media, graphic design, marketing, business development and public relations. Her passion for challenging herself keeps her trying new things every chance she gets, vegetable lasagna this week, maybe skydiving next week?

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Workplace Wellness Initiatives Take Top Priority in Maximizing Productivity

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Employers have been making the connection between workplace wellness initiatives and a healthy workforce. Prioritizing wellness in the workplace is a great way to increase productivity and raise your bottom line. According to Bucks’ Consultants’ new study: Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies, which polled more than 1,300 organizations in 45 countries, executives are ranking workplace wellness initiatives as a top driver of productivity and profitability. Ensuring your workforce is healthy, whether offering smoking cessation programs or group weight loss initiatives, is an easy key to success for your business.

Rewarding employees for reaching the goals of their wellness programs is a low cost way to both increase participation, and control healthcare costs for your organization while still having positive effects on your bottom line. Using small incentives such as gift cards for healthy retailers such as NutriSystem, GNC, or Whole Foods Market, are easy investments in your workplace wellness initiatives that will ensure the goals of the program are met. Keeping employees satisfied and supported at work, controlling costs, creating a healthier workforce, and improving productivity and profitiability are all reasons top executives are making workplace wellness a key topic in organizational planning and execution. If you are looking for more information on making workplace wellness initiatives a priority at your organization check out this article from Human Resource Executive Online.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.

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Health Plans Add Reward As Motivation

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

As health care models shift and the various pieces of the Affordable Care Act take effect, it seems that both employers and employees are paying more for health care. As a result, employers value health and fitness as part of the value proposition for providing health benefits. Offering health and fitness rewards in exchange for consistently healthy behavior is an increasing trend that is helping employers control the cost of health benefits, and helps employees control both their cost of care and their health and body.

Health reward programs can range from cash, to discounts on health promoting activities such as attending the gym on a regular basis, joining a fitness center, or healthy activities like yoga or tai chi. Rewards can also take the shape of gift cards, offered to employees upon reaching certain health goals, or exhibiting healthy behavior like participating in a smoking cessation program. These types of rewards are not as direct as cash, but are equally effective in motivating employees by offering assistance in forming healthy lifestyle habits. Offering gift cards to retailers such as GNC, Whole Foods or NutriSystem can give employees an extra boost to get healthy and stay healthy, which means lower costs and a higher bottom line for your organization.

For more information on health and wellness programs check out this article from American Medical News.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.

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