Overview of Employee Wellness Incentives - What and How?
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What Are Employee Wellness Incentives?
A wellness incentive is something that prompts, influences, and pushes us to achieve goals or do some beneficial activity. It is a strong emotion or desire that impacts the overall well-being of an individual. If we talk about employee wellness incentives, it is something that employers use to promote wellness by offering rewards and recognition to their employees. Employers have begun to use incentives to increase employee participation in wellness programs. Incentives are also used to enhance healthy behaviors among employees like increasing physical activity or improving mental health.
Perhaps one of the most successful ways to get employees to engage in wellness programs is to offer incentives for participation. There are various and many possibilities for this. You have to find the best ones for your business. Employees will be more motivated to improve their health (and the health of the company) if they’re rewarded for it.
How Modern Technology Has Changed Things?
Technology is constantly evolving and affects everything and everyone, including workplaces- from smartphones and wearables to messaging apps and collaboration. Advances in technology have influenced and will certainly continue to influence workplace wellness programs. According to an article published in MUO: “Employers and managers can use big data, intelligent analytics, and other technologies to support wellness programs and help employees get the right care.“
Technology also makes it easier for people to move and track their results, and goals. Also helps monitor changes in their health and adjust their behavior accordingly. A good way to get people moving is to offer them the YuMuuv app, it is accessible to everyone and you can personalize it.
There, a person can monitor her/his achievements and the fulfillment of her/his goals. It also offers friendly competition, as she/he can also monitor the good progress of other colleagues. Good results are achieved by motivating each other.
How to Incentivize Your Employees?
1. Use instant gratification
Researchers have found that immediate reward leads to more behavioral change than delayed reward and gratification. Study shows that if you want a successful program, you need to provide incentives that can be small, but tangible and provide frequent positive feelings or rewards. For example, if there is a desire to increase employee activity and you organize, for example, a year-long activity challenge and reward people at the end of the year, it is certainly not as successful and fulfilling the purpose as organizing a new challenge every month, which offers people variety, novelty and where employees are noticed and praised at the end of each month and are rewarded for good performance.
2. Mental Accounting
According to InsideBE: “Mental accounting is the tendency of humans to create mental labels for money, based on its origin or deemed purpose. Money itself is interchangeable, but through mentally dividing it into labels, we don’t see it that way. Although these decisions can seem rational, they are often governed by emotions, and can be misleading or even damaging.“ For example, a situation where a person saves money and tries to be frugal in order to buy a house soon. Walking down the street, she finds $100 on the ground. Instead of saving this money, she decides to go shopping with it because she tells herself that this money is not "house buying money" but a one-time special occasion, so why not treat yourself to a few new things?
By implementing a wellness program, you can take advantage of the fact that when placed in the context of a challenge, a person values receiving $50 more than, for example, simply receiving it as a salary rise. Employees don't appreciate it so much, for example, if you offer them that by doing well in the challenge and taking care of their health throughout the year, you will give them a $100 massage gift card at the end of the year. It doesn't bring as big an effect as recognizing good employees who put in the effort at the end of each month and giving them a small prize.
When setting up a wellness program, think about the costs and how you will set it up. Handing out money or prizes to people every month, without knowing if anyone actually participates or makes an effort, is pointless. You need playfulness and interest, and make it a little more difficult for employees to receive the incentives. That person would make an effort for it. A person starts doing mental accounting in his head - this benefit is related to his health and he values it more highly.
3. Small Steps
It is not important how much you can achieve in one day, what is important is the big picture, i.e. what you can achieve in a longer period. Short-term efforts do not bring the goal, it is necessary to be consistent. You don't have to start with great momentum, but you can take it calmly and step by step. If your wish is to encourage and motivate your employees, then one simple way to do this is to set a small goal.
People are different and we cannot set a single goal for everyone. If you want your employees to be more active, you should start calmly and set up, for example, a simple step challenge that is within everyone's reach. Also, don't set a goal that isn't realistic for everyone. It must be such that all employees can fulfill it because this is the only way to maintain motivation and the will to participate in the future.
4. Rewards, Not Penalties
For many, punishment and intimidation seems like good way to get people to act and motivate. It is believed that the threat of punishment will make people change their behavior, make healthier choices, and participate in events and programs offered by employers. In reality, this is not the case, and intimidation and punishment lead to harm rather than a benefit.
First, it damages the employer-employee relationship and makes employees feel bad. Employees feel much more motivated when they know that their small steps and changes in developing healthier habits are being noticed and they are being praised and rewarded for good performance. Than that the fulfillment of some set utopian goals is expected.
Human behavior is influenced by very different factors (attitudes, skills, awareness, etc.). More than just dealing with one behavioral influencer is needed to change people's habits. So, if you really want to do something, you have to do it thoughtfully and also make an effort yourself. To improve people's health, it is not enough to invent a punishment and thereby scare people into being active or eating healthier. It does not work. What works is to approach the matter calmly and think about how it would be possible to deal with various behavioral factors that affect people's health behavior.
How to Implement The Above With YuMuuv?
YuMuuv is a platform that helps you get your company's employees moving, improve their health and well-being, and create good health-supporting habits. Healthy, active, and happy employees create a successful company. Organize any type of wellness challenge your team desires. Proven step to increase happiness and engagement.
In YuMuuv, you can start with small steps and be consistent to achieve the desired goals and results. Big changes do not come overnight but over a longer period. Successful programs are not one-time events and do not produce desired results. Just as you cannot lose weight with one exercise, a one-time intervention will not produce big changes either. It is important to see the big picture and be consistent. At YuMuuv, we help you put in place a plan that supports your company's goals, helps you achieve the desired results, and most importantly, take care of the health and well-being of your employees.
YuMuuv's platform is engaging and user-friendly and easily accessible to everyone. On our platform, you can keep an eye on the progress of all your employees and support and motivate them throughout the process. You can set exactly the goals you want. They must be affordable and doable for all employees so that everyone is motivated to make an effort. There is also an opportunity to reward and praise your employees for every good performance. In this way, employees also feel that they are appreciated, valued, and important to the employer.
How to Start an Incentive Program?
1. Old-School Corporate Wellness Programs
Corporate wellness programs have been in use for several decades. Over the years, their nature has definitely changed, and new and more modern methods have been introduced. Many wellness programs are still in use today, which include paper and pencil, sharing Google sheets with each other, or are simply very expensive and complex. However, this should not be the case. There have been many developments that allow us to make things easier and more convenient for everyone. Here again, the development of technology comes into focus, which allows us to do things faster and more efficiently. It is no longer necessary to sum up the results yourself in Excel, manually enter people's data and results, and make summaries. You no longer have to write down your daily health data to keep an eye on your progress. It is the past.
2. How YuMuuv Annual Plan Works Better
It’s important to remember that there is no single, empowering definition for what a wellness program should be from company to company because all businesses are different. Therefore, it is important to create programs that are based on your employees and that help achieve a healthy, well-balanced emotional, physical, and mental state of mind. In doing so, you are most likely to see the return on investment.
Many corporate wellness programs are expensive and generic, take a long time to implement, and the user experience is relatively poor. YuMuuv is simple and suitable for everyone. You can create a program for your company that is based on your wishes and needs. It can be as unique as you want it to be. YuMuuvi is easy to use and we have a very good user experience and design. What's more important is that with YuMuuv your costs are under control and you don't have to pay exorbitant amounts to promote the health of your employees. However, happier, healthier, and more active employees are guaranteed. Want to know more? Book a demo and we will help take your company to a new level.
What Are Some Good Incentives For Employees?
There can be various types of incentives for a wellness program. At this point, you have to think about the nature of your company, employees, and needs. That's how you find the best incentives. It may seem like a complicated process, but if you think things through and do a little research on the employees' interests, you can offer incentives that the employees appreciate, that are unique, and at the same time useful.
Incentives can be for example progress, compliance or results-based. Incentives reward can also be participation, surprise, financial or social. For example, offer your employees a little recognition for joining the program and wanting to make an effort and contribute. Give them an extra day off for good performance and meeting the goal. By organizing collective challenges, you can reward employees by taking them out to have a great time together and do something fun. Or you can leave the reward that employees receive for meeting the goal as a surprise. Here's a helpful article where we've written about ideas to put in employee prize bags.
Conclusion
If you want to achieve positive changes in the company and improve the health and well-being of employees, you have to approach it consciously and, let's face it, a bit cunningly. But one thing is certain- a person is more motivated if there is an opportunity to gain incentives. If you need help or want a wellness plan for your company that is motivating and fun at the same time, contact us, book a demo and we will help you make it happen!
