What Can Employers Do To Encourage Healthy Behavior?

While traditional wellness programs are firmly embedded in corporate culture, a couple articles reminded me there are still a lot of innovative ideas for supercharging health in the workplace:

1) The Wall Street Journal spotlighted the gamefication of wellness program from companies such as UHG, Humana, and Aetna.  As I’ve discussed in the past, the ability to quantify and track progress to a goal, while wrapping in social communities, can make fitness fun. 

However, I’m still not convinced these are good investments.  First, as the article states, the research on these games is thin.  While anecdotes suggest they are successful, we can’t say with certainty if they drive better behavior, especially for people who need it most and may not be participating.

What I find more challenging is the incentive structure.  While a lot of people participate to improve their health, others are drawn in by the giveaways and prizes.  Arguably, the bigger the incentive, the more people who will participate, which is how employers will generate the most savings.  But a bigger prize also means more people may try to game the system (most of these programs are self-reported) or be less than honest about their progress.  The article mentions some programs require special equipment (e.g., a pedometer), but that may dissuade employees, especially those on the fringes, from participating. 

I’d be interested to see a business case comparing the value of the prize to the number of people participating and their average health improvements.  I would be curious to see if there is some prize level that encourages so many people to participate that their benefits, no matter how small, outweigh the costs of others trying to outwit the system.

2) Another article via PSFK highlighted a meeting table withbicycle pedals attached, allowing employees to exercise and generate electricity.  Similar to the hotel concept I previously discussed, I love this idea for a few reasons.

First, it brings fitness into the everyday work environment, but is less awkward than some solutions (e.g., standing treadmill desks), and offers the benefits to a wider range of employees.  Second, it brings a little green energy into the office and encourages environmental conservation.  Finally, from a more practical standpoint, it can cut down on meeting times, which has its own benefits for employees.  In fact, I’ve heard of one other company that has been successful by having only standing tables in meeting rooms. 

Sure, there are some practical concerns to implementing these bikes (e.g., price, worker buy-in, hygiene), but I could see employees of all shapes and sizes using this for the novelty and health benefits.