vAs employers continue to try to control costs of health insurance benefits they are turning to incentives more and more frequently for their Health & Wellness programs. Incentives motivate employees to evaluate and improve their health, which obviously benefits employees and simultaneously helps lower costs for employers. Aon Hewitt’s recent survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. employers, their combined 20 million U.S. employees and their dependents found that 84% of employers offer employees incentives for participating in a health risk questionnaire (HRQ) and 64 percent offer incentives for biometric screenings to help employees evaluate their health status. 51% of employers provide incentives for participation in health and wellness improvement programs as well. The incentives used here do not need to be big, but rather need to be meaningful. Helping employees maintain their health and reach new health goals can be as simple as offering
a gift cards to
CVS/Pharmacy or GNC. A small investment such as this easily provides noticeable ROI to employers and employees feel support from their employer;
,that their employer cares about them as a person, not just a part of the organization. Bettering your employees' health can often better your bottom line.
For more information on Aon Hewitt's survey on Health and Wellness Incentives check out this article from Insurance Journal.
