The Affordable Care Act, sound familiar? While we haven't talked about it on our blog lately, it doesn't mean its effects aren't still causing changes across the country. More and more organizations are jumping on the wellness program bandwagon as the ACA has made it even more compelling. These wellness programs can range in their complexity while one struggle is felt across them all, how to increase both participation and engagement. In the recent article,
Wellness Incentives Encourage Participation and Engagement, the
OH&S explains that the struggle with participation and engagement is due to factors like poor program design, unattainable objectives, poor communications, and the big one, proper incentives are not being used.
The right kind of motivation. The article goes on to explain the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation would entail an employee doing something because they enjoy the process and tasks, they want to participate or are driven to engage, while extrinsic motivation requires a little more, like inspirational leadership, compelling communication, team support and yes,
tangible incentives. While many employers hope intrinsic motivation will be enough, in most situations people need extrinsic motivation to both start and keep going until intrinsic motivation kicks in.
Touching on tangible. Tangible incentives can include merchandise items, gift cards and cash, and can be used for a variety of reasons, in many different ways, and for varying amounts. The important thing is to identify what tangible incentives match best with your particular wellness program and to look for incentives that will leave a lasting impression on your employees. For example, while using cash as rewards and incentives may have been an obvious go-to in the past, when receiving electronic paychecks many times the value of the reward is lost and and holds no long-term effect. The turn to more
tangible or memorable incentives, like gift cards, have become more popular in the recent years. Learn more about the use of tangible incentives in wellness programs
here.
