The use of incentives in wellness programs continues to increase, rising to 87% this year, up from 77% two years ago. According to Optum's Fifth Annual Wellness in the Workplace Study, 90% of large employers now offer incentives. It comes as no surprise with employers seeing an increased urgency for results in employee engagement. The Workplace Study is based on 545 employers that offer wellness programs of one kind or another. 60% of employers participating in the survey have at least 3,000 employees, 20% having between 100 and 2,999, and 20% have fewer than 100. Here are some of the major highlights of the study:
- 64% of large employers offer incentives to employee family members
- 79% of wellness programs feature biometric screening, health challengers, health assessments, and smoking cessation
- Between 50% and 66% of employers provide incentives for wellness coaching, health websites, disease management, and healthy pregnancy programs
- 38% of employers contribute to HSAs, HRAs or HIAs
- 34% of employers reduce health care premiums
- 29% of employers offer gift cards
- 16% of employers offer cash incentives
- 57% of employers offer incentives for employees to complete a wellness program
Employee physical health is the most dominant focus of wellness programs, but an interesting 64% targeted on mental health, 35% on financial health, and 31% on social health. Check out all the details of the Wellness in the Workplace Study by Optum Resource Center for Health & Wellness here.
