Gamifying Employee Health Goals: Boosting Workplace Wellness with Social Gaming
Social Gaming Towards Health
As pressure increases on employers and health insurance companies to reduce costs by improving participants’ health, innovative approaches are emerging. One such approach is the use of health gamification in the workplace. By leveraging virtual reality games and inter-organizational competition with real rewards, companies can motivate employees to reach their health goals. These gaming portals, ranging from basic health tracking to social, team-based competition applications, offer rewards for hitting milestones. The rewards can vary from small denomination gift cards to larger prizes like vacations upon reaching significant wellness goals.
Avoid Employee Burnout and Professional Resentment
Control Healthcare Costs by Engaging Employees
Engaging B2B Customers
It is a proven and accepted reality in business today that engaged employees increase a company's bottom line. However, new research from Gallup show that engaging B2B customers by establishing an emotional connection based on confidence, integrity, pride and passion is crucial to customer impact. Engaged customers deliver 23% more revenue than average customers in wallet-share, revenue, relationship growth, and profitability. According to the same Gallup research only 13% of B2B customers are fully engaged. Engagement exists when customers go out of their way to favor a relationship over price. This deepens a relationship, and often customers are rewarded for their loyalty with either a discount for services rendered or other perks from the company providing the service. Treating customer engagement and employee engagement similarly will garner similar outcomes. Reward customers for any business you gain, the way you would an employee. Provide spot rewards, such as a small gift card for small business gained and for a major expansion in business or formation of an industry partnership, provide a broader reward. Creating a 360 degree customer feedback loop provides opportunities for relationship growth. Putting constant work into the companies' relationship is crucial. The time you spend ensuring that your employees are loyal should be equivalent to the time you ensure that your customers and partners are going to continue to drive your business.
For more information on B2B customer engagement check out this Business News Daily article.
Wellness Program Now Popular for Small Businesses
Since health and wellness programs have shown impressive results in reducing employers' health benefit costs, small businesses have prioritized space in their budgets for health and wellness programs. A new Towers Watson/National Business Group survey has shown that "high performing firms" engaged in health and wellness programs have reduced their cost growth to 1% per year. The same survey also revealed that employees pay 20% less on average for health benefits at "high performing firms" than at "low performing firms" with no health and wellness programs. The return on investment of implementing these programs in companies of any size had proven consistent return on investment for both parties. As employers control health care costs; employees improve their health and engage in group programs and recieve rewards, such as small denomination gift cards, or preloaded debit cards. How does your small business use health and wellness programs?
For more information on small business use and benefits of health and wellness programs check out this Insurance News article.
