GiftCard Partners Blog

Health screenings are lifesaving techniques that are designed to find certain chronic diseases before a person begins to exhibit any signs of illness. In the U.S. alone, early detection health screenings save over 100,000 lives per year. The majority of healthcare providers also cover these screenings at no additional costs to members when in-network options are applied. In recent years, employer wellness programs have focused on obtaining a baseline biometric screening on employees. Employers use these baseline biometrics and then, once a member is engaged in applying and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, employers can use additional health screenings as a way to properly incentivize their employees. Our newest white paper, Rewards for Action: Building a Healthier Workforce through Early Detection, provides 10 critical preventative health screenings that can save lives.

Employees who engage with wellness programs earlier respond more favorably and are healthier in the long term than employees who engage with wellness programs later. Biometric screenings provide gateway to early engagement, and provide an important opportunity to use incentives as carrot rewards for plan participation and healthier readings. Of the participants who received program incentives before their screenings,

With 80% of U.S. and Puerto Rican workers under moderate or high levels of financial stress, employers are looking beyond physical wellness programs and adding a financial wellness component to employee benefits. Financial wellness programs often provide financial advice and guidance to employees with the aim to reduce financial stress and increase workplace productivity. According to an Aon Hewitt survey, 76% of employers were interested in financial wellness initiatives in 2013, and looking to expand their efforts by 2014. Companies also observe that the more financially stressed an employee is, the more sick time they take, disrupting work flow and workplace momentum. At Meredith Corp. employees are offered a financial wellness questionnaire and can take educational courses and other financial wellness actions to gain access to discounted healthcare options and other financial perks. Meredith is recording big results on their financial wellness program too.

A recent study, led by an associate professor at the University of Rochester, finds that providing healthy workplace programs reduced the number of overweight or obese employees by almost 9%. The study was based on two years of research, studying almost 3,800 employees. The researchers instituted workplace programs to promote healthy eating and exercise at half of the work sites and no healthy programs at the other half. The test group that had implemented healthy workplace programs promoted things such as revamped cafeteria offerings with fewer calories and smaller portions, free meals to those who made healthy food choices, workshops to share healthy recipes, walking clubs, upgraded gym facilities, and group activities.