Education is Key to Successful Health and Wellness Programs
Employers are increasingly adding health and wellness programs to employee benefits packages to both help control organizational costs of providing healthcare benefits and to keep employees healthy and productive at work. However, it is not enough to just have the program available- you have to educate your employees about it so they know it is there and all of the ways it can help them set and reach their health and wellness goals.To say it another way- most of us have seen the movie Field of Dreams, it happens to be one of my personal favorites- health and wellness programs cannot be dependent on Ray Kinsella's "If you build it, they will come" mentality. These programs take more work to train employees on the benefits and ensure that your workforce is aware of all that their employers is making available. According to a recent whitepaper from Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company 52% of employees at organizations where health and wellness programs are being offered either don't know they exist at all or are unaware of what they encompass. Making short education sessions available or required can change that statistic easily. To ensure your organization maximizes the investment in their employees health and wellness program providing small incentives to employees who enroll in the program is a great motivator. Small denomination gift cards to health and wellness retailers like GNC, CVS/Pharmacy, or Nutrisystem can help kick start any employee's work towards a health and wellness goal, and reminds them that their employer will be there to help and support them every step of the way. That kind of lasting impact will make for a happier, enduring, and more productive workforce throughout the life of the program and beyond.
Employee Wellness and Safety Programs: How Health and Wellness and Safety Incentives Work
GiftCard Partners and CVS/pharmacy recently co-sponsored a webinar called Healthcare Reform’s Impact on Wellness - How to Incentivize Employees to Engage in Healthy Behavior. Speakers included Jonathan Edelheit, Editor in Chief of Benefits Live Magazine, Vanessa Cullerton, Senior Manager of Employee Wellness for the Hillshire Brands Company, Stacey Nelson, Manager of Health and Welfare for Sprint; and our own Edward Shulkin, President of GiftCard Partners.
Carrots and Sticks Highly Effective in Managing Employee Wellness
According to a new study from the Midwest Business Group, more than 80% of the nation's largest employers use a carrot and stick approach when it comes to their corporate wellness program. Using this approach allows employers to reward for desired behavior, while creating penalties for employees who participate in unhealthy behavior, such as smoking. As the full implications of the Affordable Care Act take effect and employee benefits costs continue to rise, employers place more value on employee healthcare benefits savings, by both maximizing the health of employees and lowering the cost of their healthcare benefits. Here are some quick facts about employers who use a carrot and stick incentive strategy to manage employee wellness.
Corporate Wellness Incentives & Safety Programs
Step 1: Create a safety program. Step 2: Make it successful. Still struggling with Step 2? Many strategies have been tried, from payroll bonus, discipline, performance review, to issuing penalties. But the question still remains, what works best to foster a safety culture within the workplace? The answer could be as simple as corporate wellness incentives in the form of gift cards. They are a flexible and affordable way to incent and reward for accident prevention, increasing morale and productivity, and encouraging feedback.
GiftCard Partners makes using gift cards a budget-friendly choice.
Contact us today to get the best discounted rate on volume purchases from some of America's top selling gift card brands.
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Energizing Employees Toward Health and Wellness
New research released from Fidelity Investments shows employers across the country are doubling spending on health and wellness programs. The study shows that corporate employers are planning to spend an average of $521 per employee on health and wellness programs in 2013, up from just $260 4 years ago. The increased cost is indicative of the success of health and wellness programs in controlling overall organizational healthcare costs. Over the past several years organization health care cost has been rising at a phenomenal rate, that is prohibitive to some employers. Since the largest percentage of the cost comes from preventable conditions caused by employees bad habits such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol, employers are looking to promote a healthy lifestyle among their workforce to bring overall cost down. Here are a few easy strategies for energizing your workforce around an organization-wide health and wellness strategy.
