Corporate Wellness – the Stick or the Carrot

Is corporate wellness the next bubble in the health and wellness space?  Rising cost of health care, more employee managed programs, aging workforce, etc – all make corporate wellness a pretty germane topic these days.  The recent WSJ article “Get Well, or Pay Not To” raises some interesting questions.

First, the current recession is not going to stymie the growth in corporate incentives for people to lead a healthier lives:

(excerpt)

More employers are offering cash, discounts and even lower health-insurance premiums to entice workers to participate in a variety of programs. And starting next year, employees could have further incentive to get healthy as more companies add penalties to insurance premiums for workers who don’t partake.

“It’s an opportunity to get cash for doing what’s right for you,” says Shelly Wolff, a senior consultant at consulting firm Watson Wyatt.

Despite cutbacks amid the recession, 58% of large U.S. companies now offer lifestyle-improvement programs, up from 43% in 2007, according to a Watson Wyatt study. And 56% provide health coaches, compared with 44% in 2007. Health-risk appraisals are offered at 80% of companies, up from 72% in 2007.

(end excerpt)

The articles continues to talk about the lengths that companies will go to just to encourage their employees to be healthier.  Whether it’s money, gift cards, or access to wellness professionals – the economics are there for employers to have healthier employees.  One extreme example is the “insurer Aetna which offers employees up to $1,200 back each year via their paychecks or health savings accounts for completing a health-risk assessment, identifying and completing family health goals, making healthy food choices and participating in a variety of fitness activities.”

Now what happens for those who choose not to participate?  There has been talk of a surcharge for employees who don’t take the assessments.  It’s more to get the attention of the employee.  It’s is my opinion that these tactics are counterproductive and completely unsustainable in a tight labor market.  I know that in the current economic climate, a tight labor market seems like an absurd thing to write about.  But we will get there eventually.  Baby boomers will retire eventually and they did not make as many Gen X’ers as them (on the order of 10-12 million less).  It is my personal belief that a good corporate wellness program will be much more in the future than just about saving on health care costs.  It will be a key component of attracting the best talent and most loyal employees.

Some food for thought.  Many of corporate wellness programs today are very passive in nature.  Log so many hours on our site over 6 months and we’ll give you a $300 check.  Most people forget.  Free gym memberships aren’t much better.  Even when people pay for the gym membership, they don’t go.  Health assessments, quick and easy to take but once we know that you are at risk – then what?  Is a $25 dollar surcharge going to get you to quit smoking?  I hope so, but not likely.  It may only aggrevate the situation.  What about all the smaller companies that don’t have the economis of scale that Aetna enjoys who can’t afford to give their employees $1,200 in incentives?

These are interesting questions that many in the industry are trying to solve right now as we speak.  I see this being more about active participation and being more creative about how we would encourage people to lead better healthier lives.  This means specialized firms and wellness professionals that can tailor programs for the individual companies.  Different corporate cultures will require different programs.  For those companies that can’t afford managed wellness programs, I see technology as playing a large role in helping bring down the costs.  Peer motivation and social networks are a great source of opportunity that unfortunately today are usually tapped to sell only advertising.  I’m a big proponent of evidence based wellness services.  There are a lot of great tools out there and the smart wellness professional who wants to enter this space will use what is available but use it creatively.  You can only do so much via email and articles still keep people in front of the computer and in their seats.  Organize groups, get groups together and out.  Encourage information sharing and success sharing.  Even go as far as encourage bragging.  We compete on sales and on the field, why not with the waistline.  This is a very exciting field to be in right now and one that surely will see some phenomenal players in the coming months!