"This study is the first to explore the connection between the way in which employers structure incentives and how those strategies change over time, along with the impact this has on employee well-being participation and health outcomes," said Jessica Grossmeier, Ph.D., the lead author of the study from the Health Enhancement Research Organization. "There is no magic bullet when it comes to the influence of incentives on employee well-being, but employers can look to this research for a better understanding of how different incentives strategies can influence program participation and outcomes."

Click to enlarge (Source: Health Enhancement Research Organization)

Grossmeier offered these findings as a basis for an evidence-based strategy that can enhance workplace health and deliver measurable outcomes:

• Any incentive approach must be supported by an organizational commitment to a culture of health; senior leadership support; ongoing comprehensive communications; and SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) objectives.
• Incentives that incorporate a combination of participation and health-related objectives are associated with higher levels of well-being program participation and statistically significant reductions in population levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose.
• Incentives alone appear insufficient to produce significant improvements in population levels of body mass index.

Evaluation of employer data in the study revealed four common patterns in incentive designs, which evolved over the three-year average study period:

• Incentives focused on participation (participation-focused);
• Incentives focused on health improvement or outcomes (outcomes-focused);
• Incentives focused on a combination of participation and outcomes (combination); and
• Incentives that started with a focus on participation and then shifted to a focus on outcomes (participation-to-outcomes).

According to Grossmeier, while most employer well-being initiatives used a mix of outcome- and participation-focused incentives, the most successful also invested in creating and sustaining a more supportive workplace health culture. For example:

• Combination companies offered the most cultural support for well-being.
• Outcomes-focused companies offered the highest incentive amounts but the least organizational support.
• Outcomes-focused companies had the highest participation in completion of health assessment surveys and biometric health screenings but recorded lower participation in health improvement interventions.
• Combination companies recorded the second-highest completion of the incentive activity and a slight increase in participation over time

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