Incentive - March 2008 - (Page 11)

IN THE NEWS Give More, Get Less ncentives will cause employees to lose weight, according to the results of a study published recently in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. “A Pilot Study Testing the Effect of Different Levels of Financial Incentives on Weight Loss Among Overweight Employees,” by Eric Finkelstein, Ph.D., director of Chapel Hill, N.C.–based research firm RTI International’s Public Health Economics Program, was preliminary work for a pair of larger studies under way at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. Although the study uses only cash incentives, the results were fairly clear: Incentives work, and larger incentives work better. Finkelstein studied 200 overweight people for three months, dividing them into three categories: • Group 1 was given no financial incentive to lose weight; participants lost an average of two pounds • Group 2 received $7 for each percentage point of body weight lost; participants dropped an average of three pounds • Group 3 got $14 per percentage point decrease; these participants lost an average of five pounds “Financial incentives tied directly to weight I loss are an attractive strategy from an employer’s perspective, because they require no startup costs, and employees receive the incentive only if they achieve the targeted weight-loss goal,” says Finkelstein. Many employers are already using more traditional incentive programs to encourage such healthy behaviors as losing weight and quitting smoking. Last spring, the North Olmstead, Ohio–based faucet manufacturer Moën Inc. gave employees an Anthem pedometer to encourage them to take part in a companywide walking competition. The individuals who walked the greatest number of steps in two months received a $100 prepaid Visa card. “We had a couple people walk over a million steps,” says Gina Palmieri, program manager of Moën’s wellness center. “It was nice, because we got to know people who didn’t always come into the fitness center to work out. We just wanted to encourage the healthy lifestyle overall.” This isn’t altruistic. Last fall, Incentive looked at a number of companies, such as AstraZeneca and the Pepsi Bottling Group, that were using gift cards and merchandise in points-based incentive programs to encourage employees to lose weight [“Healthy Living,” Sept. 2007]. The reason, in large part, was to offset the spiraling cost of health care.—L.J. Carrot and the Stick Nearly half of all large employers offer some type of workplace wellness program, according to the Fifth Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study, produced by global insurance provider MetLife. The study, released in December, found that 49 percent of American companies with 500 or more employees offer some type of wellness program, and nearly all of them feel these programs are highly valued by employees. That number falls to a still very significant 28 percent when taking small businesses into account. Of the 1,500 benefits decision makers who responded to the survey, some 55 percent called retaining employees their primary objective in offering benefits—the first time in the study’s history that retention took the top spot— followed by controlling benefits costs (about 50 percent), increasing productivity and job satisfaction (each about 35 percent) and attracting employees (about 30 percent). But a growing number of employers are wielding the stick as well as the carrot, the study found. Nearly a fifth of large employers (and 10 percent of all employers) say they impose financial penalties on employees who fail to follow wellness goals. —L.J. incentivemag.com | March 2008 | Incentive | 11 http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - March 2008

Incentive - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Delivering on Diversity In The News Cover Story: Leveraging Diversity in the Workplace Incentive Interview: Paul Levesque on Why Awards Fail Case Study: AEIS’ Max!-imum Incentive Program Mine Employees’ Creativity with Innovation Incentives Incentive Must-Reads The Third Annual Gift Card Roundtable My Turn: Motivation or Bribery? Everybody Get Together In Her Shoes: Why Bosses Should Be Flexible Incentive Primer: Passport Problem-Solving potentials Here and Now Is CES Electronics Heaven? China and Crystal: More Than a Pretty Face Travel News Florida: What’s New on the Beach? Smooth Sailing for Incentive Cruising Come To Hawaii And Take It Fast Last Word: But Enough About You

Incentive - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.