Determine Incentives and Rewards

You may choose to use incentives and rewards as part of your program. Research  highlights programs that use payroll based incentives to encourage participation and weight loss goals.¹⁴⁹ Rewards and incentives have been proven to be effective in increasing participation in worksite programs.¹⁸⁰ Research shows programs that use payroll based incentives encourage participation and weight loss goals.¹⁸¹

Research also shows that a good incentive program can increase participation rates by 12% to 35%.¹⁷⁹ For instance, while the average health risk appraisal (HRA) draws about 10-15% response rate, BlueCross BlueShield of Nebraska was able to achieve a 75% response rate for their HRA by offering two free movie tickets to each employee who completed the HRA.¹⁸²

Incentives can help employees who are having difficulty deciding to make healthy choices take the first steps in that direction.¹⁸³ Surveying participants about the types of incentives they would prefer can help increase participation in and satisfaction with the program.⁴³

However, incentives alone are not enough to encourage long-term behavior change among employees.¹⁸⁴ Therefore, incentives should be used in combination with the educational aspects and activities of your worksite obesity prevention program to promote learning and encourage–

• Participation.
• Recognition and encouragement of worthy progress.
• Rewarding successful outcomes.
• Increased physical activity.
• Healthier eating choices.
• Accomplishment of personal health objectives.

Remember to be strategic when developing your incentives. They should always encourage the appropriate behaviors and attitudes; therefore,

• Determine which incentives are valuable enough to encourage employee participation.
• Ensure that inappropriate behavior is not rewarded. For example, if employees are awarded money per pound lost without a limit, they could use unsafe weight loss practices.
• Be careful of unintended consequences. For example, if an incentive is given to those employees who do not use any sick leave, employees may come to the office when they are sick and cause other employees to get sick.
• Minimize the risk of abuse. For example, if you give out an incentive reward for attending a lunchtime presentation at the beginning of the presentation, employees can attend just long enough to collect the reward, and then leave.¹⁸⁵

Selecting Incentives

When deciding which types of incentives to include in your program, consider what factors would facilitate or impede participation.

Basic types of incentives include–

• Merchandise (such as t-shirts or tickets for movies or sporting events).
• Raffle prize drawings.
• Employee recognition through e-mail announcements or awards.
• Photo in organization newsletter, annual report, and on bulletin board.
• Days off.
• Cash.
• Medical plan coverage enhancement.
• Health plan contributions.
• Medical spending accounts.

Some tips for determining which incentives to use in your program are–

• Identify the incentives your employees value most.
• Identify the incentives your organization can provide.
• Consider whether to offer incentives for both participation and goal achievement.
• Avoid offering incentives for the "best," the "most," or physical changes such as number of pounds lost.¹⁸⁶
• Consider ways in which you can integrate incentives into your organization's benefits strategy, such as offering a reduction in health care premiums.¹⁸⁷

Develop Incentive Rules

Once you have selected your incentives, the next step is to develop rules for their use.
It's important to make sure that the system for distributing incentives is clear, fair, and easily tracked.

Examples of how to set rules and track incentive eligibility include–

• Ask your employees to fill out an activity log, weight loss record, or food journal.
• Track participation on a bulletin board and through contests.
• Use a "point" system where employees earn incentives based on the number of points that they have accrued based on how many servings of fruit and vegetables they eat per day or their attendance at health education or weight management classes.¹⁸⁸

It's important when using this approach to define the rules at the beginning and make sure to apply them consistently throughout the program.

Also in This Section

• Establish employee communication channels
• Plan the marketing strategy
• Launch the program
• Expert Interview - David Anderson, PhD
• Expert Interview - George J. Pfeiffer

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