Why Supporting Employees With The Right Workplace Well-being Strategy Is Smart Business

Employers can make a difference by implementing a workplace well-being strategy that incentivizes and boosts employee health, morale, and productivity, while at the same time, helps reduce costs.

A Whole Health Approach To Workplace

Well-being

While “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is still a great general approach to health, employees’ needs have evolved to include care that impacts their whole health.

Employers should consider well-being programs that focus on fundamental areas to improve overall health and reduce costs of care. For example, Anthem’s Wellbeing Solutions programs utilize tailored interventions and rewards to help employees achieve their goals in three unique areas — and deliver meaningful results for your business.

1. Preventive Care. Wellbeing Solutions offers a range of engagement packages encouraging your workforce to schedule annual exams, vaccines, and screenings that can help them stay healthier, catch issues early on, and may even save their life. This includes things like:
   
   
   • Annual wellness exams
     
   • Flu shots
     
   • Eye exams
     
   • Yearly mammograms
     
   • Cholesterol screenings
     
     
2. Condition Management. Employees often need extra support to manage ongoing conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, heart disease, or heart failure. Access to dietitians, health educators, and pharmacists through the Wellbeing Solutions program can help them learn about and effectively manage their condition — while receiving incentives for screenings and routine tests along the way.
   
   
3. Overall Wellness. Wellbeing Solutions also provides access to helpful resources like an employee assistance program (EAP), emotional well-being programs, wellness coaches, steps tracking, and other wellness videos and tools employees can view at their leisure. They also can receive monetary rewards for completing healthy activities.

Why Incentives Matter

People are often motivated to accomplish something if there is a reward on the other side. From getting a T-shirt at the end of a 5K race to earning a monetary bonus every year at their job, different incentives appeal to different people.

Offering incentives that are simple and appeal to all individuals are key to employee adoption and engagement. An Anthem internal study found that employees with incentives are:

• 3.8x more likely to have completed their annual wellness exam and receive a flu shot than those with no incentive.
• 1.4x more likely to participate in condition management programs than those with no incentive.

Here are just some of the ways employees can earn incentives through Anthem’s Wellbeing Solutions program:

• Preventive care activities like wellness exams and flu shots can earn employees $25.
• Condition management like a diabetic foot exam or lab test, or a call with a well-being coach, can earn employees $25-$225.
• Extra activities such as taking a health assessment, tracking steps, and using an EAP can reward up to $60 per activity.

More robust incentives are available depending on the program level in which the business participates.

Implementing a workplace well-being strategy is crucial for retaining employees, maintaining productivity, and improving employee wellness. By supporting employees and encouraging preventive care, wellness resources, and condition management, businesses will be able to keep their employees engaged and encouraged — and lower healthcare costs — which benefits everyone.