GiftCard Partners and CVS/pharmacy recently co-sponsored a webinar called Healthcare Reform’s Impact on Wellness – How to Incentivize Employees to Engage in Healthy Behavior. Speakers included Jonathan Edelheit, Editor in Chief of Benefits Live Magazine, Vanessa Cullerton, Senior Manager of Employee Wellness for the Hillshire Brands Company, Stacey Nelson, Manager of Health and Welfare for Sprint; and our own Edward Shulkin, President of GiftCard Partners.
The webinar tees up many of the effects of healthcare reform on wellness programs, but it also dives into actual employee wellness and safety incentives cases as well. In the webinar, Edelheit says: “If we look at manufacturing; gift card incentives are used really to motivate employees to engage in safer behaviors. That’s been happening for a while as a reward. If it’s done systematically with proper measurement methods, and you create a culture of preventing accidents, the company’s going to realize an ROI of increased productivity, reduced healthcare premiums, and potentially reduced worker comp claims. If we look at unsafe workplaces in this context, the National Safety Council reported that 3.8 million annual workplace injuries took place in the U.S., 90,000 of which caused permanent damage. The average cost per injury is $28,000, which was for a grand total of $130 billion dollars nationally.”
In our research, we found manufacturers getting creative with their safety programs, like a manufacturer who puts gift cards to work as incentives within their safety program: An electronics and process controls company plays “Safety Bingo” every month and they have been accident free for 15 years. “I use them as prizes, sometimes we will have 2 games going at one time like 4 corners and a regular Bingo, so I will give a $50 gift card for the 4 corners. Or I will surprise an employee who I catch using all their PPE (personal protective equipment) correctly.”
Register and check out the full webinar for more examples on how incentives are being used: Healthcare Reform’s Impact on Corporate Wellness & Incentivizing Employees
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
