The Gamification of Wellness: Rewarding Employees for Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Reward points – it’s a concept we’re all familiar with. From airline miles to cash back points for credit cards, these membership-based reward programs encourage loyalty and influence consumer behaviors. At the same time, employers are used to motivating their employees through commissions, objective-based bonuses, awards, and other types of reward and recognition incentive programs that drive desired bottom line outcomes for the employer. What would happen if employers could merge the best aspects of point-based incentive programs into their reward and recognition programs in order to recognize and reward their employees for healthy lifestyle behaviors?

American employees spend more than $150 billion per year treating obesity-related conditions and employer health plan premiums continue to increase as well. And even though employers and employees know that physical activity is the strongest medicine to combat obesity-related disease, half of the people who start exercising will quit within six weeks. The fatal flaw in all traditional approaches to health and wellbeing is that they do not adequately provide mechanisms for sustained motivation and program engagement.

Through the Gamification of Wellness, companies can find a win-win – motivating their employees to adopt healthy, sustainable behaviors that positively impact the bottom line. Employees can receive instant recognition and reward through individual and team-based competition, social interaction, fitness event challenges, and point-based social and cash-equivalent currency models that provide a perpetual cycle of reward and recognition that inspire and incentivize long-term healthy behaviors. and improve workplace dynamics like teamwork.

Human Resources professional will learn how game mechanics can be applied to wellness to improve workplace dynamics like teamwork, while delivering a measurable improvement in the health of their employees.

Human Resource Professionals who are tasked with finding innovative means for rewarding and recognizing employees, engaging and enhancing employee morale, or reducing the health and wellness costs of their employee population.

1) What is the concept of the Gamification of Wellness, rewarding people for healthy habits and an active lifestyle? 2) Why have advances in technology and the social media revolution made it possible to track, incentivize and reward healthy behaviors? 3) How can a gamification program have an impact on the lives of employee populations?

More information about the gamification of wellness can be found at www.sweatequitycoalition.com

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