Personalization, providing rewards, and understanding what employees want are key to maximizing value in employer-sponsored health and wellness programs according to results from a new national survey released by Welltok, Inc., developer of the CaféWell Health Optimization Platform ™ and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), a nonprofit organization that leads initiatives to address the most relevant healthcare issues facing employers today.

The survey, Whispers from the Water Cooler: What motivates employees to improve their health and well-being, explores how employees view an employer's involvement in programs that impact physical and emotional health, social connectedness, and financial security. The survey also examined the impact of rewards, uncovered participation motivators, and exposed where opinions differ by gender, income, and age.

"The majority of companies providing health and well-being programs can maximize the value of what they are offering, regardless of their current levels of employee participation," said Michelle Snyder—chief marketing officer for Welltok—in a press release. "Clearly, not every group is motivated by the same drivers and there is room for all to grow. The findings confirm that employers must connect individuals with the right topics and content, as well as create the right support networks if they want to generate the highest possible return on investment."

Based on the responses of over 1,000 full-time employees working for large companies, the results show that a vast majority perceive employer-sponsored programs as having a positive impact. Other notable survey findings include:

• Satisfaction with health and wellness programs is high, but more personalization is needed. Most participants (81%) saw a positive impact on their physical well-being and more than 60% agreed or strongly agreed that including family in such programs would likely increase their participation.
  
  
  • For those that did not participate, 37% did not find them personally relevant and 20% didn't know they were available, a strong indication that greater personalization and awareness is needed to drive employee engagement.


• Rewards work for all employees, regardless of income and age. The majority (91%) would engage in healthier behaviors if they were rewarded, including those who had an income of at least $200,000 (78%). Nearly all employees under 35-years-old agreed (98%), but those over 55 weren't quite as motivated by rewards (85%).


• Colleagues and direct managers are top motivators. 86% ranked their colleagues as one of the top motivators to improving their overall health and well-being at work, followed closely by their direct manager (57%).
  
  
  • Perceptions varied by age, however. Millennials were partial to their direct manager's influence (64%) but less so to human resources (HR) (24%) whereas their 55 or older counterparts were less motivated by direct managers (51%) and more influenced by HR (40%).


• Younger and lower income employees say employers should help them to become more financially secure. More than half (63%) of the households making less than $50,000 wanted employers to play a role in their financial wellness, while that figure dropped to less than half (44%) for those making $200,000 or more.
  
  
  • Looking at age, 60% of participants between 18 and 34 thought employers should be involved in financial health, whereas less than half of those 45 and older agreed.
  • Gender impacted these perceptions as well—58% of females felt employers should play a role in employees' financial health versus 48% of males.


• There is a role for employers in improving health and wellbeing, but participation still lags. When asked about the role employers should play in employee health, getting cost effective care and providing emotional/personal support resources ranked highest among respondents (77% and 74% agreed or strongly agreed, respectively).
  
  
  • The majority of employees also see a role for their employer in helping them to stop unhealthy behaviors or managing financial issues (53% agreed or strongly agreed).
  • Yet participation in employer-sponsored programs remains low. For example, emotional health and financial security programs had the lowest levels of participation—24% and 37%, respectively.
  • Even physical health programs have room for improvement—only 48% of employees had participated in a program to help them improve their physical health.

"It is clear that employees can benefit from employer-sponsored programs aimed at improving physical, financial, and emotional health, along with decision support resources to maximize their health care experience," said Brian Marcotte, CEO and president of the National Business Group on Health. "The 'one size fits all' approach to communications, however, has proven ineffective in engaging employees and engagement is now the number one challenge facing employers. Personalization is the key and there are emerging engagement platforms and point solutions that show great promise in driving and sustaining engagement by leveraging data, predictive analytics, and technology to reach people with personalized, timely, relevant, and actionable information."

Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by the National Business Group of Health in partnership with Welltok from April 29 to May 11, 2016. One thousand and three online interviews were conducted based on the following criteria: companies employed more than 1,000 people at all locations, respondents received health insurance provided by their current employer, and were working full-time (more than 30 hours per week). This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.