Corporate wellness incentives: make the useful choice easier
Examine the practical costs of using a wellbeing benefit before trying to persuade employees that they ought to use it.
The performance question
An employee can be offered a perfectly good service and still face a perfectly good reason not to use it. The appointment clashes with a shift. A manager must approve the time. Booking requires three systems and a private explanation in a public office. Management calls this a motivation problem because motivation sounds easier to address than scheduling. In corporate wellness, the useful question is often not how to make the offer more attractive. It is what the employee must give up, disclose or negotiate in order to accept it.
What the evidence supports
NICE recommends making workplace mental wellbeing approaches accessible and considering the needs of different employees. HSE guidance on control includes employee input into breaks and work patterns. These support looking at practical access rather than interpreting every unused benefit as lack of interest. They do not show that a particular reminder, reward or booking design will increase uptake in every organisation. Suggestions about friction should be tested locally and should never make participation compulsory by stealth.12
A practical approach
Walk through the access process with employees in different roles. Include someone on a shift, someone working remotely and someone with limited private space. Count approvals and handovers rather than simply counting clicks. Ask whether participation creates work for colleagues or requires an uncomfortable disclosure. Trial a simpler booking route, protected time or a clearer explanation of confidentiality. Keep a straightforward way to decline. Avoid competitions that expose health information or imply that employees who cannot participate are less committed to their wellbeing. Good design makes a useful option available without turning it into another performance target.
How to review progress
Review completed access rather than the number of invitation emails opened. Ask whether the change helped people who previously faced the greatest practical barriers. Watch for unexpected effects, including managers discouraging use when workloads rise. Increased participation is not itself proof of improved health or business performance. It is evidence that the offer may have become easier to use. The next question is whether it meets a real need. Removing an unnecessary obstacle is often less conspicuous than announcing an incentive, but it may be the more respectful intervention.
Sources and references
- Mental wellbeing at work Opens in a new tab
NICE
NG212 sections 1.1 to 1.6: strategy, environment, managers and individual support
- Management Standards: Control Opens in a new tab
Health and Safety Executive
Pace of work, initiative, breaks and consultation
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