Making Wellness Rewarding... Without Rewards
November 21, 2011
It’s widely, though not universally, accepted among established wellness programs that you have to provide some form of incentive or disincentive to get people involved in healthy lifestyle programs. At Health Enhancement Systems we’ve long argued against giving people cash because it becomes gas money, is used to pay off credit cards, or quickly dissipates in some other way. At least a T-shirt is a reminder of their effort and achievement — maybe enough of a positive reinforcement to keep the participant going a little longer.
In a new book called How Cooperation Triumphs Over Self-Interest, author Yochai Benkler provides plenty of data as well as anecdotal evidence suggesting extrinsic rewards may be counter-productive. Benkler concludes in a recent Harvard Business Review article: “We shouldn’t try to motivate people only by offering them material payoffs; we should also focus on motivating them socially and intellectually by making cooperation social, autonomous, rewarding, and even — if you can swing it — fun.”
If ever there was a philosophy to guide wellness programming, this is it. Here’s why:
- Social motivation. Forget about Facebook and Twitter for a moment and think about the times in your life when you’ve been most happy, engaged, inspired, uplifted. Undoubtedly, those occasions occurred in a setting with family, friends, or coworkers — and live…in real-time, not digitally/electronically. Life’s greatest highs are shared. It only makes sense your wellness efforts should look for every opportunity to engage people in a group, not just on their computer screen, but eyeball to eyeball.
- Intellectual motivation. While people want to be told what to do for better health, they don’t want to be patronized. Repeating the “take the stairs instead of the elevator” message a gazillion times over the years and leaving it at that is like beige walls: you know they’re beige, but you couldn’t care less. Give your participants a mental workout with each wellness program, pushing them to learn and do, for a better chance at making the behavior their own.
- Autonomous motivation. While people want to know what to do, they also want the freedom to decide how to do it. This is one of the hardest things for some health promoters to accept. (“After all, I’ve got MS, RD, MD, MPH, or LMNOP after my name; I know exactly what people should do to improve health.”) Maybe. But if they don’t have a feeling of control, if they aren’t invested in their own ability to make the changes, it doesn’t matter how many advanced degrees you have. Give clients the freedom to control their own health destiny and be ready to support them as needed.
- Reward motivation. In our never-ending quest of population health management, ROI analysis for every wellness program expenditure, and the perfect ratio of healthcare premium incentives to gift card rewards, we seem to have lost sight of the most fundamental motivation: Good health is its own reward. Ask someone who’s lost 20 pounds and fits into clothes they haven’t worn in years how it feels. Watch their face light up as they go on about how much energy they have, how good they feel about themselves, and their positive outlook. The reward of good health is priceless. Attaching a gift card to it only cheapens the accomplishment.
- Fun motivation. Of the thousands of wellness program managers we’ve served over the years, the ones who consistently report the most success with their population are those where fun is a central theme. That doesn’t mean they’re not focused on the dollars and cents, but they’ve learned to engage more people with a lighthearted approach than a risk-based, science, or economic-centered focus. And let’s face it, lots of things about work can be un-fun, so why not make wellness a place for smiles and laughter?
A wellness program’s mission is so much greater than the temporary reduction in rising healthcare costs you may achieve with financial carrots. You can make a difference in how participants feel, their productivity, and impact on coworkers, family, and friends. You have the potential to change lives. Think carefully about that opportunity the next time someone proposes $50 for completing an HRA.
