Companies have discovered that happy employees make for
better business, and it's not just about productivity. Healthy employees
affect the bottom line, ultimately costing a company less money in the
long run than unhealthy employees, according to a report in the Harvard Business Review. The article highlights a study by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health,
which found that employee wellness programs can significantly improve
employee retention: Nine percent of employees left a company with a
strong wellness program, while a company without a focus on corporate
wellness lost 15 percent of its employees voluntarily.
The benefits of a well-organized corporate wellness program
are clear, but how can HR get employees to actually participate in these
efforts? One trend that has emerged, thanks to technology, is equipping
employees with fitness trackers to motivate them towards their goals.
One of the more popular choices, FitBit, offers several models of
fitness trackers, which makes it a great option for am entire business.
Runners can get a watch equipped with a heart rate sensor and GPS and
those who prefer to focus on steps and nutrition can stick with the
entry-level Flex, with more devices in between.
"There really isn't a one size fits all program, and there's a really
broad definition of what corporate wellness means," says Amy McDonough,
vice president & general manager of Fitbit Wellness, "So it can be
everything from a stepping or walking based program -- and that's maybe
an easy place to get started and get your team engaged -- to everything
that ties back into a benefits design and program."
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FitBit hasn't just changed how consumers view their own
health goals, it's also changed the way HR views corporate wellness
programs. In the past, if HR wanted to organize a wellness event, it
required paperwork, pedometers, handwritten notes and a lot of time and
energy for HR workers, on top of their other duties. Employees would
have to fill out forms outlining their exercise for the past month,
which lent itself to limited accountability and a lack of verification.
With the FitBit program, all of that is taken care of for HR, so they
can simply get down to analyzing the data.
Interestingly, FitBit finds that a lot of the companies it
works with decide on a fitness tracker based program out of personal
experience. "If you think about your executive or HR manager who maybe
got [a FitBit] on their own and then they think about how much more
effective this would be if they could pull this into their corporate
wellness program that they have responsibilities for," says McDonough.
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Implementing a widespread wellness program complete with
fitness trackers and new technology can be understandably overwhelming,
depending on the size of the company, but HR departments aren't left to
their own devices. FitBit helps with acquisition of the devices by
designing company-specific online storefronts for employees where they
can choose the device that best suits them at a subsidized cost
determined by the company.
Employees can also get training from FitBit so they are
prepared to use their new devices. HR employees get training from FitBit
on how to use the administrator platform, which gives them access to
aggregate data around the health progress of employees. Of course,
employees must opt in to share this data, and it's generally limited to
overall stats, so an HR manager can't drill down into one employee's
specific habits.
Let's get physical and social
FitBit's user interface also encourages engagement through a
social and competitive component. You can connect with one another
online, so an entire team can compete for the most steps in a day or
week. Getting executives on board is another motivating factor, as one
hospital, Houston Methodist discovered. After learning that FitBit users
who have at least one friend with a FitBit get 27 percent more steps
than those who don't, the hospital subsidized the cost for not only its
employees, but their spouses or partners as well. And it worked, Houston
Methodist found employees were taking more steps, getting out during
breaks and forming better relationships with coworkers over step counts.
In the end, 90 percent of employees participated in the corporate
wellness program and averaged 16,000 steps per day.
And executive participation can help the people in charge
form better relationships with their employees. At Houston Methodist,
"The CEO actually put out his step count, published it, felt comfortable
with that and asked everyone who worked for his organization to try to
beat his step count," says McDonough.
Related Story: 3 easy ways to rack up Fitbit steps while you work
HR can use fitness trackers to motivate employees to take
part in corporate wellness efforts by offering prizes and incentives
throughout the program. For example, Houston Methodist gave employees
credits that helped them get a better shot at winning the grand prize of
$10,000. In the end, nearly all the employees who participated also
indicated they would continue to use their fitness tracker and would
gladly participate in another competition.
Can FitBit bring insurance costs down?
And it's not just companies seeing the cost-saving benefits of healthy employees, even insurance companies are incentivizing healthy clients with lower premiums
and other rewards using fitness trackers. The healthier you get, the
better discount you can get on your monthly healthcare fees.
While the idea of a company-issued fitness tracker has some screaming "big-brother surveillance,"
with the FitBit program, employees have to give explicit consent to
have their data shared, and any data that is shared gives an overall
picture of progress rather than specific details. Even with concerns,
fitness trackers certainly aren't going anywhere, especially with the
dawn of the smartwatch -- tech companies seem adamant on getting a
connected device on to every wrist.
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