The Impact of Wellness Incentives

Many people could benefit from a nudge to help them exercise more, improve their finances or get a recommended health screening.

A recent report from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans suggests that organizations that provide motivation in the form of incentives tend to have better participation in their wellness programs, likely leading to improvement in several workforce measures.

Workplace Wellness and Financial Education: 2025 Survey Report uncovers insights into the types of wellness incentives organizations offer and their impact on program participation as well as overall worker wellness and organizational goals.

More than four in ten (44%) survey respondents said they offer an incentive for at least one of their wellness initiatives. In addition, 19% said incentives are offered through a vendor or health care provider. Thirty-eight percent said they do not offer incentives.  

Organizations offer a wide range of incentives, such as gift cards, insurance premium reductions, meals and additional time off.

Worker Participation  

Organizations that offer wellness incentives were more likely to report that worker participation in their initiatives was very positive or somewhat positive (39%), compared with 17% among organizations that do not offer wellness incentives. In addition, organizations that offer incentives more frequently stated that leaders actively participate in initiatives (34%) compared with organizations that don’t offer incentives (20%).  

Organizations that reported a positive rating for program participation also offer incentives for a higher number of initiatives than those that did not have a positive view. This data suggests that incentivizing more initiatives leads to higher worker participation overall. The following initiatives had higher participation rates if an incentive was offered (i.e., they received more positive participation ratings when an incentive was offered versus when an incentive was not offered).

• Health screenings (60% vs. 32%)
• Fitness program/competition (41% vs. 30%)
• Financial education workshop/course (23% vs. 13%)
• Health fair (23% vs. 11%)
• Weight loss/management program (21% vs. 10%)

Benefits of Incentives

Organizations that offer incentives were more likely to say the overall goal of their wellness initiatives is to improve overall worker health and well-being and workplace culture, with nearly two-thirds (65%) stating that as their goal, while only 58% of organizations that don’t offer incentives said the same. Organizations that offer incentives also more frequently reported positive ratings of the following workforce measures compared with those that don’t.

• Retirement preparedness (45% vs. 36%)
• Increasing physical activity (89% vs. 69%)
• Improving healthy eating (76% vs. 51%)

Impact on Organizational Goals

Organizations that offer wellness incentives were more likely to indicate that their wellness initiatives were very effective in these areas:

• Improving organizational attraction (20% vs. 7%)  
• Improving worker morale (15% vs. 8%)
• Improving worker productivity/engagement (13% vs. 6%).

Leadership Support

In addition of incentives, leadership involvement can have a positive impact on worker wellness participation. Organizations that have leadership work with their wellness initiatives rated their wellness participation as positive (37%) while organizations that didn’t have that assistance had a lower positive rating (26%). Specific types of leadership support that had the largest impact on positive ratings of participation include:  

• Acting as role models for prioritizing health and work-life balance
• Recognizing workers for their healthy actions and outcomes.

Dedicated Wellness Budgets

Organizations that offer wellness incentives more commonly have a dedicated wellness budget (72%) compared with those that don’t offer wellness incentives (26%).

Organizations with a wellness budget are more likely to have staff outside of the human resources department or external providers working with their wellness initiatives than those without a budget, such as:

• Workers with an interest (37% vs. 8%)
• Wellness committees (36% vs. 11%)
• Wellness professionals (30% vs. 5%)
• External vendors (42% vs. 22%)
• Wellness consultants (25% vs. 14%).

Conclusion

Responses from the report indicate that incentives significantly impact participation in wellness initiatives. However, the report does not address their effect on long-term versus short-term engagement, whether they truly support behavior change, or if they foster a shift from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation over time. While understanding incentives is important, participation alone is only one part of the story when it comes to lasting wellness outcomes. Workplace Wellness and Financial Education: 2025 Survey Report offers additional details about wellness incentives and provides a comprehensive examination of workplace wellness.

This blog was originally published on Word on Benefits.

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  Tyler Lloyd

  Research Analyst

  International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

  Favorite Foundation Product: Surveys! 

  Benefits-related topics that interest him the most: HR Analytics 

  Personal Insights: When Tyler is not spending time with his family you may see him mountain biking, hunting, renovating houses, or sampling a 10-year-old bottle of bourbon.