ARMONK, NY – IBM has added a new children’s health rebate to its wellness incentive programs for all U.S. employees.
As part of its benefits package, IBM will award $150 cash rebates to employees who engage in good nutrition and physical activity for their entire family.
The goal is to instill lifelong healthy habits.
“Our history has been to design around interventions,” said Joyce Young, MD, IBM’s well-being director.
IBM employees can report their progress through the 12-week course with an interactive online tool that tracks the entire family’s eating and exercise habits.
“We designed it in a way to get in and out easily, to be attractive but not burdensome,” Young said.
At the same time, however, a lot of effort is involved during the 12 weeks, creating an incentive for participants to complete the program. “Process is part of the therapy,” she said. “If you do it long enough, it becomes habit.”
During the program, participants can create goals and see where they need to focus their energy.
Young anticipates a healthy adoption rate to the new rebate. “Response to these types of programs at IBM has been historically positive,” she said, noting that approximately 62 percent of IBM’s employees participate in at least one of the healthy living rebate program.
Several studies confirm that incentives are a good idea, said Ron Goetzel, founding director of the Cornell University Institute for Policy Research’s Institute for Health and Productivity Studies. “You get high participation rates when you get people involved and engaged in wellness programs,” he said.
Goetzel said employers who want to positively impact their employees’ behavior in the workplace need four main ingredients: awareness, motivation, skills to learn and achieve outcomes, and opportunity from employers to allow employees to engage in activities and programs.
Employers can facilitate the development of social networks among peers by encouraging workplace programs that become the norm. What wellness programs employers choose to pursue “all boils down to how much you think they are really going to show improvement,” Goetzel said.
IBM is not alone in providing worksite-based programs. The C. Everett Koop National Health Awards has recognized similar pioneers such as the Pepsi Bottling Group, Union Pacific Railroad, USAA, Motorola and Cigna.