Rewarding Wellness with Health-Inspired Merchandise March 16, 2009 Health and recreation merchandise calm the stress of the times.
By Alex Palmer
It seems that there's no time like the present for employees to get out of the office and let off some steam—and company leaders are using merchandise incentives to help make that happen. As the popularity of wellness incentive programs grows, and executives search for ways to boost morale while saving on health insurance costs, organizations are finding that there is value to be gained from using sports, recreation and wellness merchandise as employee rewards.
"Everyone's instituting wellness programs of some sort," says Lonn Shulkin, VP of marketing at Rideau Recognition Solutions.. He has seen both encouraging healthy behavior and using healthy rewards grow in popularity recently, partly because of their demonstrable success and low overhead. "They're pretty measurable from a return on investment standpoint…there's a lot of statistics and a lot of information saying that any sort of wellness program, even just a health assessment, are highly beneficial to reducing someone’s health premium."
Working with its U.S. partner, HR solution company Ceridian LifeWorks, Rideau is able to create a custom catalog for wellness, with all wellness-related merchandise, from dumbbells to golf equipment to yoga mats or a cooking set. So employees who are awarded with points because of healthy actions are able to redeem their points for healthy rewards.
Boosting Excitement
Merchandise can motivate not only as a reward to keep employees striving toward a goal, but to entice them to start healthy behavior in the first place. The leadership at law firm Fowler White Boggs has tapped into the power of tangible rewards to encourage athletic behavior among its staff. To get their 190 employees and attorneys to exercise and work off some of their day-to-day stress, the firm's leadership offers pedometers to any who take part in a company-wide walking competition. Using their pedometers (branded with the company logo) the employees track all the steps that they take each day—from walking through the office to walking to the bar after work.
"They are a big hit—it encourages people to participate just because they get a pedometer," says Denise Wheeler, managing shareholder of the firm's Fort Myers office.
Teams and individuals who rack up the most steps at the end of the competition are then rewarded with health-related products like Sports Authority gift cards or gym memberships. Wheeler says that some staff members have even started parking further from the office and taking the stairs as they try to boost their number of steps. This competition is part of what has become a culture of health at Fowler White Boggs. Interest in the walking competitions has expanded into weekly running outings for some offices, and six of the firm’s attorneys are planning to run in the annual St. Anthony's Triathalon at the end of the month in St. Petersburg, Fla.
To further encourage this culture of wellness and recreation, the firm's Fort Myers office recently held a dark chocolate and wine tasting event for clients and employees, co-sponsored by the American Heart Association. They had stations with "heart-healthy facts" about exercising, healthy living and diet (including the healthy aspects of a small daily intake of dark chocolate and red wine) and gave these food and beverage samples as an enticement.
Jennifer Storm, executive director of the Victim/Witness Assistance Program at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Penn. has taken similar steps on a smaller scale, instituting a VWAP Fit Club for her 15-person staff. For one afternoon a week, the employees go for a walk also with pedometers supplied by the managers.
"The staff love it and it encourages them to de-stress and get a workout," says Strong. "Often times, when the weather is nice and we are all leaving in the afternoon, people from other offices will stop us and ask what we are doing and we always hear that they wished their bosses allowed them to do the same."
Keeping Awards Diverse
"Within the last year or two, wellness programs have become a lot more popular, everyone wants to be fit and there's an interest in working out and eating right," says Emily Sadlock of Rymax Marketing Services. Sadlock says that Rymax offers a wide range of awards, from full-scale Nautilus home gyms to the more easily stored SPRI resistance exercise equipment (one of their clients—a major food and beverage firm—has included a pair of SPRI products in their incentive program).
But Sadlock also emphasizes incorporating merchandise into the program that may not traditionally be thought of as exercise equipment. Non-stick frying pans, massage chairs or iPods can all be used as part of a healthy and active life. These days, with reducing stress as important as losing weight, a more expansive definition of "wellness" is becoming more accepted.
"Wellness doesn't just encompass working out," says Sadlock. "It's de-stressing and relaxing and eating right. It’s about the total mind, body and soul."
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