GiftCard Partners Blog

Two new federal privacy rules for employer wellness programs were recently issued. The rules outline how employer-based wellness programs must handle the health information they request and receive from employees and their spouses. These rules come into place as growing concerns for employee privacy have been surrounding wellness programs.

According to a new poll of 617 full-time workers by
Flex+Strategy Group and Work+Life Fit, about half of all U.S. workers take part in some kind of wellness initiative, while about a third of all workers participate in some kind of employer-sponsored initiative. So if half of employees are doing some kind of exercise, and a third are doing it with work, what’s everyone else up to?

While the number of wellness programs continues to grow, we can’t help but wonder which incentives in corporate wellness are truly motivating employees to participate in programs and, most importantly, to stay well. There is still so much to learn about what works best in wellness and we are quickly learning that there is no one-size fits all motivator and motivation can be both
intrinsic and
extrinsic.

Top stories from the CVS Pharmacy® April Wellness Newsletter!

Wellness has become a fundamental part of a company's benefits program. 70% of employers now offer employees a general wellness program. This edition of the CVS Pharmacy® April Wellness Newsletter focuses on using rewards and incentives to encourage healthy behavior changes, resources on how to maintain engagement and secure long-term program success, CVS news and more.  Read below for more on what this edition has to offer.

Workplace wellness programs are beneficial to both employers and employees, but how much are wellness programs really adding to the bottom line? Many skeptics continue to argue that saving money on wellness programs is as plausible as finding that flying pig. But ROI is a narrow metric that doesn’t always portray the full story of a wellness program's success, not to mention the ROI debate has focused mainly on one type of wellness program, lifestyle management (think diet and exercise). Since ROI only tells half the story, how do we know what's working for our workplace wellness programs? Back in September, we discussed that
64% of corporate wellness administrators were using VOI to measure their program. While VOI has faced some scrutiny of its own, it measures the intangible benefits of wellness, such as employee morale, engagement, and productivity, in addition to hard ROI. More companies realize that increasing these intangibles can improve their culture and in turn increase their bottom line.