Employee Wellness Incentives: A Deep Dive into Their Importance, Types, and Creative Ideas

Safeguarding employee well-being has become an important issue for employers and HRs to solve across companies worldwide as of late. Major companies have even started adopting corporate wellness programs to combat health-related problems. However, the tricky part is keeping the employees' spirit of participation high and strong.

Most employees may lose motivation to participate in wellness programs even though they may achieve good health in the long run. In such a case, implementing wellness incentive ideas can work.

Incentives have always helped humans to change their behavior or achieve specific goals. Incentives are a great way to increase the participation rate and engagement of wellness programs. This, in turn, will help employees to stay in good health.

As an employee, even I find that monetary incentives have significantly boosted my motivation to complete assigned tasks in the organization's wellness challenges.

Wondering how to keep employees engaged in wellness programs? If so, you are in for a treat!

In this blog, you get to learn about wellness incentives and their types, as well as fresh incentive ideas and some related key strategies. So, let's get started!

What is a Wellness Incentive?

A wellness incentive is a motivator that impacts the overall well-being of an individual.

Employers can use wellness incentives to offer rewards and recognition to employees who are committed to their well-being. In the long run, this helps to promote workplace wellness.

Here are some instances where employees can enjoy the benefits of wellness incentives:

• Meeting their daily step goals or completing a workout session
• Practicing mindfulness meditation
• Participating in financial workshops
• Using company-sponsored wellness apps to track and improve mood

Incentives hold the power to instill healthy lifestyle habits among employees. It is often combined with various wellness campaigns to increase participation. For example, employers can also offer incentives to employees who:

• complete a health risk assessment

• form long-term healthy lifestyle habits

The beauty of offering wellness incentives is that they can target all dimensions of wellness - physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial.

Regarding eligibility criteria, wellness incentive programs suit full-time and part-time employees. In the case of part-time employees, their eligibility for incentive programs depends on their working hours.

Now, let's look at why wellness programs should have incentives.

Why Should Wellness Incentives Be Included in an Employee Wellness Program?

Incorporating a wellness incentive program has its fair share of benefits. I am listing some of the reasons why an employee wellness program should include incentives.

1. Improves employee participation and engagement rate

Incentives are an excellent motivator for employees to participate in and stay engaged in employee wellness programs. Maintaining engagement in any workplace activity is tricky, but incentives are how employers and HRs can drive employee engagement.

It is also worth mentioning that most wellness programs are designed to develop healthy competition among the participants, which further helps in boosting engagement. So, it is safe to say that a well-designed wellness program with the element of incentivization can help improve employee participation and engagement rate.

2. Improves talent recruitment and acquisition

Nowadays, most job seekers are interested in staying with organizations that value and respect employee wellness. They prefer workplaces that focus on overall employee well-being, which is one reason wellness incentives are a driving factor in attracting and retaining top talent.

3. Helps in promoting lifelong habits among employees

It is well known that most people need at least 21 days to develop a new habit.

Successfully implementing employee incentives can lead to the development of lifelong healthy habits. Wellness incentives act as a positive motivator for employees to adopt healthy behaviors.

Healthy habits among employees minimize health risks, reducing healthcare costs. It's a win-win situation for all.

4. Builds a company culture of health

Nowadays, employees seek organizations that promote healthy lifestyles. Offering incentive programs is a great way to build a positive company culture and showcase the organization's dedication to employee health.

This was all about how incentives help the wellness program's success. But there's another aspect to incentives: is there just one type of incentive? Well, for that, hop on to the next section.

What Are the Types of Wellness Program Incentives?

Five primary types of incentives are popularly offered within employee wellness programs.

• Monetary incentives: This type of incentive directly offers financial rewards to employees who actively participate in wellness programs.

• Experiential incentives: This type of incentive refers to non-materialistic rewards like a day off or gift cards for wellness. The idea behind offering such an incentive is to make participating employees feel good and appreciated for their dedication to wellness.

• Progress-based incentives: This involves incentivizing participants who strive to the end of a wellness challenge. For instance, you can apply this type of incentive system to a six-week weight loss challenge. You can reward the achiever if the participant meets a specific weekly target.

• Participation-based incentives: In this type, employees who participate in wellness events receive rewards through certificates or redeemable points. The idea behind this incentive is to acknowledge and appreciate the participants.

• Performance-based incentives: These include offering incentives to employees based on their performance while completing a certain target of the wellness challenge tasks.

14 Ideas for Wellness Incentive Rewards Employers Must Try In 2025

Monetary incentives

Monetary incentives are most employers' go-to wellness incentive rewards. Such incentives include:

1. Cash bonuses

Cash bonuses are an effective and motivating incentive for employees to participate actively in wellness programs. Keep cash bonuses for employees who complete a specific task within the wellness challenge.

To begin with this incentive approach, decide how employees will become eligible. For instance, set a bonus of $25 to $50 for those who complete 10,000 steps 5 days a week.

2. E-gift cards

Gift cards are another great way to create employee engagement for wellness programs. It is an incentive that allows employees to avail themselves of products at discounted rates from multiple global brands.

Employers can introduce e-gift cards for popular fitness-related merchandise or subscriptions within their wellness program. Employees who complete certain wellness goals can avail themselves of this incentive.

However, manually managing a reward system may be time-consuming for employers and admins. This is why leveraging a wellness platform like Vantage Fit is crucial. It simplifies the process of hosting wellness challenges as well as reward distribution.

With Vantage Fit, employers can fix the loopholes related to employee well-being. Wondering how? Get in touch with our experts, who will give you a walkthrough of Vantage Fit.

3. Gym memberships reimbursement

The "Hitting the gym" culture is growing rapidly among adults globally. The biggest challenge related to the gym is maintaining consistency. But there is another hurdle many have faced, including me: the challenge of paying gym fees regularly due to financial crunches.

So, offering gym membership reimbursement is an excellent motivator for employees to keep hitting the gym and engaging in the wellness program.

4. Financial contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs)

A health savings account is a tax-free personal bank account used to pay specific medical bills only. Employees who achieve certain milestones, such as completing 10,000 steps three days a week at least, can open and contribute to the account.

Experiential incentives

5. Day off from work

"I don't want an extra day off from work," no employee has ever said. However, a complimentary day off from work is one of the best incentives an employer can use to reward an employee in this case.

6. Wellness Spa gift cards

A day at the spa is no less than heaven on earth for working individuals. It is another potential wellness incentive that can drive employee engagement and participation. Offer gift cards of different ranges, which participants can win after achieving certain targets within a challenge.

7. Fitness app subscription

Fitness mobile apps and platforms are gaining much traction, given the craze over staying fit and healthy. Offer free subscriptions of popular fitness apps as incentives, which will further motivate employees to keep their wellness on track.

Just like gift cards, fitness app subscriptions should be offered based on the milestones that participants will achieve.

8. Fitness goodie bag

A wholesome free goodie bag is always an attractive reward, and this is applicable to all age groups. Am I right? Well, a fitness goodie bag can be a tempting incentive for employees competing in a contest within a wellness program.

Here's what an attractive fitness goodie bag can look like:

• High-quality water bottle
• Fitness tracker
• Wellness Journal
• Stress buster essentials like essential oils, stress ball
• Gym bag

Progress based incentives

9. Wellness Passport:

Create a program where employees earn stamps or points for completing activities such as logging a yoga session or hitting water intake goals. Once their "passport" is filled, they can redeem it for rewards via a rewards platform.

10. Customizable health box

A customizable health box is similar to a goodie bag, yet there's a catch. Employees hitting their wellness targets within the challenges will get access to a health box. They can handpick the contents of the box. Here are some ideas on what they can choose from for their health box:

• Organic snacks
• Health bars
• Fitness gadgets
• Self-care products

Participation based incentives

11. Recognition badges

The act of recognition always shows that the employer and management are going the extra mile.

Offer digital badges for employees who complete specific activities and maintain a streak, like running or walking three days a week. Invest in physical badges to make this incentive more attractive.

12. Appreciation on social media

In the digital age we live in, recognition over social media always feels special. Employees who participate in and complete at least 50 percent or more of every active wellness challenge get a shoutout on the organization's social media platform, internal groups, and newsletter.

Performance-based incentives

13. Wellness Champion Award

Reward employees who inspire others by consistently performing well in wellness challenges and hitting all their goals receive a trophy. To be more specific, those who perform well consistently every month, quarter, and year will be eligible for this award.

14. Team Hero Award

Teams that collectively complete wellness activities, like total steps or hours of exercise logged, win a group outing or a catered healthy lunch.

What Are the Key Steps for Effective Wellness Program Incentive Management?

The successful implementation of wellness incentive ideas involves an effective wellness program incentive management. It's how employees can stay engaged. Now, how does one have an adequate incentive management system?

The answer here is there are some key strategies that leaders must consider in this case. Below are key steps that are worth mentioning here:

1. Handpicking the right incentive

Offering the correct type of incentive is essential for a successful incentive system. Make sure the incentives hold long-term value for the employees to relish. Create a wellness committee to review and brainstorm everything required to make the process hassle-free.

2. Determining which tasks to incentivize

The entire point of enforcing a wellness program is to improve employee health. To kick start this initiative, understanding the weak points of a workforce is vital. How to do that, you ask?!

Here's an instance: HR management of a medium-sized organization analyzes the average number of steps their employees complete daily. The analysis shows that a handful of employees complete less than 3000 to 5000 steps daily, categorizing them as high-risk.

The HR can then introduce a wellness task wherein participants must complete at least 6,000 steps daily. To fuel participation, HR has to assign incentives for employees who complete this task.

The desired outcome of the above is employees meeting their daily step count while enjoying their incentivization perk. And in the long run, the organization will have happier and healthier employees who deliver quality work.

3. Deciding on the incentive amount against each wellness activity

Deciding on how much funds will be allotted for incentivization is crucial for a seamless incentive management system. In doing so, the company's financial records remain clear and within profit.

4. Cross-checking system of employees' progress

Recording employees' progress during challenges is the next step to creating an effective management system. However, keeping records of employees' progress sounds like a lot of work. This is why efficient leaders opt for employee wellness platforms, which make it a hassle for HRs to host wellness challenges and maintain employee data accurately.

5. Communication about the details of the incentives

Employees should receive clear communication about the incentives associated with the wellness program. Maintaining transparency regarding the rewards builds a strong foundation between employees and management.

6. Seamless reward redemption system

Redeeming the incentives should be easy, secure, and efficient. Are you wondering how to develop a seamless reward redemption system? Well, you don't have to create one.

Instead, you can sign up for a wellness platform like Vantage Fit, which is power-packed with incentivization and gamification features to revolutionize employee wellness.

Schedule a demo now and let Vantage Fit take care of your organization's health and wellness.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do wellness incentives work?

Yes. Wellness incentives can be an effective way to drive employee engagement and participation in wellness programs.

Here's a scenario of how wellness incentives work:

A mid-sized organization seeks to promote stress management and mental well-being among employees. The company offers a series of mindfulness classes or workshops on topics like meditation, yoga, or stress-reducing techniques. Employees who attend several sessions are rewarded with a day of paid time off or a gift card to a local spa.

The outcome is reduced stress levels, improved focus and creativity, and a more positive and productive work environment.

2. What are the top 3 employees' desired wellness incentives?

The top 3 desired wellness incentives are:

• Extra paid day off
• Wellness gift cards
• Contribution to health savings account

3. Are Wellness Incentives Compliant with Privacy Laws?

Yes. Most wellness incentives are compliant with privacy laws. Employers must consider the below legal and regulatory aspects to ensure compliance:

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
• EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Guidelines
• ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
• GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act)
• State Privacy Laws

4. Are wellness incentives taxable income?

Yes. Wellness incentives can be taxable, depending on the type. Taxable incentives include cash, gift cards, prizes, or gym membership reimbursements. Nontaxable incentives include health screenings, goodie bags, and free gym memberships.

5. What is the purpose of a rewards program?

A rewards program encourages and recognizes employees' efforts and motivates their healthy behaviors with wellness incentives.