Wellness Budgets Per Employee

When considering an incentive effort to drive employee wellness, one of the first decisions to make is how much to spend on each employee. There has never been any definitive analytical proof that will show you how much it will take to motivate someone to change behavior, or for that matter what award will induce the most excitement.  For years the incentive industry has provided guidelines to help you decide, and which award recommended will always be dependent on what the sales rep is selling.

A number of factors go into motivating behavior change.  And while one is the award itself, it is by no means the only one.  If you think by simply offering some type $50-$100 fitness device you are going to motivate an employee to change years of poor lifestyle choices then think again, it probably won’t.  But in combination with the other pieces of the wellness program (not the least of which is well designed communications) a choice of awards can be effective. 

Following is a chart published in Incentive magazine comparing how much budget companies invest, on average, per employees for their wellness programs.

Spend rate	2015	2016	Change
Under $50	42.8%	40.9%	-1.9%
$50 to $99	18.2%	26.3%	+7.8%
$100 to $199	10.2%	15.0%	+4.8%
$200 to $499	11.8%	5.1%	-6.7%
$500 to 999	11.2%	3.3%	-7.9%
$1000 and more	5.9%	9.5%	+306%

Almost 70% of companies researched use individual awards under $100.  A mistake often made in the planning phase is to only use an award in the fitness related field.  They may be good for introductory or communication reasons, but if you want to get the most motivation appeal out of your award budget.

Don’t give them what you want them to have or what you think they want, let them choose for themselves.

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