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Technology as the Catalyst for Corporate Wellness Success

By Jon Zerden

February 10, 2012 – The percentage of employees who consider managing their health a high priority has dropped from 69 to 59 percent, according to recent research from Towers Watson.

With increasing economic pressures and high unemployment rates, employees have plenty to worry about, from providing for their families to job security. It’s no wonder then that wellness often takes a back seat to these other pressing issues.

The same study found that two-thirds of companies identify poor health habits as the most significant barrier to providing affordable healthcare. Companies often struggle to engage employees to complete health risk assessments or HRAs, and companies who are successful with high HRA completion rates have further challenges since many employees who complete HRAs never act on their results.

Clearly, a gap exists between how employees prioritize their health and how employers incentivize better habits, but is there a measurable solution? As the CTO of a leading proactive wellness company, I firmly believe technology is the missing piece in creating successful corporate wellness programs.

A recent Consumer Electronics Association study found that 54 percent of consumers said their main excuse for not training was motivation and that individuals who engage with fitness technology view exercise more positively. This is good news for wellness for two reasons. First, anything that engages individuals more deeply is positive for prioritizing health and wellness. Second, and perhaps more important, technology provides a unique opportunity to track and measure results and analyze those results to increase a wellness program's efficiency.

I believe technology is well-positioned to address three critical gaps in the corporate wellness space: personalization, engagement and scalability.

Personalization

For many wellness consumers, personalization comes from ongoing and expensive interactions with a personal trainer or in the form of a canned program with little reflection of his or her goals, current fitness level, or lifestyle. Technology can use a wide variety of inputs and significantly improve personalization by automating evaluations and adjusting programming based on how an employee feels on a given day.

Core Performance was developed by Athletes' Performance, a company with a rich history training elite athletes, executives, military operators, and firefighting personnel. One critical takeaway the company has learned from more than a decade supporting hundreds of thousands of professional and recreational athletes is that in-depth evaluations are critical in truly understanding a person’s physical needs, capabilities, and goals. Core Performance’s in-depth evaluations of each individual inform the programming, approach, and rigor of the training and nutrition used for each employee.

The next generation of wellness programming will meet the employee where he or she is on the wellness spectrum—for instance, whether someone hasn’t exercised in years or is ready to start eating healthier today—in a meaningful and personalized way. Technology is integral to enabling, facilitating, and standardizing this process.

Engagement

To judge the success of a wellness program, many companies rely on metrics such as the number of individuals who have been to the gym in a month or the number of people who have participated in online programming over a year. Many of these engagements include rebate programs in which companies offer financial incentives to encourage employees to participate.

The use of technology can help turn the rebate model on its head, creating interactive, smart programming that employees actually want to participate in versus completing a program to check a box. For instance, new technologies allow employees to participate in healthy challenges from their desk or mobile device and bring healthy programming home to share with their families. While extrinsic motivators may be necessary to get employees started, intrinsic motivators are needed for long-term success and engagement.

Scalability

To truly impact corporate America, wellness programs must be scalable and relevant to corporations. Providing wellness solutions rooted in technology allows for increased scalability to occur quickly in varying environments, saving time, space, and money for companies. Technology-rooted wellness solutions also provide the added benefit for corporations wishing to expand their wellness offerings to other sites domestically and internationally, while still delivering the same information to any number of employees 24/7.

In Summary

Wellness programs that utilize technology provide that missing link employers need to fully engage their employees with their wellness offerings by addressing the three critical gaps found in today’s wellness environment—personalization, engagement and scalability. At the same time, technology in wellness has the ability to lower rising healthcare costs, address the needs and wants of today’s tech-focused work culture, and make wellness measurable for employees and companies alike.