Gamification.  Game Mechanics.  Buzz phrases of the day?  Perhaps.  Yet more and more, you’re likely hearing about them in the context of health. And how employers are using them to create healthier workforces.

A recent Towers Watson survey reports 26 percent of employers support or are considering supporting employee health management with the use of online games (up from just 9 percent in 2010).

And earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal featured an article on the topic: “Pitting Employees Against Each Other … for Health.” The author, Anna Wilde Mathews, talks about how employers are leveraging game techniques to help employees improve their health.  Here’s a quick video, which provides a nice summary of the article.

So what do game mechanics have to do with health?

Game mechanics are a powerful tool. They’re a great way to engage your employees in good health – both in the employee health programs you’ve put in place, and in those all-important offline behaviors you want them to engage in – like getting enough physical activity, eating healthy, avoiding smoking, and more.

Game mechanics help ensure employees can easily learn how to participate, what they need to do to make healthy behavior changes, and better understand their progress against goals.  They make things fun and spark competitive spirit.  What’s more, they offer short-term reinforcement cycles and help keep momentum going over the long-term – which is crucial for sustained engagement and behavior change.

Earlier this year, Tom Abshire, SVP Products and Marketing here at Virgin HealthMiles presented a webinar about the role of game mechanics in employee health programs.  You can check out the recording here.  In the webinar, Tom shared four keys to effectively use game design techniques and game mechanics to engage your employees in your workplace health improvement efforts:

1. Break long tasks down into small, achievable short-term goals that reward achievement.
   Achieving health goals is a long process. Even with a sizable personal or financial goal or incentive at the end, it’s hard for many individual to take those daily steps towards better health.  With game mechanics, you can break down these long paths into small steps that make the long-term goal achievable. Game mechanics can help create small victories that support developing habits.  And things like incentives and levels can reinforce achievement.
2. Turn tasks into paths. Actions into habits. And effort into play.
   Conversely, at times we need our employees to focus on a number of related, but disconnected tasks. Employers usually have a range of programs you want employees to take part in.  Game mechanics can be an important tool to help employees make sense of the range of programs you offer by creating paths to follow and certainty on where they should start.  Points and incentives can help them understand what’s most important or where they need to focus next, based on their specific needs or the plan design for their segment.
3. Convert users into players.
   Game mechanics can convert users into players.  This speaks to the shift in motivation.  As users, we’re externally motivated to achieve a task – to get the job done.  By converting users into players, motivation shifts internally. With internal motivation, we’re more likely to pursue the next step in the program, discover what other tasks or challenges that are available that can help us advance or achieve. We’re more open to collaborating, not just competing. Game mechanics can open up another dimension of motivational possibilities.
   
4. Create a unifying experience around a changing array of tasks.
   Gamification can be important in creating an overall unifying theme, tying together the disconnected incentives and game mechanics that individual programs attempt to employ.  This is critical when you’re changing partners or your overall plan design.  Employees can more easily adapt to and understand the changes when the changes happen within the familiar context of the overarching game.  A unifying game also allows for better cross-promotion of programs – increasing the awareness and perceived value of your overall health and wellness strategy.

If you’re considering using game mechanics in your employee health initiatives, be sure to keep this in mind: if you’re asking your employees to engage and change their behaviors, you need to support them with things they want to do.

Your gamification strategies shouldn’t be too complex. Otherwise, you’ll lose your employees’ interest and they won’t participate. And low participation won’t lead to very much impact for your business or improvements in workforce health.  To see success with your gamification strategy, keep things simple and interesting.  Use game mechanics everyone understands – points, levels, rewards, badges, leaderboards, etc. – to drive adoption of healthy behaviors and ongoing engagement.

Buzz phrase, sure.  But game mechanics aren’t all hype. Since the very beginning, we’ve incorporated them as a key component of our engagement mix. And we’ve seen them help employers and thousands of their employees reap significant benefits – like participation rates nearly three times the industry average and significant workforce health improvements and cost savings.

Learn more about how game mechanics can drive employee engagement and better health in your organization in this free white paper.

There’s no denying the power of social connections when it comes to improving our health. Ever wonder why it’s so powerful in the workplace? Because social reinforcement within your organization is targeted, contextual, flexible, and natural.

Targeted – As workplace peers, we know something about our colleagues—their interests, their past struggles, their tendencies.  In a social context we can encourage and support one another based on this specific understanding of our friends.  We understand something about their internal point of view and how they are best motivated.

Contextual -  Since we work in the same environment, we understand the external influences on our motivation and ability to act or adopt new behaviors.  When health-related events are scheduled automatically from the top down, they may inadvertently coincide with a big project, a vacation or when we are focused on another goal.  But within our social group, our peers understand this context and have ongoing, real-time feedback about when we are most open to a new event, a fun competition, or a new behavior.

Flexible – As peers we can be very adaptable to internal and external factors and fluidly adjust our support in the moment.

Natural – As human begins, we are social animals.  We respond to social norms and social feedback, and we work to find our place in the social structure by changing our behaviors or approaches to other people.  And this desire to fit in can increase the impact of other motivational levers you may use, like incentives or competitions to promote healthy behaviors and healthy cultures.

We’re seeing the evidence of these powerful social elements within our HealthMiles program’s new social community, Connections. Learn all about Connections, and how you can leverage social influences to improve employee health.

Consider your 2012 employee health and wellness initiatives for a moment. Do they include opportunities for social interaction? Ways to foster healthy social communities? They should, according to a sampling of employees across the country.  We conducted a survey of over 1,300 HealthMiles members and found that employees are more likely to participate in programs if their social groups do; they’re more committed to good health if their colleagues are; they’re more physically active due to the influence of co-workers; and they even look to their peers for the latest health and wellness information. More specifically, the survey revealed that:

• The majority (almost 60%) of employees surveyed say that workplace community and social elements are either “extremely” or “very” influential when it comes to making the commitment to good health.  Only 3.8% believe that these elements are not influential at all.
• When asked what elements of workplace wellness programs are most effective at helping employees get back or stay on track toward health goals, not surprisingly, financial incentives ranked at the top. But almost 45% of employees said the opportunity for both social engagement and workplace camaraderie were the most effective elements.
• 38% of respondents say that their peers have kept them motivated and on track toward health goals; 35% say that peers help them increase their daily activity levels, and one-third of employees report that co-workers helped them get started with healthier behaviors.
• 46% of employees like to stay informed about what others are doing and sometimes get helpful tips from them.  Only 8% say that they do not rely on what others are doing.
• 52% of employees reached their daily physical activity goals with the help of their peers. Over one-third have lost weight due to peer influence, and 34% report improved morale and a better outlook due to workplace social communities. Seventeen percent report lower blood pressure as a result of peer influence, and almost 16% say they have a reduced risk of a health problem.
• And why does social interaction work?  Many (36%) feel that sharing their progress with peers keeps them accountable to their goals. Thirty-five percent believe that workplace social connections keep them motivated to participate.  Thirty-two percent say that competition with peers helps them to stay active, and 31% believe that exchanging information about what works and what doesn’t is helpful.

Check out the full survey report.

To further leverage the influence of social interaction to drive sustained, healthy behaviors, we’ve introduced Connections, a breakthrough solution that provides you with one social platform for all your employee health and wellness programs.  With this private, members-only social health community, employees build support networks; post updates to share goals and accomplishments; and create groups around common interests and healthy activities. Learn more about how you can leverage peer-to-peer motivation and support to drive engagement and better health across your multitude of employee health offerings.

Company Builds Upon Existing Social Functionality, Releases First-of-its-Kind Social Platform That Gets Employees to ‘Spread the Health’ Across Organization’s Various Health and Wellness Programs

New Functionality Helps Employers Keep it Simple with Single Program Appealing to All Fitness Levels

Poor health spreads like wildfire. And it not only impacts the lives of employees, it impacts business profitability. Virgin HealthMiles, a pioneer in leveraging individuals’ social connections to create and sustain a workplace culture of health, thinks it’s time to turn the tides and start spreading some good health. Today, the company announced its Fall ’11 product release, designed to help employers drive greater impact of their employee health and wellness programs through higher employee engagement and better incentives management.

As part of its Fall ’11 release, Virgin HealthMiles builds upon its industry leading capabilities and introduces Connections – a breakthrough solution that provides employers with one social platform for all their health and wellness programs.  With Connections, employers leverage peer-to-peer motivation and support to drive engagement and better health across their multitude of wellness offerings. Connections offers employers a secure forum where their employees can ‘spread the health’ – a way for them to build support networks and recognize each other’s accomplishments as they strive for healthier lifestyles.

The company also introduced new activity tracking capabilities that engage even more of an employer’s workforce, helping organizations keep things simple with one easy program that fits all fitness levels.  Virgin HealthMiles also introduced enhanced Integrated Incentives,  which helps organizations more easily integrate third-party programs and data, and simplify promotion and management of multiple programs and incentives.

“At Virgin HealthMiles, getting healthy has always been social.  With Fall ‘11, we’re building upon our proven ability to engage employees in sustained, healthy behaviors and we’re helping employers for the first time create a social community that will encompass all the health promotion programs they have in place,” said Tom Abshire, senior vice president of marketing and member engagement for Virgin HealthMiles. “Fall ’11 not only helps employers drive greater awareness and participation in their health and wellness programs, it helps them create a cohesive, reinforcing employee experience across various programs and drives greater impact from all their offerings.”

Key Benefits of the Fall ’11 Release: Social Connections, Improved Activity Tracking, Easier Third-Party Program and Data Integration

• Spread the Health with Connections:  It’s a private, members-only social health community where employees build support networks; post updates to share goals and accomplishments; and create groups around common interests and healthy activities.  Connections will generate a healthy buzz around the office. Plus, employers can use Connections to add social networking to and drive higher awareness and participation in all of their health and wellness programs. For example, employers can use Connections to create a support group for employees participating in their smoking cessation program, or to let their health coaches provide one-to-many coaching outside of the classroom or coaching call, and more.

• More ways to track activity means more employees participate:  Simple walking programs may fit the needs of some employees, but what about those who are highly active?  Fall ’11 helps employers keep it simple with one program that meets the needs of all fitness levels.  With the new Fall ’11 features, employees earn “Active Minutes” – a way for them to get credit for more vigorous workouts.  Whether employees prefer to walk for 30 minutes per day, run for 15 or do something else, with “Active Minutes” they can all use the same, simple tools and earn rewards for the activities they like to do.

• A Better Way to Promote Your Programs and Easier, Less Costly Data Integration:  Building upon Virgin HealthMiles’ market-leading Integrated Incentives solution, it’s now even easier for employers to integrate data from third-party partners, add or replace programs based on changing business needs, and increase employee awareness of all their available programs and incentives opportunities.

Connections, new activity tracking, and enhanced Integrated Incentives are now available to current and prospective HealthMiles clients.  For more information, visit: http://us.virginhealthmiles.com/resources/Pages/Fall11_WhatsNew.aspx.

Yesterday, Kaiser Health News released a new poll about employees’ willingness to make some trade-offs when it comes to their health insurance in order to get lower premiums in return.  Employees were asked whether they’d be more willing to participate in corporate wellness programs that promote healthy behaviors, pay more for brand name prescription drugs, pay higher deductibles, or accept a more limited list of doctors and hospitals in their networks in exchange for lower premiums.

And employees answered, saying most of these options aren’t options for them.  Except for one – workplace wellness programs. According to the article:

Source: Kaiser Health News

You can check out the full poll results here.

With more and more employees willing to participate in your workplace wellness programs, how do you make sure they stay engaged and sustain the healthy behaviors you want to promote?

Here at Virgin HealthMiles, we’ve been helping employers promote healthy lifestyles across their workforce since late 2005. On average, our approach drives participation rates nearly three times the industry average and keeps employees participating long after the program launch.  Based on our experience working with these companies, here are some effective engagement strategies that will help drive real, sustained behavior change across your workforce.  Plus, check out some tips to improve program participation and case studies showing how these strategies are driving significant impact for leading companies across the country.

You’ve implemented a health and wellness program, and many of your employees have joined. Well done! That’s the first step to success. The real celebration comes after you see engagement over the long term, ongoing participation that drives healthy behavior change. That’s the true mark of a successful program, and the only way you’ll see real improvements in employee health, productivity, and healthcare cost reduction.

What can you do to help employees stay engaged over time? In our experience, here’s what works:

Program promotion.   To get and stay engaged in your health and wellness programs, employees need one easy place learn about everything you offer.  Too often, this is the last few pages of the open enrollment handbook.  A web portal for information about programs and incentives opportunities will increase awareness, prevent confusion and “information overload,” provide a familiar and consistent experience over time, and will lead to higher participation and engagement.   Develop health promotion campaigns to remind employees of programs available to them and where to find more information.

Short-term, achievable goals. Provide interim milestones throughout your program for employees to meet along the way.  A series of short-term successes provides motivation to keep going, and focusing on several shorter-term goals is easier for employees than maintaining focus on one long-term goal.

Progress tracking.  Monitoring progress over time is highly motivating, particularly if it’s easy to do. Provide tools that help employees to easily track personal performance data and view it in easy-to-read charts and other data displays. Any tracking devices should have displays, too, so employees can easily view current to help them achieve daily goals.

Meaningful financial incentives.  Financial incentives are proven motivators, but they have to be meaningful to your employees (i.e., water bottles and t-shirts simply aren’t compelling enough to drive the behaviors you want to promote in your workforce). If you’re not sure what is meaningful and relevant to your employees, ask them.  It’s well worth the effort.

Social interaction.  Our behavior is heavily influenced by our social groups, and that goes for health behaviors, too.  Create healthy employee communities by providing forums for sharing personal success stories and health tips, and by encouraging group interaction like lunchtime walking groups, company softball games, etc.  Employees will be more inclined to stay engaged in their health when others are, too.

Healthy competition.  A little healthy competition among colleagues is one of the best ways to motivate employees to stay engaged.  Provide a series of team challenges over time, use fun, timely themes, and get company leadership involved.  Encourage employees to challenge each other in smaller competitions between team events.

These strategies drive real health-behavior changes over the long term. Remember, program success is not just about how many employees sign up. It’s about keeping them engaged in healthy behaviors over time.

Last week was Workforce Management’s 2011 Online Benefits Conference.  As part of the conference, Paul Hebert, managing director and lead consultant for Incentive Intelligence, and I presented the webinar, “Reaping the Rewards: An Integrated Approach to Employee Health Incentives.”  The audience asked some great questions. In fact, there were so many that we couldn’t get to all of them.  Here are a few we couldn’t get to:

What’s the best way to find out what motivates employees, and what incentives would be most effective?

Put simply, ask them. Different people are drawn to different kinds of activities, and are motivated by different things.  It’s important to get an idea from those whose health you want to improve what they want in a program and what will keep them motivated.  That said, be prepared for a variety of responses, and choose programs that are flexible.  Don’t assume one size fits all when it comes to changing health behaviors.  We conducted a survey about what keeps members motivated to reach long-term health goals, and program flexibility ranked number one, edging out incentives.  For a program to really work, employees want programs that are available when, where and how they want them.

We have not offered any formal wellness program to date. We know we have some serious chronic health conditions in our group and we want to manage this more proactively. Our health provider-HMO offers some wellness education and management programs. That participation is relatively low. How much would you suggest we begin with or what key areas tend to drive the best participation in a brand new program? (more…)

More and more U.S. businesses are offering incentives-based corporate wellness programs that claim to improve workforce health and help employers lower healthcare costs.  Yet average participation rates in such programs hover around 15 percent.  With such low participation rates, how can employers expect to see successful workforce health improvements from their investments?  The key to success with employee wellness initiatives is not only in getting employees to participate, but motivating them to stay engaged over time. 

“We know people are motivated by different things at different points in time, so we provide a wide range of motivators to keep employees engaged for the long haul: goal setting, progress tracking, feedback, financial incentives, competition and social motivation,” says Tom Abshire, senior vice president of marketing and member engagement for Virgin HealthMiles.  “With participation rates nearly three times the industry average, we excel at getting and keeping members engaged in long-term healthy behavior change.  This helps prevent the onset of costly chronic conditions and diseases impacting businesses and their employees today.”

Consider this: chronic diseases drive 75 percent of healthcare spending, of which 95 percent is spent on managing current cases of disease.  Just five percent of healthcare spending is focused on preventing chronic diseases, which are growing globally in epidemic proportions.  With most U.S. businesses covering some or all or their employees’ healthcare premiums, corporations must shift their focus to prevention in order to bend the healthcare cost curve. The only way to do this successfully is to get and keep employees engaged in prevention-focused wellness efforts over the long-term. 

Read the full press release.

Often times, when I ask our clients what their hurdles are in launching a health and wellness program, I hear about the difficulties in reaching geographically dispersed populations.  It can be difficult to engage employees in multiple locations and make sure the program’s message is consistently disseminated across the entire organization.  There are some best practices to follow when choosing and implementing a health and wellness program that can alleviate the problem.

1. Implement programs that are broadly applicable.  I’ve found that for a program to have a significant impact, it must be applicable and relatable to everyone.  While everyone is different and has targeted needs, employers should take a preventative approach to wellness and provide an overarching program that addresses the population on a whole. The better job a company does to implement programs that apply across the board, the better the employee response and overall results. (more…)

In a recent survey of nearly 2,000 respondents, 85% said that they think an employer has a responsibility to take a leadership role in encouraging and promoting healthful behaviors on the part of its workforce. Although employees seem to be asking for a wellness program, participation in traditional employee health programs averages less than 15%. However, Virgin HealthMiles participation averages 40%. What drives these higher rates and keeps employees engaged long after the program launch?

Join us October 27, 2010 2:00pm EDT/11:00am PDT in a webinar exploring survey results from employees and best practices from our clients.  We’ll discuss the keys to success and you’ll discover what impacts participation from the experts.


Sign up for the webinar, Promoting Participation: What Keeps Employees Engaged?

You’ll learn successful strategies including:

• Financial incentives
• Goal setting and tracking
• Challenges and competitions
• Social engagement