You might think that the main objective to use for a safety award program would be pretty simple…reduce accidents. While that might be self evident, should it really be the specific objective of the program, or the end goal. A matter of semantics…we think not.

According to Incentive magazines “Safety and Wellness IQ,” almost 50% of companies today have some sort of employee wellness program in place. The biggest difference today is that most CEOs while eager to invest in wellness efforts, are demanding a better return on these investments. Healthcare costs and healthcare insurance are high, too high, and companies are looking for everything they can do to reduce them. With an aging workforce these numbers may only get higher.

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: example: X% of the salary for the program period, but there has never been any empirical evidence to support these rules. The chart below will give you a good idea of what type of budget companies are using today.