MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Diet, Exercise, and Logging Off? Rethinking Employee Wellness

Almost every large organization is trying to get employees to adopt healthful habits. Managers have long known that healthier employees are more productive, loyal, and, frankly, less expensive, given that healthy behaviors can lead to lower health care costs. Given the steeply rising cost of providing health insurance benefits, more companies have experimented with paying employees to start healthy habits. Adobe’s wellness reimbursement program compensates employees up to $360 each year for gym memberships, bike-share programs, fitness classes, massages, nutritional counseling, and more. Google has gone so far as to build out most of these amenities directly onsite at its main campuses.

These organizations have a promising opportunity to broaden the types of wellness efforts in which they’re investing. Existing programs’ definitions of “healthy habits” are generally woefully limited to “diet and exercise.” While physical activity and nutrition are surely two significant factors affecting health (and insurance-related expenses to self-funded employers), such a narrow view misses myriad lifestyle choices we make every day that drastically affect our health. Social media use continues to be an ever more salient example.

About the Author

Karyn Georgilis-Becker is a design strategist at Fusion, a UnitedHealthcare accelerator.

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