In today’s busy world, it can be hard for employees to balance work and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Workplaces that consider its employees’ health, happiness and work/life balance in the benefits they offer tend to have employees who feel more valued by the organization.
The 2016 Employee Benefit Survey, conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, reports “72 percent of organizations are providing wellness resources and information to their employees,” up from 54 percent 20 years ago. As the cost of health care increases, employers turn to prevention to keep expenses low using a variety of wellness initiatives. A Rand Corp. study found that “every $1 invested in overall wellness efforts yielded a return on investment of $1.50” and found greater increases depending on the size of an organization’s wellness program.
One benefit that may help employers meet the need of employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle is to offer employees a wellness or fitness reimbursement. According to last year’s SHRM survey, 41 percent of organizations offered rewards or bonuses for completion of health and wellness activities, up from 35 percent in 2012. When employees exercise more often and eat better they experience increased levels of engagement and productivity, decreased stress and absenteeism, and health care costs for both the employee and employer go down.
A wellness or fitness reimbursement can be used toward the cost of a variety of health and wellness activities, such as gym memberships, fitness classes, personal trainers, weight management programs, massage therapy or acupuncture, smoking cessation and fitness events like races or competitions.
If your organization is interested adding to wellness or fitness reimbursements to your benefits packages consider:
• Budget. Determine what dollar amount you can afford for all employees and what dollar amount will make the impact you are hoping to achieve. Also consider the frequency: Will it be a one-time reimbursement? Monthly? Annually?
• Eligible expenses and participants. Determine what your organization will consider as an eligible expense and apply the criteria consistently across all participating employees. Also consider if your organization will allow expenses for family members, family gym memberships or only individual employee expenses.
• Establish the reimbursement process. Determine if employees will be required to provide proof of payment and/or proof the expense benefited the employee directly. It also may be helpful to create an official request form for the employee to submit along with their receipts.
• Tax liability. Cash incentives, including fitness reimbursements, are never excludable as a de minimis fringe benefit and must be included in the employee’s gross income.
• Communicate. Once you have a finalized program and an effective date, be sure to tell employees about it. Your organization won’t see the benefits of this program if employees don’t know or participate in it.
Additional ideas to consider: company-provided fitness bands/activity trackers; health care premium discounts for participating in weight-loss programs; using standing desks; offering smoking cessation programs; sending wellness tips and information to employees quarterly; and company-organized fitness competitions.
Like the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Allison Kimes is Guaranty Bank’s talent acquisition and management specialist. She can be reached at akimes@gbankmo.com.
