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Would the promise of fattening your wallet motivate you to slim down?
An increasing number of employers, scared by ballooning employee waistlines and health care costs, are betting they can entice workers into healthful habits with incentives such as cold, hard cash -- up to $2,500 in some cases -- and friendly competition among co-workers.
Companies are cropping up to help employers get you out of the La-Z-Boy and walking around the block, including Virgin HealthMiles (owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson of Virgin Records fame), Tangerine and RedBrick Health.
"Our notion is pretty simple," says Sean Forbes, the president of Virgin HealthMiles, which works with about 130 companies nationwide. "People will do the right thing, especially if you pay them."
How it works
The Harlandale Independent School District in San Antonio had a problem -- a "big" problem, you might say.
San Antonio is ranked as one of the fattest cities in America, and the school district hasn't been immune. As the district saw the weight of employees rising, it also witnessed increases in the number of people with diabetes and pre-diabetes conditions.
"We thought, 'We need to do something to motivate,'" recalls Jane Eutsler, Harlandale's benefits administrator. "And we couldn't think of anything better than money. Because when you reward somebody, it's usually with food."
So the school district introduced the Virgin HealthMiles program in September 2008.
Here's how it works at Harlandale: Let's say you're a teacher and you sign up. You're sent a high-tech pedometer that you can wear all the time: walking the dog, jogging, strolling around the block. A few times each week, you plug the pedometer into any computer; an online program tracks the number of steps you've taken, along with other information.
You earn points for your steps. For instance, 7,000 steps (about three and a half miles of walking) earns 60 points for that day. "The more you walk, the more points you get," Eutsler says. You get points, too, for other things: getting your blood pressure, weight and body mass index checked at special stations; hitting your targets in those categories; even for logging on to the health website.
Accrue enough points to hit certain goals, and you'll get a reward -- usually cash or a gift card. For instance, in Harlandale's case, reaching the easy Level 1 requires 6,000 points and earns $25. By the time you've reached the fifth level, which takes about three months and 36,000 points, you've earned $150.
