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Changing behavior through incentives – it’s quickly catching on all across the globe.

As a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, employers have even more leverage (up to 30% of premium cost) to reward employees meeting specific wellness metrics or participate in corporate health initiatives.  The extra latitude to motivate healthier workforces couldn’t come at a better time, and more employers than ever are getting on board.  Buck Consultants’ global survey of workplace wellness finds formal wellness programs and supporting incentive structures at the majority of U.S. employers (82% offering or planning to offer incentive rewards.)

U.S. employers aren’t alone in this behavior change investment.  The same survey finds strong growth from all global regions.  Some examples we’ve read about include:

• Childhood immunizations in a rural region of Rajasthan, India doubled after families were offered 1 kilogram of raw lentils as reward for getting their children to the immunization clinic. 
• Immunizations and well-child visits are also up in Mexico, Nicaragua, Columbia and Jamaica as a result of modest financial incentives.
• A government-funded program offers smokers in Scotland a cash card for groceries as reward for kicking the habit (and proving it by passing regular carbon monoxide breath tests.)  Individual smokers each earn approximately $20 a week in grocery store cards – pregnant mothers earn even higher amounts that continue until the baby is three months old.
• Other global examples of successful and unique incentive programs leading to healthier behaviors include providing young men and women in Tanzania a cash reward for testing negative for sexually transmitted diseases.

What’s the common denominator to success of these different global approaches?  The immediacy of reward. 

External motivations are successful, regardless of region, socio-economic status or cultural differences.  The human reaction to immediate impact is a universal one.  We may be internally motivated to quit smoking or refrain from ordering that double cheeseburger because we want to live to see our children’s weddings, maintain active lives, or, if nothing else, avoid costly hospital bills.  But the difference between these more significant outcomes of our actions versus even modest monetary incentives is time.  We are much more likely to initiate healthy behavior change for rewards within immediate grasp.  Delayed outcomes are far easier to sidestep or compartmentalize.  It’s the immediacy of incentive programs that provide a positive behavior difference, and they are increasingly providing that difference around the globe.