‘New year, new me’ – we’ve heard it all before. In fact, we’ve probably all said it too.

And with the festive season in full swing, 2023 is just around the corner, which means our new year’s resolutions are too. Many of us will have good intentions, setting resolutions to be healthier or fitter. The real challenge is sticking to them. A staggering 80% of resolutions for the new year fail by the beginning of February.¹

You might think that individuals setting resolutions is a personal matter and there’s no reason for employers to be involved. Yet statistics show that people successfully sticking to their resolutions could have tangible business benefits.

According to one survey...

Happy, healthy employees mean a productive and motivated workforce. And with healthcare costs rising, and the shift in employee’s expectations of their employee benefits (EB), accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, multinationals need to ensure they are supporting their people to meet their goals and providing the benefits they really value if they are to retain their best talent.

The answer for many employers in the past was to offer discounted gym memberships as part of a benefits package. Gyms may see a surge in sign-ups in the new year – the guilt of the festive season sets in, and people take the opportunity to start afresh and set, or re-set, their fitness goals. But does it last?

And with a global cost of living crisis on our hands, some people might not even get this far. A study by MetLife UK this year found that 17% of Brits would give up their gym memberships if they had to save money to pay for other necessities,⁴ which could mean the rush to join the gym in January just isn’t feasible anymore for some people.

Could you turn to gamification and incentivisation to help engage your people in their health? More on that soon!

In short, people are impulsive. We tend to choose instant gratification over longer-term rewards.⁹ This can result in poor decisions which impact our future wellbeing or can mean we miss out on better opportunities which would have benefitted us more, further down the line.⁹

Saving money is a perfect example of this. Many of us will choose the short-term reward of cash in hand today over a long-term savings account earning interest, despite understanding that we will earn more money by waiting.

But can employers use this to positively influence the long-term health and wellbeing of their people?

The answer is yes - and that’s where techniques like gamification and incentivisation could come in. First, let’s look at gamification…

It’s probably something you’ve seen in everyday life without even realising it. For example, it can be as simple as being given a loyalty stamp every time you buy a coffee, with the end goal of receiving a free hot drink after collecting a certain number.¹¹

At the other end of the spectrum, gamification can be digital, with companies including it in their apps and using elements like leaderboards to allow the user to compete either with themselves, or others, and tapping into the natural competitive nature of human beings to encourage results.¹¹

The gamification industry has grown significantly in recent years, and with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the shift to an increasingly digital world, it has continued to thrive.¹² In fact, the gamification market is estimated to grow by 30.1% by 2024.¹²

And let’s not forget about incentivisation.

As hyperbolic discounting tells us, people tend to favour immediate rewards. This is something that can be applied to many aspects of life, including health and wellness. Sure, we all know exercise is good for us in the long run, but the eventual reward we will reap from it is less tangible in the moment. This makes it hard for us to connect the act of exercising with the reward and impacts our ability to form a habit.¹³

Promising a reward if a certain action is completed, or a challenge is met, can motivate us to get it done, and allows us to connect the action with the feeling of receiving a reward, making it more likely that a habit will be formed and that long-term benefits will come to fruition.¹³

In one study, it was found that providing employees with wellness incentives boosted engagement by 60% when compared to programmes without a reward.¹⁴ Simply put, people are more likely to take on a positive lifestyle change if there’s a short-term reward offered.

So, gamification is something that is being implemented in the health and wellness space with great success. And it isn’t just HUMANOO using this model. Pokemon Go took the world by storm in 2016, where success in the game was based on how much you walk, “Zombie, Run” immerses runners in the middle of a zombie apocalypse to motivate them to continue running and fitness apps like Strava, Garmin Connect and Nike + have challenges and leaderboards to encourage participation.

52.5% of App Store fitness apps contain at least one gamification element,¹⁵ and with game-based motivation reportedly boosting engagement by 48%,¹⁶ it seems that this is an approach which is here to stay.

It’s clear that having employees with good physical and mental health can reduce costs for multinational employers, in terms of both reduced absence from work and lower medical claims, and results in a happier and more motivated workforce. In short, it’s in everyone’s best interests.

So, as a new year approaches, how can you, as a multinational employer, take advantage of these tactics to support your people with their health and wellness goals?

Understand your people, and what they want. As we have seen, behavioural economics sits at the centre of this all. What do your people need to help them stay on top of their health and wellness goals this coming year, and in the future? Perhaps you could consider running a simple survey to find out what your people’s goals are, and whether you have the right benefits to help them.

Organise a challenge for your people. It’s clear that using game-like elements and rewards is successful in engaging and motivating employees and can lead habits being formed which benefit them in the long term. Why not organise a challenge and see if providing rewards encourages your people to take part and achieve their goals? You can either create a challenge yourself or work with a wellness app.

Stay up to date. Keep on top of the latest trends and innovations within the health and wellness industry – the key is providing encouragement, support and rewards that are quickly received but provide long-term benefits and really make a difference to your employee’s lives. Move with the times and ensure that your benefits are doing the same.

^{[1] Ashley Stahl, Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2021/12/09/this-new-years-set-goals-not-resolutions/?sh=bd0d1d71ece6 (Sourced November 22)
[2] Kemi Elizabeth Ojogbede, Finderhttps://www.finder.com/uk/new-years-resolution-statistics (Sourced November 22)
[3] Sana Noor Haq, Runner’s World https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/a776013/today-is-the-day-youre-most-likely-to-let-your-new-year-fitness-goals-slip/ (Sourced November 22)
[4] Anon, HR News https://hrnews.co.uk/more-than-8-million-uk-adults-have-already-had-to-cancel-outgoings-amid-the-rising-cost-of-living/ (Sourced November 22)
[5] https://www.glofox.com/blog/10-gym-membership-statistics-you-need-to-know/ (Sourced November 22)
[6] David Curry, Business of Apps https://www.businessofapps.com/data/fitness-app-market/ (Sourced November 22)
[7] L.Ceci, Statista https://www.statista.com/topics/9204/health-and-fitness-apps/#dossierKeyfigures (Sourced November 22)
[8] Carlos A Abadi, Decision Boundaries https://decisionboundaries.com/hyperbolic-discounting-2/  (Sourced November 22)
[9] Anon, The Decision Lab https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/hyperbolic-discounting (Sourced November 22)
[10] Anon, Merriam Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gamification (Sourced November 22)
[11] Ben Brown, Bitcatcha https://www.bitcatcha.com/blog/gamify-website-increase-engagement/ (Sourced November 22)
[12] Sarah O’Neil, LXA Hub https://www.lxahub.com/stories/gamification-in-marketing-stats-and-trends-for-2022#:~:text=It's%20no%20surprise%20then%20that,the%20potential%20of%20the%20technology. (Sourced November 22)
[13] Anon, Playfitt https://www.playfitt.ca/post/gamified-fitness-apps#:~:text=Fitness%20gamification%20is%20the%20addition,for%20reaching%20goals%20and%20milestones (Sourced November 22)
[14] Anon, Vantage Fit https://www.vantagefit.io/blog/rewards-for-fitness/ (Sourced November 22)
[15] Anon, Shakuro https://shakuro.com/blog/fitness-app-gamification-in-2021-a-trend-you-cant-miss (Sourced November 22)
[16] Anon, Web Tribunal https://webtribunal.net/blog/gamification-statistics/#gref (Sourced November 22)}

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