How to win over employees with activity trackers

Healthy employees are more productive, no doubt about it. Employers can play a vital part in their employees’ health by doing more than simply setting up an absenteeism policy to get people back on board as soon as possible. Investing in preventive health interventions pays off, not just because it can help prevent absenteeism, but also because personal wellbeing becomes an important priority, and employees value it when their employer shows concern. This naturally also results in more engagement.

Lots of employers and companies already offer health programs, but participation remains a sticking point. American data now show that offering wearables can lead to a spectacular increase in the participation rate for health programs in the workplace. When employers provide an activity tracker for instance, half of the employees under 40 take part, and one third of employees over 50. This last figure in particular refutes the prevailing opinion that activity trackers are only used by ‘those who don’t need them’. Moreover, employees make active use of the tracker for several months, which also goes against the predominant trends on the market of fitness-apps.The best results are reached, when the employer (partially) covers the cost of the activity tracker and the introduction of the trackers is embedded in a wider program aimed at taking up “healthy challenges” on an individual and/or company level.  
​
Undoubtedly, similar results will be obtained in European companies, which have already begun to catch up.