Abstract

Wellness programs are often implemented in organizations as part of their employee benefits package. Their purpose is to create self-motivated individuals who proactively engage in healthy lifestyles over the long run. One characteristic of these interventions is that they frequently offer yearly rewards to employees for their engagement in healthy activities suggested and available through a mobile application. However, the literature shows that the provision of rewards may fail to foster long-term adherence to the program, or even worse; demotivate those intrinsically motivated participants. We believe wellness interventions can effectively change the lifestyle of participants because over time individuals in these programs are able to discover and embrace the value of the activities themselves. We collaborate with an organization where we found anecdotal evidence from its wellness program that participants engage in activities beyond-rewards. Using the lens of structural empowerment framework, we endeavor to understand how this wellness program motivates participants to embrace activities long after they receive their monetary incentives. We use linear regression with fixed effects on a panel data of more than 5000 participants over 3 years. Our analysis initially shows that the program features motivate employees to move beyond-rewards. For instance, participants who steadily track their habits are more likely to keep these activities after receiving rewards, while the longer they take to obtain their rewards negatively affects their long-term engagement. We further discuss preliminary practical and theoretical implications.

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