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Any good workplace wellness plan seeks high levels of employee engagement. Many use a variety of incentives to get employees engaged.

Now a new report shows that those incentives just might work best on the very employees who most needed to be engaged in the first place.

BenefitsPro states that the Employee Benefit Research Institute “examined before and after data gathered by a large employer that decided to enhance its incentives to boost participation.” The study “compared employees experienced with wellness program participation to rookies.”

A key conclusion: “In short, the employees who had abstained from participating in the workplace wellness programs were likely the ones in need of them most.” Moreover, “findings from this study paint a vivid picture of the type of individual who favorably responds to wellness-program financial incentives—a research contribution with important implementation and evaluation implications.”

According to the EBRI:

• The study shows “distinct differences between individuals who participated prior to the enhancement of financial incentives and those who first participated after the new incentives were in place.”
• “Employees who delayed completion of an HRA [Health Risk Assessment] and/or biometric screening were more likely to be male, older, higher wage earners, and in poorer health—as evidenced by higher Charlson Comorbidity Index scores; and to have higher prevalence rates of obesity, diabetes, pre-hypertension, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.”
• “Patients first completing an HRA and/or biometric screening post-incentive had greater use of specialist visits, and prescription drugs; and were less likely to use preventive services, such as preventive office visits, breast cancer, cervical cancer, and colorectal cancer screening.
•  “The significantly increased financial incentive appears to have been effective at encouraging their participation.”
• “Firms offering wellness programs should expect to have to employ financial and other incentives to encourage member participation.”
• “Relatively low financial rewards may attract the young and well. Higher financial incentives—while more costly for the employer in the short-run—may bring in older, less healthy employees who are consuming more health services, and accounting for a large proportion of health care spending.”

One caveat from the report: “While results from this study cannot shed light on the magnitude of financial incentives necessary to sufficiently bolster participation, a greater proportion of employees remained unscreened for biometrics under the financial incentive than the fraction of the population without a completed HRA.”