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Dr. Mitesh Patel, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that more than 50% of American adults do not reach the minimum level of exercise recommended for health benefits. As companies continue to foster healthier habits among employees, executives benefit from assessing the most effective motivational techniques.

A new study from the Annals of Internal Medicine offers analysis of incentives and wellness programs for high-risk employees. During the study, 281 overweight and obese employees at the University of Pennsylvania received different incentives for walking 7,000 steps every day.

Two Different Incentives

One group of participating employees received $1.40 bonus every time they hit their daily goal. A second group received no financial incentives. As Fortune summarized, “Turns out, the workers who were offered a cash incentive were no more likely to increase their step counts than their peers.”

Surprisingly, a third group who received the $42 up front were 50% more likely to meet the daily target goals than their peers. The researchers framed these incentives as upfront gifts that required daily activity — for each day that they didn’t participate, the cash bonus dropped by $1.40. Even though the employees received the same payment they would have as participants in the second group, this new framework created a different outcome.

The Impact of the Study

Unlike other studies that target employees already engaged in wellness activities, this program included individuals with an average BMI of 33.2. An author of the study, Dr. Mitesh Patel believes that the 96% retention rate among participants clarifies successful elements of an effective wellness program. Patel shared the following takeaways with CNN:

“Our study can help them [wellness programs] to design these incentives in a way that can be more effective and engage employees that have more to benefit, especially those that are obese, and to take into account that simple changes in the way we frame incentives can have a dramatic outcome in how we influence adults to change their behavior.”

When you develop your wellness programs, incorporate accessible technology and make sure to effectively incentivize the employees who would most benefit from the program.