Survey: Tech Support & Trust Boost Wellness Program Participation

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A 22-page report, “Measuring Wellness, From Data to Insights,” by the The Economist Intelligence Unit provides great information on the thoughts and perceptions of wellness programs. The survey captures data from both employers and employees. There are a number of key takeaways (below are a few highlights), including the need for employers to incorporate mobile health technology and foster trust in order to boost participation and drive results.

A little more than half (53%) of survey respondents said their organizations collect health-related employee data as part of their wellness programs, but of those who did, 88% reported the data they use is health plans’ claims data. “Only a minority of employers use their own proprietary data from fitness (31%) or health improvement services (30%).”
Only about one in four employers use data from employees’ own mobile apps or wellness devices. Meanwhile, a majority of employees surveyed (64%) said they use these apps or devices and nearly one in five (19%) use the devices regularly. Survey results also suggest “that if employers built device usage into their wellness programs, employees would use them more often.”
When asked about obstacles to participation in wellness programs, both employers and employees recognized privacy issues as significant barriers, with 43% of employers and 27% of employees indicating that “employees are concerned that personal information will not remain confidential.” Only time constraints, cited by 43% of employers and 41% of employees, ranked as high or higher as a barrier.
More than half (56%) of employees indicated they would share data with a third party “if there were credible guarantees of confidentiality,” and 66% would share data with their employers “provided that they received assurances that it would be used only for their benefit.”