How do you know if wellness programs actually work?
Most wellbeing platforms cost thousands of dollars while struggling with low employee participation and vague outcomes. Without clear proof of improved health or financial ROI, companies end up paying high fees for perks that employees barely use and leadership cannot evaluate.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
How do you know if wellness programs actually work?
- 1relying on absence rates, vague engagement scores, and anecdotal feedback from line managersDid this help you?
- 2renewing existing wellbeing packages year over year without proof of impactDid this help you?
- 3Using financial wellness features integrated directly into 401(k) retirement plan platforms like Principal, Empower, or FidelityDid this help you?
- 4Providing banking perks such as Bank of America Rewards accounts with fee waiversDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“What I don't have: any sense of whether the things we're paying for are actually making people healthier, or whether they're just nice to have.”source ↗
“I’ve been asked to look into financial wellness options for our benefits package and I’m having a hard time telling the difference between them.”source ↗
“We already have similar resources through our EAP and almost nobody uses them.”source ↗
“It's just really hard to get people to use these platforms, and it ended up costing us $50,000 for about 50 people, which really wasn't worth the ROI.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 7What benefits should I opt-in at work?
- 4Why is it so hard to measure the ROI of enterprise AI?
- 5How can small businesses afford twenty dollar minimum wage?
- 3How to balance needing a job fast with losing Medicaid coverage
- 2Why are employees still complaining after positive changes?
- 2How to get employees to submit time tracking on time