One subject near and dear to corporate wellness coordinators is wellness campaign incentives. But often it’s not so near and dear to management, especially in this austere economy. Yet certain types of incentives can be quite inexpensive. Let’s explore some low-cost, fun ideas that are also effective in team building… and a highly valued enticement to wellness program participants.

Work-Related Perks

These can involve temporarily relieving the worker of some unpopular responsibility, such as not being required to attend a certain meeting or not working a set number of weekends. Or it might be a week in a preferred parking spot or lunch with the CEO.

Perks can become door prizes for wellness program or health fair participants, awards in a contest or fund-raiser, etc. Try placing a point value on these incentives and making them available for “purchase” with points accrued over time through program participation.

Bogus Bucks

Not surprisingly, money consistently ranks at the top of employees’ most valued incentive. Bogus bucks can be an excellent alternative to stretch a tight budget while putting a higher perceived value on traditional incentives. And this “money” can’t just disappear into a participant’s gas tank or shopping cart and be soon forgotten.

Design the bucks so they can be economically produced but not easily forged. A few examples:

• Number the dollars sequentially
• Use special paper with a specific thickness, color, watermark
• Require a signature or stamp for the bucks to be cashed.
• T-shirts, mugs, sports bottles, refrigerator magnets, cookbooks
• Discount coupons/gift certificates for local restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores.

Place a bogus buck value on each item or privilege. A good rule of thumb is $10 worth of bucks for every $1 worth of real value. So…

• A $2 coffee mug would be worth $20 in bogus bucks
• A special parking place for a week with an estimated value of $40 would be worth $400.

List opportunities to earn bogus bucks and place a buck value on each, for example:

• Attending a program
• Winning/placing in a fitness or some other corporate wellness competition
• Participating in a health screening or assessment.

Consider weighting programs that target corporate wellness or productivity/safety goals with more points, such as milestones with no worksite accidents. Then display incentives (or their descriptions) with bogus buck price tags, and include the bogus buck value of all wellness program activities as part of marketing campaigns.

Creative strategies like these can expand limited resources while assigning value to a wide variety of employee health promotion offerings.