Should you be paid for keeping healthy?

A third (33%) of UK workers believe their bosses should pay them for keeping healthy, research from Willis Towers Watson has revealed.

Additionally, 34% of employees would only participate in a company health initiative if there was a financial incentive to do so, up from 26% in 2013.

However, Mike Blake, wellbeing lead for Willis Towers Watson, said financial rewards may not be the best incentive. “Taking care of health and worker wellbeing should be a shared priority of both employee and employer, not seen as additional workload that workers should be compensated for,” he said. “It is understandable that companies – particularly those who are frustrated at a lack of engagement – are tempted to offer financial incentives to their employees. But this can be a knee jerk response to problems that may require deeper answers.

“The figures suggest that despite employers increasing their focus on health and wellbeing, existing schemes are not appealing to employees and, as a result, many feel they need extra motivation to participate, in the shape of financial incentives. Having a healthy workforce does, of course, greatly benefit employers, as it leads to lower levels of sickness absence, productivity loss and employee turnover, but employees reap the rewards of living healthier lives too. “