Plus3

Summary

Plus3 is an innovative solution to increasing motivation in workplace wellness programs. It links corporate charitable giving to traditional employee wellness programs, creating an amplified incentive for workers to participate.^[1] As employees participate in and record healthy behaviors, they not only earn “points” toward personal rewards, but they also prompt corresponding donations to charity. The more actions workers take for their health, the more their companies donate. In many cases, Plus3 serves as a strong win-win for employers, too; they are inviting employees to move funds that have already been designated for corporate philanthropy and now have a healthier workforce as well. Employees see additional benefits as well—their families can be added to their programs at no additional cost to the employer, helping to reinforce health promotion and charitable motivation in other areas of life outside the workplace.^[2]

Plus3 offers a free mobile app to participants, which are compatible with a number of activity trackers and wearables to ease the burden of recording and logging for participants. To further strengthen the incentive, Plus3 also organizes motivational challenges of various sorts, ranging from competitions within workplaces to collaborative workplace goals. Participants can see real time updates on challenges and competition leaderboards through the Plus3 app. This combination of motivation seems to work; on their website, Plus3 notes that standard weekly participation rates range from 38% to 56%, whereas most workplace wellness programs see averages between 10% and 20%. As of December 2016, Plus3 participants have driven the donation of over $2.4 million to charity.^[3] By combining gamification principles, personal incentives, and charitable motivation, Plus3 creates a workplace wellness program with above-average participation and retention rates that appeals to employers and employees alike.

Analysis

Workplace wellness programs have the potential to be highly impactful for diabetes prevention, as they reach adults in a place where they are likely to spend a substantial amount of their time. However, workplace wellness programs generally struggle with meaningful engagement over the long term. Plus3 demonstrates that new and increased motivation for workplace wellness can be brought about in a way that does not add any extra cost or complication. Both employers and employees do essentially what they would have already been doing for a workplace wellness program, while Plus3 takes on the work of facilitating charitable motivation, competitions, and challenges. In addition, Plus3 allows for increased individualization by offering many possible incentives—adapting motivations to create an ideal fit for each employee, whether that comes from group challenges, individual competitions, charitable incentives, personal prizes, or family support. Of course, Plus3’s model is reliant upon employers having a policy of corporate philanthropy, so this may limit the organizations that can partake. However, with strong enough results, we can only hope that Plus3 may even additionally motivate increased adoption of corporate philanthropy programs as employers see the possibility of a healthier workforce.