Many employers around the world offer health incentives to their employs to motivate them to live a healthy lifestyle. In this era when employers are desk bound during all their working hours, the lack of physical activity is turning them obese. Many employers have found themselves helpless for not been able to successfully motivate their workers to exercise.

A research carried out by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found the best strategy to encourage employees to become health conscious is to offer monetary benefits. The results showed that loss of incentives motivates people to exercise.

During the research, the researchers tried to apply three methods of motivation. The methods were concerned with offering financial benefits to overweight and obese employees on the basis of more steps taken each day. The result of the research was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. In the research, the objective of 281 participants was to take 7,000 steps a day for a period of 26 weeks.

The participants were divided into four groups. First group received no financial benefit, while the second group received $1.40 each day if the goal was achieved. The third group was given $1.40 each day for entry into a daily lottery after target is achieved. However, the fourth group was given the monthly incentive in advance in which $1.40 were cut each day for not meeting daily targets.

The results were surprising, and step count was tracked using a mobile app which ran in the background on participants' smartphones. The result of progress, in exercise for second and third group in which incentives were offered on completion of target, was not much effective than the first group which offered no incentives. However, participants from the fourth group got 50% more progress in achieving their targets than first group with no incentives at all. Because fourth group participants feared loss of money, they were inspired to achieve their target.

“Most workplace wellness programs typically offer the reward after the goal is achieved, our findings demonstrate that the potential of losing a reward is a more powerful motivator”, said senior author Kevin G. Volpp, MD, PhD, a professor of Medicine and Health Care Management.