We're kicking off a "New Year, New You" campaign next week.  Everyone who signs up gets a "game card" with daily activities to complete over a two-week period. There are three levels of intensity for each daily activity and anyone who turns in a game card (regardless of number of days/activities completed) is entered into a drawing (e.g. one-on-one with personal trainer; water bottles; gym bags; etc.).

We are adding a Fitbit challenge this year.  Employees can purchase a Fitbit through payroll deduction.  This ties into the points system we already have in place.

My company started using the vendor Jiff for our wellness program last August. Our Jiff program includes $60 toward the purchase of a discounted fit bit or other wellness tracking device and recommendations for food and sleep tracking apps. Participants get points for steps, tracking food and tracking sleep that can be exchanged for (taxable) gift cards. Everything can run through an app on your phone and there is a "newsfeed" to share ideas and create a community. I am not the administrator, but I love the program and have lost 12 pounds since it started. I am happy to share more info about it to anyone who might be interested.

The most important thing you can do to impact healthy behaviors is to communicate that others are taking part in the programs and that healthy behavior is the "norm" for the group. Providing incentives - if not too heavy handed are great but in many cases they penalize those that have less room for improvement and can stop people from taking part because they see the goals and earning levels out of their reach (and they don't want to fail.) Simply doing a good job of communicating what is going on - who's doing what, talking about successes as well as people who have had to change it up to see results - will help create a social norm for your company regardless of the incentive offered.

For the last holiday season, we had a competition called Project Zero.  We weighed in mid November and the object was to either maintain your weight, or even lose some, over the holidays and then we weighed in again the first week of January.  All successful candidates received a gift card.  We had a great turnout and many winners.  A lot of employees said that it really made them think twice before over-indulging over the holiday season.  We will be doing it again this year.