Staff Members Will Pay for Weight Loss Help.

Looking for incentives to get overweight workers to purchase into a wellness program? A recent study  suggests many workers are even willing to pay much - or all - of the cost themselves.

Roughly 35 percent of firms with wellness programs focus on providing workers with convenient access to weight loss resources.

A poll of 1,352 employees by the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity Alliance found that many individuals  would gladly chip in for the cost of the program if they believed it’d help them lose weight. What employees want -

• confidential support and counseling

• access to a specialist nutritionist or fitness trainer, and

• onsite fitness programs.

Until recently, only big companies were able offer such programs as part of their wellness benefits.   But the fastest growth of these programs in the last two years has been in smaller firms (sometimes with as few as 50 full-time employees).

The majority of firms split the cost with employees. Typically, employees pay up to about 25 percent of the cost. But some plans are fully worker paid.