Determining the Success of Your Employee Wellness Program | Omada Health

May 15, 2023

Benefits managers spent nearly $53 billion in 2022 on employee wellness programs. Learn a better way to measure the success of your program.

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Determining the Success of Your Employee Wellness Program: How to Measure Behavior Change in Healthcare

Measuring health behavior is tough. But one thing’s for sure: It’s a critical hurdle to clear before health programs can succeed.

Benefits managers spent nearly

$53 billion
on employee wellness programs in 2022 as a way to reduce
skyrocketing healthcare costs.¹

Benefits managers spent nearly $53 billion in 2022 on employee wellness programs as a way to reduce skyrocketing healthcare costs. These programs have shown limited success in terms of pounds lost and minutes of physical activity. In short, more money is being spent, but are employees actually building healthier habits?

Experts say the problem is too many of these programs use the wrong benchmarks to define and track success. Most focus on surface metrics like number of weigh-ins or logins, that by themselves don’t signal meaningful behavior change.

A better way to measure the success of a program, experts say, is through the new behaviors that employees learn and repeat on their own—i.e. the development of healthier daily habits between doctors’ visits.

Health behavior research shows that those habits—paired with personalized goals and action plans to achieve those goals—are more likely to lead to desired outcomes.

“A vast body of evidence demonstrates which metrics best predict long-term success and savings,” says Dr. Sarah Linke, PhD, MPH, clinical psychologist and Senior Director of Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Omada Health.

Here’s a look at three areas where existing health behavior measures fall short, and how evidence-based benchmarks can lead to greater success.