SHARE Khrysta Baig, worksite wellness dietician, Knox County Health Department

New guidelines will change the amount an employer can incentivize employees to participate in a wellness program. With a lower incentive limit, employers will need to look outside traditional premium discounts and fees for new ways to encourage employee engagement. One way to maintain the strength of incentives is to use the principles of behavioral economics.

Starting Jan. 1, 2017, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines will limit incentives, including both rewards and penalties, for participation in employer-sponsored wellness programs to 30 percent of the total cost of health insurance premiums for the least costly self-only plan offered. If an employee's spouse also is covered, that spouse can be incentivized by an additional 30 percent.

The guidelines apply to wellness programs that utilize a health risk assessment or require employees undergo a biometric screening. They also protect employees from being coerced by manipulative incentive plans into sharing personal health information (in aggregate) with their employer, but many employers feel like their hands are now tied when it comes to incentivizing healthy behaviors.

What may be surprising is that charging large penalties or offering inflated "discounts" on insurance premiums is not the best way to incentivize wellness program participation.

Here's something we already agree on: Employees who are actively engaged in managing their health tend to cost less to insure. Incentivizing employees to improve their health is the logical next step. Unfortunately, employers often neglect to meaningfully convey desired behaviors and tend to incentivize the wrong behaviors.

Below are tips for using behavioral economics to boost employee participation, engage employees in the right behaviors and increase the value of participation in your wellness program:

1. Focus on context and framing. We seek clues from our environment about how much we will enjoy or dislike an activity. A large fee for not completing an HRA or biometrics form may tell an employee that these are unlikable activities. A moderate fee encourages participation without a strong negative connotation. It also saves room for incentivizing more important behaviors later in the year.

2. Prompt the right behaviors. Incentivizing employees once they complete an HRA or biometrics form tells employees that those are the endpoints of the employer's desired behaviors. They've completed their wellness requirement before beginning to make strategic changes for their personal health. Develop strategies for incentivizing employees to journey beyond reporting risks on a form and onto a path of making lifestyle changes.

3. Luxury is valued. An incentive has greater value when it is perceived as being a little self-indulgent. A gift card to a local sporting goods store can be spent binge shopping. The same value of incentive provided as cash is perceived as less valuable.

4. Reward with nonmonetized prizes, too. In-kind rewards still count toward the 30 percent cap, but we tend to internally mark up their value. Whether it is token rewards or the grand prize, items are typically perceived as more valuable than they are when they lack a price tag. A yoga mat or hand weights are more appreciated prizes than $15, even if they are of the same monetary value.

5. Foster intrinsic motivation. Unless you're waving a substantial (and now illegal) sum of money in the air, external incentives are not likely to motivate an employee to maintain complex behavior changes long term. Fees and rewards may entice behavior, but it is intrinsic motivation that has true staying power. Nourish intrinsic motivation by fostering a culture of wellness. Share individual successes and nurture peer support.

The new guidelines may feel like limitations, but they present worksites with a chance to re-evaluate what may have become stagnant incentive strategies.