Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Health promotion; Industrial hygiene; Occupational health services; Industrial hygiene; Health promotion; Occupational health services;

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe (a) the incentives employees value strongly enough to become involved in a worksite fitness program, and (b) the incentives their employers offer to encourage involvement in a worksite fitness program. Specifically, the study was designed to answer the following questions: 1. What incentives would entice employees who had once exercised regularly but have discontinued exercising to become involved in a worksite fitness program? 2. What incentives are currently offered to employees at Principal Financial Group to become involved in the company's fitness program? An extensive review of related literature indicated that when offered, on a national average only 25% of eligible employees will participate in fitness programs and over the first 6 to 12 months approximately half of these will discontinue. Despite the benefits to both the company and the employees, this remains a problem that should have a solution. A survey was sent to employees at the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, IA to obtain their opinions on what their company could do to provide them with better incentives to join or rejoin their fitness program. The survey was distributed through the company's monthly newsletter, "Words of Wellness." The results, which were evaluated with descriptive statistics, indicated that people are more inclined to be enamored with nonmaterial incentives such as convenience and qualified, supportive staff, than with material incentives such as money, trips, or tangible items. It would appear from these findings that companies would be more successful in their attempt to recruit more employees to their fitness program if they would follow these suggestions and perhaps more importantly, discover what their employees value as incentives before implementing a fitness program.

Year of Submission

1994

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Dennis Cryer

Second Advisor

Sue Joslyn

Third Advisor

Sharon Huddleston

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1994

Object Description

1 PDF file (96 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Share

COinS