More companies are waking up to the importance of employee well-being, but what if your employer actually paid you to work out and get enough sleep? According to a new piece in Quartz, employees of Casper, an online mattress retailer, can receive up to $190 per month for logging their sleep and workouts.
As writer Leah Fessler explains, Casper tracks employees sleep and physical activity using an app called IncentFit. The app, which collects employees’ data using fitness apps and trackers, encourages individuals to register and “check in” at their gym— staffers are then paid each month according to their sleep and exercise logs. They receive $4 for every mile they run, $2 for every mile they bike and $20 for each fitness class they attend. Employees also receive $2 for every night of sleep that they allow the app to track.
Dishing out these benefits obviously costs the company money, but Casper’s co-founder Neil Parikh insists it’s an investment worth making. With more than 69 percent of Casper employees enrolled in the optional program, Parikh told Quartz that the company is “always trying to find ways to quantify and motivate people to take positive social behaviors.”
The company doesn’t have access to employees’ detailed logs, but they can infer sleep and exercise habits based on how much any given employee is being paid each month through the program. Liane Davey, an organizational psychologist, warned Fessler that this information could lead to bias in the workplace, like managers making assumptions about their employees’ ability to get their work done based on their monthly payout.
Casper isn’t the only company using money to motivate their employees to prioritize their health though. Clif Bar & Company and Hootsuite, a popular social media managing system, also encourage their employees to workout with incentives.
This focus on employee well-being goes beyond just physical health, too. A recent piece in the New York Times highlighted a new program created by SunTrust Banks which encourages employees to take a day off to focus on their financial wellness.
These programs are encouraging signs that employers are finally realizing that prioritizing their employees’ health is a smart investment.
Read more on Quartz.