GC16: Can Gamified Wellness Deliver a Winning ROI? | with Josh Stevens of Keas

In the past couple weeks, a congressionally mandated report on workplace wellness programs created for the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services was released to the public. The report was created by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institution. The results are rather sobering, suggesting that although 51% of large U.S. employers offer a workplace wellness program, they don’t seem to actually be saving much money for employers … in fact, it suggests that most of the reported claims on ROI for workplace wellness are hype provided by vendors. Keas is one corporate wellness provider that probably wasn’t surprised by the report’s conclusions. Keas is a company that Mashable said began as the Mint.com for health and became the Farmville for corporate wellness. Back in 2010, Keas realized it was failing to make an impact, and so it revamped its entire program with a gamification approach. Today we’ll find out what kind of difference that made, and whether Keas is producing an ROI for employers that rises above the disappointing results of the RAND report. Our guest, Josh Stevens, has been in the tech world for many years, at companies like AOL, TicketsNow.com, and YouSendIt. Today he is the CEO of Keas. Resources Mentioned in This Episode * DOL report on workplace wellness programs * Keas website Connect with Josh: * Twitter: @Josh_Keas * LinkedIn To stay up on the latest news and trends in employee gamification, join the Game Changer group on LinkedIn. Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at [email protected], subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.