Came across an quick little Human Capital article worth sharing:
Aetna, a US health insurance company has implemented a novel sleep program where they provide Fitbit fitness trackers to help promote healthy sleep patterns for their employees.
If they can prove they get 20 nights of sleep for seven hours or more in a row, we will give them $25 [$33 AUD] a night, up to $500 [$661AUD] a year
They have statistics to prove they're on the right track as well. Atena's CEO claims that employees improved their productivity by 69 minutes each month as a direct result of participation in the program.
I did a little research and it appears Atena has around 5,700 employees. It would be interesting to know if this is being rolled out across the whole organisation or just departments - do staff bring their own FitBits? There may be some privacy implications as well...
Overall however, I think this is a fantastic idea. One of my first reservations was how this might fairly integrate with employees who have career duties such as flexible working parents. Turns out they thought of that too as the 7 hours are not continuous and can include naps.
It reminds me of a short story a senior manager once told me that stuck. Essentially it was a tale about two woodcutters who were working away when one notices the other is quickly outpacing his productivity and even finishing early. Turns out the productive woodcutter sharpens his axe at the end of each day.
A nice story stressing the importance of tackling presenteeism and taking time to develop your skills / having rest to boost genuine productivity. It's important as HR professionals we drive a culture that encourages people to sharpen their axe rather than just swing harder with a blunt instrument.
