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IBM Case Study

Increased enrollment and participation in IBM’s Wellness For Life employee health and fitness program.

THE CLIENT'S CHALLENGE

Increase enrollment and participation in IBM’s Wellness For Life employee health and fitness program.

A world leader in every market in which it competes, IBM is equally determined to lead in employee wellness. In 2008, company human resources managers realized that improving employee health and wellness would boost staff morale and productivity, which would in turn have a direct impact on the bottom line. As part of the push for better employee health, IBM created an innovative Wellness For Life program online that rewarded employees with Healthy Living Rebates for achieving personal wellness goals.

The first challenge was to encourage employees to join the Wellness For Life program. Once signed up, the second challenge was to help members stick with IBM’s “Assess, Plan, Act” program philosophy to improve their health and wellness.

IBM management realized its existing website did not effectively integrate health and wellness content with the new rebate program and online tools. The company needed a new website that provided useful resources and interactive tools to make it quick and easy for employees to signup and to stay with the program until they qualified for their rebates.

IBM selected Marker Seven to improve its website. The entire online experience had to be streamlined, dynamic and engaging. The revamped website had to provide easy access to IBM's Wellness for Life program, a calendar of onsite wellness and program event dates, plus interactive do-it-yourself wellness tools to accommodate the busy schedules of IBMers.

MARKER SEVEN'S SOLUTION

Simplify, streamline, inform and treat the whole site rather than just the broken parts.

After conducting key interviews, assessing trends and doing competitive research, Marker Seven applied a holistic approach to create a new Wellness For Life site. The firm’s detailed analysis of the current IBM site identified 38 trouble-specific areas that prevented an outstanding user experience. In response, Marker Seven provided 49 specific recommendations to revise the content, user interface and visuals to provide an entirely new employee experience, accommodate IBM’s technical requirements and support corporate branding.

Marker Seven’s visual prototype streamlined the content. The use of big visuals, an upbeat color palette, readable typography, engaging people photos, bold headlines/subheads and uncluttered click spots made it simple for visitors to engage with key program elements. Employing best practices in web page eye-tracking design enticed visitors to explore the Wellness For Life program and quickly employ its tools and resources.  In all, the new website made getting healthier fast, easy, fun and profitable for IBM employees.

THE RESULTS

Employee enrollment and program completion skyrocketed.

Enrollment in the Wellness for Life program zoomed once the new site was launched. Today, nearly all who enter the program complete their goals and collect their rebates. The new site makes it easy for employees to manage their individual programs, chart their progress and schedule wellness into their work lives. Feedback across all IBM’s channels is that the “Assess, Plan, Act” philosophy to improve health wellness now is a priority among employees. IBM management considers the new program and site very successful based on feedback across all company channels.

About IBM

Founded in 1910 and headquartered in Armonk, New York; International Business Machines (IBM) is the world's top provider of computer products and services. The firm is a leader in every market in which it competes. Best known for its mainframes and servers, storage systems and peripherals hardware, the company is also one of the largest providers of both software (ranking #2, behind Microsoft) and semiconductors. IBM’s information technology services division is the is the world’s largest.