Software company LifeOmic pays its staff extra cash to sleep well and eat improve their diet. An employee explains how his health has drastically improved as a result.

• Software company LifeOmic is taking a creative approach to boosting its employee wellness.
• It is paying its staff to get a good night's sleep and eat nutritious food.
• Each employee has the ability to earn up to $1,950 as a bonus on top of their salary.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Burnout is rife during the pandemic and many companies are trying to combat it using tried-and-tested methods like providing healthy snacks or subsidized virtual exercise classes.

LifeOmic, an Indianapolis-based software company, is going several steps further in its quest to improve employee wellness: it is paying workers more to practice healthy habits.

The company's main mission is to provide health and wellness solutions to clients including healthcare providers, researchers, and patients. Its staff take part in the same program – Precision Wellness – that it offers to customers.

As well as Precision Wellness, the company offers mobile apps that are tailored to health coaches, employers, and individual consumers, among others. It uses technology such as machine learning to power its products.

As an employer, LifeOmic empowers its employees to take full control over their health and wellness in an effort to maintain good habits and avoid burnout. To take part, each employee is required to track their sleep, mindfulness, and nutrition routines.

CEO Don Brown told Insider: "We incentivize healthy biomarkers (via a simple blood draw), a healthcare assessment survey, and achieving a monthly average of 7,500 LIFE Points. LIFE Points are earned by practising mindfulness, eating fruits and vegetables, intermittent fasting, sleeping, and exercise."

Each employee has the ability to earn up to $1,950 on top of their salaries if they earn all incentives. Based on the company's employee count, Brown predicts the potential payout for 2021 to be close to $100,000.

Smokers who successfully quit for six months will receive a $1,000 bonus. The company will pay for the cost of smoking cessation programs for their staff. The results are measured using a nicotine test.

Regarding the results of the program, Brown said: "We don't have multiple years worth of data yet but in 2021 alone, our insurance costs went down 10% which was from a direct impact of reduced claims." He added that employees even reported being happier and more productive as a result of the program.

Another strategy to boost wellbeing is the company's yearly nature retreat.

This year, the team will spend four nights camping in the Uinta Mountains in Utah at 10,000 feet above sea level. Brown and his team plan to do activities including rock climbing, hiking, fishing, paddle boarding, "and just relaxing."

As software company workers, Brown said his team spend a lot of time on Slack, Zoom, and email. "It is great to disconnect for a few days and just enjoy each other," he said. "It's easy to get snippy in email with someone you've never met. But after spending a few days in the wilderness with people, you build relationships that make working together far more effective," he said.

Joe Adams, one LifeOmic employee, says he has seen significant benefits as a result of the company's health-centric workplace culture. In an interview with Insider, Adams said he lost 32 pounds since joining the wellness program and is in remission from Type 2 diabetes. He provided documentation to Insider to support his claims.

"I have taken a blood test every six months since starting the program. Blood chemistry doesn't lie. And as my blood test results show, I have reversed my Type 2 diabetes and no longer have high blood pressure issues," he said.

In 2018, Adams had open-heart surgery and a triple bypass operation. But after taking part in Precision Wellness, he feels like "he rolled back the clock of father time and can work hard again." In addition, he said he has minimized his stress levels.

His participation in the program also helped Adams foster and maintain a healthy work-life balance - an increasingly challenging task for remote workers during the pandemic.

For Adams, working at a company where good health is valued and prioritized empowered him to take control: "When it comes to our own health, we need to be in charge ourselves and not dependent on a healthcare system to ride in and save us," he said.