Creating rewards programs for employee health mastery

I've seen a few employers recently really pull out all the stops when it comes to promoting a healthy workplace. These companies (small and large) seem to recognize that keeping employees healthy makes them more productive (in a measurable way in many cases) and have developed programs to reward employees for healthy behaviors.

How about a "points system" that allows employees to win gifts for acting in a health-conscious way? You will generally get people's attention when you're talking about freebies like digital cameras, flat-panel TVs and iPods. We all love our gadgets, right?

These hard costs to employees will come back in the form of less employee absenteeism and lowered medical costs, which continue to spiral out of control for many companies -- especially small ones.