One of the biggest challenges facing employers is that employees believe they are already engaging in healthy behaviors and may not see the need for change, according to Hewitt Associate’s 2008 annual health care survey.

While 88 percent of employees say they are engaged in healthy behaviors, they don’t necessarily take specific actions toward living a healthy lifestyle. Less than one-half of employees say the eat right or are exercising three or more times per week. Six out of 10 employees say they do a good job at getting preventative screenings, but only four out of 10 say they do a good job at tracking their essential health numbers and asking for advice on how to stay healthy.

To make matters worse, what employees say they do, doesn’t match national data or their employer’s claims and experience. So, they may have good intentions but their actions are waning.

The survey also found that employees support linking incentives to promote healthier lifestyle decisions. Seven out of 10 employees support lower premiums for practicing healthy behaviors such as exercising regularly, and 76 percent of employees agree with the idea of having higher health care premiums for smokers.