A staggering 3.3 billion people are employed globally, with many spending the majority of their waking hours at work. Yet, the Wysa ‘All Worked Up’ report showed that work-related stressors correlate with anxiety and depression symptoms in nearly 40% of employees. The challenges of mental health stigma and a lack of awareness prevent many from seeking help. A panel discussion involving representatives from Vitality, Accenture, Bosch, Allianz Partners, and Wysa explored best practices in proactive employee wellness programs.
Shared Value Model
Vitality’s Dr. Katie Tryon emphasized the significance of incentivizing behavior change to cultivate healthier habits. Vitality believes in delivering shared value—benefits for the individual, the insurance company, and society. Sophia Weber from Allianz Partners supported this, discussing their rewards model that encourages health and wellbeing. This approach enables them to support employees to take small steps towards building a whole person and whole life attitudinal and behavioural plan that embraces overall health.
Meeting Employees’ Needs
Geetika Arora Bhojak from Accenture underscored the importance of proactive health initiatives tailored to individual needs. “We have pivoted from health to wellbeing,” she said, emphasizing a focus on overall well-being rather than just tackling health issues as they arise. Recognizing potential barriers, Bosch has transitioned from using the term ‘mental health’ to ’emotional health’, hoping this shift will make employees feel more comfortable addressing issues. Dr. Rahul Kalia from Bosch noted that a proactive approach to emotional health is crucial, much like how chest pain, an early symptom, is addressed before it escalates to a heart attack.
Holistic Approach to Health
All panelists felt passionately about linking physical and mental health. Accenture’s model covers six dimensions of human potential, including mind, body, heart, and soul. Sophia mentioned that viewing individuals holistically—considering both their mental and physical well-being—is crucial. It’s essential to consider the overall wellbeing of employees rather than segregating physical and mental health. This approach facilitates a broader spectrum of interventions, that tackle specific needs in a way that works for the individual, when and how suits them. It is possible to measure the magnitude of an issue and provide general and targetted programmes, and by using technology ensures access to care even in countries where not always available.
Shared Responsibility
Wellness isn’t only the employee’s responsibility. Leadership plays an essential role. Dr. Rahul highlighted Bosch’s leadership commitment to health. At Accenture, mapping on-ground support and offering resources like Wysa’s AI-based solutions has been crucial. Allianz’s CEO producing a podcast discussing his mental health journey exemplified the leadership’s commitment to transparency, aiming to reduce stigma and foster a supportive environment.
Early Detection and Intervention
The panel agreed on the importance of early intervention to prevent minor mental health concerns from becoming severe issues. Rahul detailed Bosch’s comprehensive approach, which encompasses mental health awareness, advocacy, and resources such as counseling sessions. Having a multi-faceted approach, including both human therapists and AI chatbots, ensures that employees have access to the support they need when they need it.
Personalized Tools
Bosch emphasizes the importance of tools tailored to individual needs, covering both general well-being and condition-specific wellness. Offering a variety of tools acknowledges the diverse needs of their workforce. Katie from Vitality highlighted the importance of immediate support, noting that sometimes an instant chatbot response might be more beneficial than a long-term program.
Evaluating Effectiveness
All panelists agreed on the importance of assessing the effectiveness of wellness programs. Given the increasing mental health issues despite significant investments in employee well-being, there’s a clear need for outcome-focused evaluations. Rahul introduced the concept of Value on Investment (VOI) instead of traditional ROI. This measure, he said, better reflects the objectives of wellness programmes and echoes the holistic nature of their approac. Vitality measures healthspan (mortality and morbidity combined) to prioritize interventions, while Accenture focuses more on understanding the needs and challenges of its workforce. Embedding analytics in wellness pathways, as mentioned by Ramakant from Wysa, ensures real-time, actionable insights.
The Role of AI in Future Wellness Initiatives
Ramakant elaborated on the evolution of AI in wellness, emphasising the role that must be its role in ensuring clinical safety and efficiency. However, the challenges of data privacy laws and ensuring data accuracy loom large. The power of AI lies in its predictability, with Wysa logging over 550 million conversations to refine their AI chatbot’s responses. However, maintaining clinical safety standards, like those of the NHS, remains paramount.
Putting Employees First:
Katie underscored the primary goal of all these initiatives: the well-being of the individual employee. It’s easy to get entangled in data and technology, but the focus should always remain on the tangible benefits to the individual. Only by prioritising the holistic well-being of employees—emotionally, physically, socially, and mentally—can companies effectively address the looming mental health crisis.
A proactive approach to employee wellness is imperative in today’s work environment. By integrating personalised interventions, holistic health models, and effective evaluation tools, businesses can foster a healthier, more productive workforce, ultimately benefiting individuals, companies, and society at large.
About Wysa
Wysa is a global leader in AI-driven mental health support, available both to individuals, through employer benefits programmes and healthcare services. We believe access to support should be available whenever people need it. Stigma prevails, so we take away the need for people to ask for help and eliminate the need for people to make a judgement call on when they should seek professional support. Proven to improve depression and anxiety scores by an average of 31%, Wysa’s AI-first approach enables employees to improve their mental health before symptoms become severe, by understanding an individual’s needs and guiding them through interactive cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) exercises. Wysa’s clinically safe AI encourages users to take additional support, whenever it’s needed, by guiding them towards Wysa’s human coaching, employer benefits programmes (EAP) or national crisis lines. Wysa has helped over 6 million people through 550 million AI conversations across 95 countries.
