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

www.wysa.com

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. 

The post Proactive Employee Wellness Programs: Key Insights and Approaches appeared first on CEO Medium.

Recent news has told us that 18% of the United States’ office space lies vacant, with 300 million square feet expected to be obsolete by 2030 as firms battle with the economic downturn and a rise in popularity of home working in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

However, while office space may well be reduced as we move into the future, there will always be a place for it. Not every company can work remotely, and a lot of the new working days we see are a hybrid blend between office and home working.

Innovative office designs and a rethinking of the traditional office space have been seen across the world, with many businesses taking a different approach to the workday.

Collaboration
Collaboration and communication are key elements of businesses, and features that are important to remain in place wherever people are working.

Of course, where people are working remotely, technology has enabled us to keep in touch with colleagues across the businesses and even the globe, however, in the actual office spaces themselves, we’re seeing some different approaches to the regular traditional office.

Coworking spaces are something that allow collaboration between not just employees in your company, but also across businesses.

Elements of coworking spaces can be brought into the traditional office, with creative ways for teams to meet, including kitchen areas, break out spaces and even informal areas such as 8-ball tables and beanbags – all of these provide a way for people to meet each other, collaborate and if nothing else, get communication flowing across the business.

As businesses cut down on the spaces they need, coworking spaces may become a viable option for many. Across the globe there are some very quirky and unique coworking spaces, which bridge the gap between home and office working

. Lisbon’s Village Underground is a space which promotes collaboration and culture, and as well as workspaces includes a recording studio and a restaurant. Of course, different businesses have different requirements so what works for one may not work for all, but options like this highlight the changing attitudes to the workspace.

Work-Life Balance
A phrase all of us will have heard and tried to take heed of is the work-life balance, and this is something at the heart of many workplace changes we are seeing. As things have changed in the past few years, and many have worked from home, a full time return to the office for people that was expected hasn’t fully materialized.

Research from Knight Frank showed the expectation that “employees will work at least some of the week from home for the foreseeable future”, and just a third of businesses still pushing for a full-time return.

Balancing the work and free time of employees can be tricky, particularly when office visits are essential to the job. Clever workspaces have begun introducing more opportunities for downtime and screen breaks, as seen in Google’s Zurich space. Slides, cinema rooms and places to even have a dance are all part of the office, and elements of this can be implemented in offices for smaller companies too.

Having fun in the office can of course improve communication but above all the wellbeing of the workforce. As the workplace changes, work is not so much a place people go but a thing that they do, and that they do from anywhere. With this in mind, when employees need to go to the office, their welfare is important and employees that can have fun in the office are likely to be up to 20% more productive than those who aren’t.

A no-brainer then, to incorporate some interesting areas into an office where employees can take a break. Coupled with flexible options when available, providing a work-life balance while in the office too can result in happier, and in turn more focused and productive members of staff.

Remove the Office Feeling
One approach to the office space we have seen is to be clever with the design of the space. This can be simply making sure people have enough power sockets in which to plug in laptops, phones and printers. Aesthetics are important too, and by incorporating this into the design of the office from the get-go, a reputable supplier can ensure practical elements such as wiring and electrical enclosure boxes are considered as part of the overall build.

Removing the traditional office feeling though, can of course go much further than being practical with layouts and ensuring a flow of natural light. Bark, a company that create dog toys and treats, have a unique workspace which is designed for both humans and dogs to be side by side during the working day.

Using dog-friendly materials, the space allows employees to work at their will around the office, and has importantly been completed using cost-effective materials to show that this way of thinking can be commercially viable too. While naturally, this may be a step too far for many, the unique way of thinking again showcases how businesses have changed workspaces into something that works for them.

Sources

Half of big companies to cut office desk space as bosses give up on back to work push (msn.com)

Village Underground Lisboa – Um muro aberto para um novo movimento artístico e cultural (vulisboa.com)

Rethinking The Modern Workspace: Embracing Change With Purpose (forbes.com)

NBBJ designs Bark’s Ohio office for both humans and dogs (dezeen.com)

The post Thinking Different: Redefining the Office By Stewart Beer, Site Manager at Electrix International appeared first on CEO Medium.