The words 'Employee Wellness / Corporate Wellness,' has become more of a buzzword than something that people invest in. Deadlines take precedence over our focus on health.
The working population around the globe spends over 50% of their active day time at a workplace, which is more than 1/3rd of the entire day. And surely, the time spent at work has a significant impact on individuals’ health. The long hours, market pressure, multitasking, etc., have a high effect on the stress levels of every individual, affecting focus and overall health. Additionally, the sedentary work style leads to various occupational hazards. Typically, chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, among others.
So, how can one beat the common causes of workplace stress?
Continuous monitoring and a planned wellness regime could prevent these issues from occurring. And as corporations can impact the health habits and wellness of the employees, this can have a significant impact on the healthcare budget of corporations.
Over the last few years, organizations have focused on the health and wellbeing of their employees. The programs were directed based on historical data and spending on healthcare. There were various programs run in many organizations across the globe on Digital Health Solutions, but the success of such programs was limited to the use of data derived out of notions or observations.
Lately, the introduction of wearables such as Samsung Gear series, Apple Watch, Fitbit bands and other vital monitoring devices the focus is on monitoring the vital statistics of employees and initiating an action plan appropriately. The action plans derived from measured data are always more powerful, addressing the root cause.
If we look at the various stakeholders with a variety of interests participating in such programs, we will see that business leaders expect high throughput with the highest efficiency while human resource managers expect satisfied employees with high level of motivation. Such a system will benefit the corporate healthcare facility or appointed physician as it promotes preventive care and employees who will receive factual data and action items suggested to him/herself.
Some of the other outcomes are that third-party providers / corporate insurance companies will be able to understand the overall health index and thus plan insurance accordingly. The employee families will be more satisfied by knowing that there is a work-life balance and thus good family time. In essence, the whole eco-system will benefit from such a program.
The key success factors in making employee wellness programs successful are as follows:
- Continuous measurement of health parameters providing a real sense of the situation
- Detailed analysis and tangible actions arriving out of data pointing to the real issues
- Encouraged participation from every participant in the program resulting in high-level accuracy
- Excellent support from business leaders and human resource management teams in driving actions to closure motivating more and more employees to participate in such programs
Increased accumulation and consumption of high volumes of data over a period of time maturing the systems thus providing more accurate analysis.
The system which will address key factors mentioned above is going to provide sustained employee wellness direction to any organization.
Below are various stakeholder expectations from a well-implemented employee wellness program:
- Visibility to business line managers about their project teams aggregated as well as individual level health index; this will provide insights to make decisions like project rotation, production scheduling, resource loading, etc.
- Continuous health index analysis on a periodic basis to human resource managers providing demographic, business center specific and business function specific break-up to address key focus areas for specific to the specific segment of employees.
- Wellness reports for employees would be a key input to corporate insurance companies.
- Active support from various functions in the company for the employee to ensure wellness, work-life balance, employee satisfaction. Additionally, a reward program recognizing and promoting healthy habits and associated health index of the employees. This will drive the employees to strive for better health while regularly monitoring their health parameters.
- Predictive/preventive analysis of data shall benefit all stakeholders while also serving the system’s objectives.
A matured employee wellness system will prove to be an asset to any organization in maintaining an efficient workforce with continuous improvement in employee wellness. Wellness program involves activities such as physical activity, spreading awareness and findings, providing recognition on achievements, and commitment over a long period.
Running an employee wellness program is a complex and long-term effort. A well-defined strategy that not only motivates employees to actively participate in setting short term and long-term goals but also following up with employees to achieve their set goals is the key to success.
At HARMAN DTS, we are committed to providing a stress-free environment to employees. A solution which helps monitor individual wellness and helps in improving the same further is under development. Please feel free to write to us for more information.
