How Tech Can Help Strengthen Your Wellbeing Strategy
The world has been on a roller coaster ride in the past few years. COVID-19 has turned the world upside down, and the current recession is creating hardship all over again.
More than ever, this highlights the necessity of employee wellbeing and how companies should do something about it. This time we have a special blog for our readers.
Alex Hind, CEO & Co-founder of Heka, an employee wellbeing platform, has written for us on how tech can strengthen the wellbeing strategies for businesses.
In the past couple of years, we’ve seen technology revolutionise the way we work. It’s not just useful for things like communication and collaboration, but essential to the modern workplace we know today.
As the world embraces a year that feels a lot more normal, conversations on health, wellbeing and the role of technology continue to be had. The pandemic has certainly turned everything we knew to be true about the workplace upside down.
It seems appropriate, then, to dig into how technology can strengthen your employee wellbeing strategy. What difference can technology really make, if any at all? We’ve all learnt about the pros and cons of remote work, and it’s time to look at other ways to leverage technology for the greater good of healthier, happier employees.
4 reasons to adopt technology for your wellbeing strategy
Below, we’ve listed four of the key reasons technology is vital to your employee wellbeing strategy. We’ll go through each in detail, outlining why your business must rethink technology when it comes to things like employee experience, job satisfaction, benefits personalisation and more.
The key to powerful employee personalisation
In the modern workplace, we’re seeing a huge leap towards more personalisation. This shift is evident in everything from the general employee experience to the onboarding process and employee benefits.
It’s a lack of personalisation that can drive engagement downhill in the most promising of companies. People aren’t interested or eager to work in an environment that doesn’t listen and cater to their individual needs.
To personalise the employee experience, dive into the several stages of an employee lifecycle. From the hiring phase, the onboarding process and then later in their career with your company. It’s in these stages that you may find a lack of personalisation. Once you have a firm understanding of your employee experience it’s time to research for resources, tools and platforms that can help.
For things like wellbeing benefits, speak directly with your team – find out what kind of perks and initiatives they’d like to see. It’s in these answers that will inform you of all you need. Using this feedback, look for a great employee wellbeing platform or provider for your team, and one that offers adequate personalisation.
Data and insights for better decision-making
What’s one thing technology has brought us in our lives? Insight into the data we need to make better decisions. This is true in both our professional and personal lives. As for business leaders, however, how can technology be leveraged to support a wellbeing strategy?
Data generated by employees, say through wearables, survey results or benefit scheme use can be valuable information for organisations. Understanding how to best support employees is vital, and rather than manually digging through notes, technology streamlines data in digestible sizes.
If you’re using some form of HR technology, it’s likely to have features to analyse certain metrics and results. For instance, HR software that tracks absences will be able to give leaders a clearer picture of presence in the company. Without this kind of technology, HR teams rely on manually checking on employees.
There are tools and applications for nearly every process in HR, and absence is just one possibility in which technology can easily help. The major benefit to using data and insights from HR software and platforms is time saved. HR professionals are busy people – manually working through data is a job in itself.
By assessing data and insights from HR tools, you can apply your learning to get the best ROI from your wellbeing strategy and benefits. As an added plus, you’ll also be able to better personalise wellbeing, which we’ve already discussed the huge benefits of above.
Create a proactive approach to health and wellbeing
Let’s now look at how technology enables leaders to take a more proactive approach to health and wellbeing. In the modern workplace, it’s not enough to be reactive to the health and wellbeing concerns of your team.
Employees aren’t just looking for great benefits and a fulfilling role, but also for a company that has an ongoing mission to create a healthier, happier workforce. This is where HR technology can help.
Having something like a wellbeing platform creates this idea that wellbeing is accessible in your company – the way it should be. It demonstrates a proactive approach to wellbeing and allows employees to make choices based on their individual needs.
That is the major difference between a set of outdated wellbeing initiatives and an employee wellbeing scheme. It empowers employees to take a proactive approach to their own wellbeing through variety and choice.
According to an article by COVER magazine, a staggering 42% of employees don’t know about or understand their employee benefits. This statistic tells us that by making employee benefits and wellbeing initiatives accessible, you’re taking a more proactive approach than many businesses.
Affordable and bespoke solutions to suit business needs
Some say there are too many tools, resources and platforms to choose from when it comes to employee wellbeing – others say that gives leaders the variety to tailor employee wellbeing to their own workforce.
The sheer volume of applications and software creates affordability in the HR tech space, meaning businesses can find affordable solutions while investing in their people. Of course, this means research is very much needed to find the right platform or tool, but it isn’t a bad problem to have as a leader.
Technology has evolved in innovative ways, allowing for businesses to automate, enhance and succeed with their health and wellbeing function in business. Whether it’s quizzing employees on potential health and wellbeing ideas, or providing thousands of wellbeing experiences, services and products under one provider, these are all solutions never seen before until now.
It’s mind-boggling to think about how very different the employee experience was prior to the internet. And as it continues to transform our working lives at breakneck speed, it’s important that leaders make the most of affordable and bespoke solutions available to them.
Credit: Heka is an employee wellbeing benefits platform co-founded by Alex Hind. The wellbeing platform offers employees access to thousands of experiences, products and more.
Do you need help with your HR Tech project?
If you need support selecting, implementing or optimising wellbeing technology, or any other HR tech for your organisation, our industry experts at DayoneHR are here for you. Contact us here to arrange a FREE consultation today!