When 2021 arrived, we all hoped that the new year would be a much different story than 2020. Mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety were up, and many employers were making resolutions to address the healthcare needs of their people. In fact, 41 percent of workers surveyed said that their companies began offering new health- and wellness-focused benefits over the last year.
Unfortunately, for many, this year is even tougher than the last, and fewer than one-third of employers believe their wellbeing programs have effectively supported their employees. Research from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans shows that:
- 67 percent of respondents said preventive care claims decreased
- 62 percent of respondents said that primary care claims decreased
- 63 percent of respondents said that mental health claims increased
It’s no surprise that people are taking less care of themselves and burning out. A lack of proper support can manifest into expensive concerns, such as employee burnout. When it comes to career development, the firsthand effects of burnout — as characterized by the World Health Organization — can result in increased mental distance from one’s job and reduced professional efficacy. Those outcomes lead to severe business costs. The World Economic Forum previously put a $322 billion price tag on employee burnout due to productivity loss and turnover. This, paired with the projected 4.2 percent cost increase of healthcare, is leaving employers in a position that they cannot afford.
The truth is, health and wellbeing failure in the form of a lack of employee utilization could harm the longevity of newly adopted solutions and put employer costs and employee health at risk. The challenge with benefits utilization has always been about engagement. Here’s how digital health technology today can be leveraged to help companies better understand employees’ needs and simplify how access to care is provided.
The Complexity Hindering Utilization
There are two major hurdles that employers must recognize and overcome to improve employee benefits participation:
- Supporting the hybrid world of work — Employees aren’t necessarily running back into the office, and it is expected that 2 in 5 employees will still be working remotely at the end of 2021. The flexible conditions with some people being in the office and others being remote on any given day means employees will need to be equipped to engage and communicate in different types of conditions, not just one.
- Avoiding the fragmented vendor approach — As companies are adding voluntary benefits and wellbeing offerings, a common approach is to simply add on a new vendor. However, a Health Advocate survey reported more than 40 percent of employees said dealing with multiple vendors to access their benefits is confusing, not to mention the hassle that comes with keeping up with multiple logins.
Both of these factors are making it complicated for employees to utilize the offerings and take care of their health.
Make Wellbeing Simple
Fortunately, there’s now technology built from the ground up to help employers better connect people to the care they need in a way that actually works for them. As employers begin adding additional resources to support broader wellbeing programs to address a more flexible set of employee needs, making it simple to have a healthy culture will be key. Here are five things employers should be looking for:
- Aim for engagement. When an employee is engaged in their health and wellness, their odds of personal and work success are much higher. Increase the full use of available benefits and programs.
- Power up personalization. Communicate information that’s specific to each employee’s individual circumstance — registering and acknowledging their goals around not just physical health but also emotional and financial wellbeing.
- Make it mobile. Put effective, engaging technology in the hands of every employee, using tech that tracks seamlessly across devices.
- Nudge healthier behavior. Blend engaging technology with rewards and incentives that encourage employees to form healthier habits and to stick to them.
- Create connections. Build a culture of health that brings together the remote and in-person workforce with challenges, activities, and the sharing of stories.
If companies get this right, it can produce amazing results. For example, Deloitte had a workplace mental health program with over 52,000 team members, and they saw more than a $4 return on every $1 spent.
The pressure is on for employees to fulfill their wellbeing resolution, and having a technology that gets you it is now possible.
