You know something is wrong when there is increased absenteeism, low productivity, and lack of motivation among employees. But how do you come up with a solution when you don’t even know the solid reason triggering these issues in the organization? If you are a part of corporate culture, you must be fully aware of the fact that both employers and employees are reluctant to have open discussions around health and wellness.
Employees often struggle to maintain a healthy balance between their personal and professional life, which often leads to increased stress. Given the continuous demand for high performance, work-family conflict, job insecurity, and a lack of recognition, it’s not surprising that so many employees struggle with various mental as well as physical health issues.
A survey done by ASSOCHAM revealed that 43 percent of Indian employees suffer from depression, with at least 23% suffering from obesity. Apart from that, high blood pressure, slip disc, diabetes, and arthritis are all frequent ailments that affect employees.
From an athlete to a celebrity to a normal employee, every individual struggles with mental or physical health issues at some point in their life. The only difference is that while influential people have access to better resources or help, employees don’t really talk about these issues.
The reason being they have never been provided with that safe space where they can openly discuss their struggles. But now is the time to take your employees’ mental health seriously and promote not only physical but also mental wellness in the workplace.
It is a no-brainer that technology has amazed us in many ways in the last two decades. Before Covid-19, only a few organizations were leveraging technology to provide their employees with a seamless wellness experience. But as soon as the pandemic hit the world, there was no option other than to invest in technology not only for resolving remote work challenges but also improving employee health and well-being.
Some of the technological developments that can help improve employee health and well being are as follows:
Smart Wearable Technologies
You must have seen a bunch of people wearing stylish and elegant smartwatches around you. They look great, don’t they? But do you know they can also be used as clinically viable healthcare tools? Yes, smart wearables such as smartwatches, blood pressure monitors, ECG monitors, and fitness trackers help improve your health and fitness.
Wearable fitness trackers such as Fitbit can help track your sleeping patterns, keep track of your heart rate and level of oxygen in your blood, and can also be used for GPS tracking during exercise. Organizations can encourage their employees to adopt these wearable devices or must provide them with these tools as part of their benefits programs.
Artificial Intelligence In Wellness
According to a study, AI applications can cut annual US healthcare costs by USD 150 billion in 2026. These cost reductions will be a result of redesigning the healthcare model and focusing more on health management rather than disease treatment. With these changes, one can expect fewer hospitalizations, reduced doctor visits, and fewer treatments.
The role of AI in healthcare is indispensable, as AI-powered tools have the potential to provide continuous developments in the areas of workplace wellness. Employers can get a gist of employees’ emotions and mental states by using AI-powered health monitoring tools. They can also understand an employee’s lifestyle using these tools. Employers can then use this data to offer personalized health recommendations and drive more engagement in their wellness initiatives.
Employee Engagement Tools
Employee engagement tools or apps such as Zimyo Engage can help employers notice any changes in their employee’s moods or analyze their sentiments with its intelligent sentiment analysis tool. This helps them get a holistic view of employee morale and interpret the results of the data collected during the feedback.
They can then use this information to offer the help or support that your employees need. Apart from that, they can also conduct polls and surveys with their employees to know their opinion on certain matters. Employers can then use the results obtained from these surveys to make informed business decisions. This not only helps keep employees engaged and motivated in the organization but also helps improve productivity.
The Rise Of Fintech Companies
According to a survey done by the American Psychological Association, 72% of adults cite money as a major stressor in their life. This highlights the importance of financial wellness among employees. Healthcare costs, income level, level of debt, retirement, planning, dealing with a financial or health emergency, etc. are the biggest financial concerns today.
However, it’s not something that can’t be fixed. You can improve your employees’ financial wellness by offering them easy access to financial services and investing in employee benefits programs. At Zimyo, we have partnered with various FinTech partners to offer numerous “Employee Benefits” including Advance Salary Options, Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Tax Saving Investment Options, Wealth Management Solutions, Credit Cards, and much more.
Final Words -You can’t promote employee health and wellness just by offering employees work from home opportunities once a week or additional sick leaves. Creating a culture of wellness requires much more than that. The world of work is changing and so are the needs of the modern workforce. Therefore, it is more important than ever to promote awareness on health topics and engage employees in wellness activities. You can achieve so by leveraging technology to develop holistic wellbeing strategies. Prioritizing health and wellness in the workplace can help employees live their best lives, at work, at home, or in any part of the world.
