Fostering Employee Wellbeing Through Technology

Kaleana Quibell, VP, Wellbeing & Partnerships, Sequoia

Over the last three years, the workplace landscape has completely evolved— with workforces going hybrid or fully remote, employees valuing more balance between work and home life, and employers seeing an increased demand in resources to support their people. Navigating this balance requires a new approach for people leaders to strategically plan and manage the business’ people investment.

To respond to the need for a total people strategy that considers all these factors, companies face the daunting challenge of caring for the diverse needs of distributed employee populations, but often lack the strategy, budget, and tools to effectively deliver meaningful support. Most programs these days come in the form of niche point-solutions with focused offerings, which leaves people leaders with the tireless task of researching and vetting multiple programs, driving employee engagement, and measuring impact.

Unfortunately, the expansion of point-solutions can lead to inefficiencies in operating such an integral component of retaining talent and building culture. Employee wellbeing is not only a strategic driver of business performance, but also the cornerstone to a vibrant culture, and the industry has seen a demand for innovation in employee wellbeing benefits. Now, there are programs that support physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of employees by optimizing awareness and engagement on one platform, making them a one-stop technological solution for HR providers and employees alike. Here is how technology is helping to build a smarter ecosystem of wellbeing benefits:

"Employee wellbeing is not only a strategic driver of business performance, but also the cornerstone to a vibrant culture"

Fully Flexible Customizations

It’s no surprise that different employees have different needs. Wellbeing is not a one-size-fits all solution, so neither should a company’s offerings be. It is important to obtain feedback from employees and respond to employee’s diverse needs by offering multiple programs; a variety is often necessary to provide people with meaningful support. A curated marketplace of innovative providers makes it easy for employers to discover the most relevant wellbeing solutions for their people and then combine, administer, and deliver them as part of a single, cost-effective solution.

Easy Integration

Much like any technology platform or solution, if the user experience is difficult or cumbersome, adoption will be low. An employer can offer an abundant amount of the greatest solutions customized to their employees’ needs, but if no one takes advantage of the support, then leadership can often feel these are wasted benefits and dollars. Companies can fuel employee engagement with wellbeing offerings by making them easy to access and part of their general day-to-day behavior. Technology now makes it possible for these top-tier vendor wellness solutions to be rolled out as simply as flipping a switch, easily integrating with the same multi-channel platform that employees typically engage with for all their company-provided programs and benefits.

Tailored Employee Engagement

People Leaders wear many hats—from talent acquisition and learning and development, to policies and payroll. As such, it can be easy to lean on generic emails to engage employees with reminders about wellness programs and timely resources for events, workshops and more. However, employees can get the most from their benefits by having a people partner who is truly committed to amplifying their offerings. Through the power of technology, HR admins can now launch guidance, ongoing engagement content, educational webinars, and more, all selectively published directly to employees.

Program Utilization

People leaders should have their finger on the pulse of benefit offerings, assessing the impact of their selected wellbeing programs in one place, breaking down utilization for each program. This was easier said than done prior to recent advancements in the technological platforms HR providers use. Now, people leaders can analyze the overall performance of a company’s wellbeing strategy to ensure employees are getting the most value out of programs. There are many insights that can be garnered by regularly reviewing adoption and utilization metrics. If a program is not resonating with employees, businesses are now empowered to flexibly reconfigure benefits to include options that are better suited.

See the result of a more fulfilled and engaged workforce

Technology elevates how businesses care for their people. With the right digital tools, best-practice resources, and expert teams to help define what wellbeing means to your company, businesses can build a relevant program that keeps people productive, healthy, fulfilled and loyal.

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