Measuring the success of wellness programmes in the workplace

A survey carried out on behalf of Laya Healthcare during the summer found that four in 10 Irish workers (39 per cent) are struggling to cope with everyday life under coronavirus while 91 per cent of them have reported some level of anxiety since the pandemic struck.

The research also revealed that companies predict an average cost of €37,138 on returning employees to the workplace. This includes putting in place new infrastructure to meet health and safety guidelines, PPE provision and running wellness programmes. The total cost to business in Ireland could reach a staggering €10 billion.

With spending of that scale on wellness in the workplace, it is fairly natural that employers will want to ensure they are getting value for money, or at least that their programmes are delivering the promised benefits to their employees.

One company which is helping employers assess the effectiveness of their wellbeing spend is Empeal. Founded by Sohini De, Empeal is a digital health company which offers tailored cloud-based employee health programmes with measurable outcomes on a software as a service basis.

Deliver results

A global equities fund manager in her previous career, De realised that significant investments in wellness programmes were failing to deliver results and there was no real way to measure the return on the investment. She founded Empeal with the aim of making corporate health and wellbeing programmes more accountable and boosting employee engagement by individualising the programmes.

The Empeal service starts with an assessment of the company’s needs and those of its employees. “We talk to the employees about their needs and tailor the programmes based on that,” De explains. “We provide anonymised reports of the assessment to enable companies to understand the needs of their employees. We then create programmes that meet those needs.”

This may sound straightforward or even blindingly obvious, but employers are often unaware of what their employees want or need when it comes to wellbeing, according to De. “For example, we went into a company that had a fitness trainer coming in three times a week. We did a survey of the staff and found that the classes were actually making pains and aches worse for people and employee engagement with the programme was very low. It was actually doing more harm than good. We recommended a physiotherapist and that helped.”

That employer subsequently included reimbursement for physiotherapist visits as part of its benefits package.

She believes at least part of the problem lies with a herd mentality prevailing in the corporate wellbeing space. “I was an investment banker for 20 years working in global equity funds,” she says. “I worked in the corporate sector and I saw the one size fits all approach where people checked the boxes. What are we trying to do is elevate wellbeing initiatives above that checking the box exercise.”

A key aspect of Empeal programmes is continuous assessment through employee feedback. “The engagement rate for wellbeing programmes globally is between 5 and 8 per cent,” says De. “We achieve 50 per cent because our programmes are based on continuous feedback from employees. The feedback loop is very important. If you are going to give employees’ programmes or facilities you need to know if they are working or not. Our programmes are based on the four pillars of nutrition, fitness, sleep and stress management. Employers get a 360-degree view of the continuous assessment throughout the programmes. They can monitor progress and use the data to make improvements.”

She uses the example of a response to certain health conditions. "If people are reporting problems with aches and pains the programme can be changed to address those issues while another less important element might be dropped. One client company in India reported a huge amount of stress among its workforce. When we did the initial assessment, we found employees were working very late into the night. We found that the route cause of the stress was a sleep issue. When you know what the problem is you can address it."

Gamification boosts employee engagement. “Even if it’s just a webinar on healthy eating, you can turn it into a competition with cook-up challenges and so on. That helps with engagements and follow-up by employees.”

Organisations which want to ensure they are following best practice in this increasingly important area can apply for accreditation under IBEC’s KeepWell programme. The KeepWell mark incorporates eight different standards which organisations can use as benchmarks for their programmes.

There are three levels of accreditation culminating in excellence with some companies working their way through the levels and others achieving the top level straight away, according to KeepWell programme manager Sophie Moran.

Wellbeing strategy

“Many large companies may already have very high-quality health and wellbeing programmes and go for the KeepWell mark as a good way of getting an external benchmark for the company,” she points out.

The accreditation process itself acts as a means of validating the effectiveness of programmes. “We assess companies and work with them to achieve best practice,” says Moran. “We operate on a two- or three-year cycle with them. Organisations which join the KeepWell community have a year before they go for accreditation. We provide supports to help them develop their wellbeing strategy. This allows them to implement any changes that might be necessary.”

The assessment is carried out by an independent consultant. “It takes a minimum of a full day and can last a week,” she adds. “The consultant reviews the company using the KeepWell framework of standards. They meet with senior and middle management as well as line managers. They hold focus group meetings and meet employees to see if the experience on the ground matches what’s in the programme.”

Organisations are accredited to the KeepWell mark for a two-year period. “They are reviewed after the first year and they receive a report on what has been achieved, areas for improvement and guidance on how to approach that,” Moran explains. “After two years they go for a full reaccreditation review. That’s very important from the perspective of member companies. Feedback is necessary if they are to get full value from the programme. It helps ensure best practice is maintained. We have had a very good retention rate since the programme was established in 2017. We now have 113 companies in the KeepWell community. Fifty per cent of them are accredited and the others are at different stages of the journey.”

De points out that companies with established programmes can run them on the Empeal app. “Most companies nowadays have some sort of employee wellbeing programme,” she says. “They can run them through our app. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel. They can put their existing wellness suppliers on our platform. They can use the app to see if they are meeting their targets.”

Market response to the app has been very positive to date. “Covid-19 has done two things,” says De. “It has brought the health agenda to the forefront for employers and employees alike. They are all more concerned about wellbeing. The second is the whole digital concept. More and more people are working remotely, and HR people are all saying employees will not coming back to work in the office very soon. There is still a need for companies to help employees to eat better and exercise more when at home. Digital access means equal access for employees regardless of location.”