Multiple studies in recent times have reported the significance of employee health and well-being on workplace productivity and business growth. And so, despite returning to normalcy since the COVID-19 pandemic, employee health and well-being is still one of the primary concerns of many employers. Safeguarding employee health and wellness (and avoiding any economic loss to the company) has been a key priority for many businesses in recent years.

Although medical solutions like thermal screenings, antibody checks and on-site medical care professionals are still practiced widely, it’s quite expensive. Also, it’s not practical for many small- and medium-sized businesses.

Thanks to the virtual health care solutions that boomed during the pandemic, digital health approaches have been put forth by many health and wellness organizations. Many employers have been offering the digital health and wellness solutions as a part of their employee wellness programs. Digital health solutions have been considered to be relatively more economical, effective and safe, as well as a scalable tool to help safeguard and monitor the health, well-being and safety of the workforce.

Despite the array of safety options available in the market (e.g., antibody/viral testing, protective equipment (PPE), thermal screening and more) each one comes with its own pros and cons, and just one solution may not be as effective on its own. Another important factor to consider is that each employee may have a different risk scenario: who they live with, the spread risk in their location, how they travel to work, their immunity levels, their underlying medical conditions and more. It’s practically impossible for employers to address each case. And if there are thousands of employees in a company, it can become a much more daunting task.

Why Digital Health Training?

The risks related to health, safety and overall employee wellness, come from various aspects, and a single solution will not be effective in such situations. Digital health training modules offer versatile strategies that can help users identify what is safe or not for them.

With plenty of solutions available at hand, digital health platforms make it easy for users to adhere to safe practices whether they’re working in person or remotely. The right digital health solutions will not just guide the employees toward everyday safety but also boost their confidence in how they approach work.

Digital Wellness Solutions and Workplace Wellness

Aiming at employee wellness and safety, employers can leverage the right digital health solutions. Here are a few digital health and well-being tools that can be implemented in corporate wellness programs.

1. Health assessment tools – Buoy Health has an assessment tool that employees can use to report symptoms and other risk factors so employers can decide how to support a safe return to the workplace. Offering these tools as a part of corporate wellness programs can allow employees to take their own assessment and report probable risks. By knowing the outcomes of the assessments, the employers can work on a scalable way to find the right employee wellness solutions, ensuring their health, well-being, and safety.
2. Health coaching tools – Health coaching programs can give the motivation and guidance to the workforce through their wellness journey. Apart from virtual and in-person sessions with health coaches, employers can provide access to coaching program modules and tools to help employees follow healthy lifestyle and behavioral habits. Apart from accessing health management resources, using digital health software can also help the coaches to monitor, track progress and guide them accordingly.

3. Device integration – Wearables and fitness devices have become an integral part of our lives. And so, integrating them in the employee wellness programs can help employees track their physical activity easily. When the wellness platform or mobile app is supported with the right digital technology to integrate with other third-party devices and apps, the wellness activities can be more engaging and gamified. This not only boosts the success rates of the wellness programs, but also contributes toward building a healthy and safe lifestyle.

4. Corporate wellness technology – Wellness technology can support wearables and fitness devices that monitor employee health. When integrated with the wellness platform or mobile app, it can help employees and employers track step count, physical activity levels, calories burned, heart rate and more. Apart from the wellness platform and mobile app support, wellness technology must also support artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools like health apps and conversational chatbots, which are now emerging as one of the most cost-effective wellness solutions. Incorporating the right corporate wellness technology into the digital health tools can help in customizing their wellness program and employee well-being journey according to their specific requirements and interests.

5. Reports and analytics – When the workforce knows how they are progressing through their wellness journey, they will not know if their efforts are paying off, if they need to improve and if the workplace wellness training are addressing their health and well-being needs. The right corporate wellness technology must be capable of collecting all the user data and insights to provide individual and aggregate reports and analytics to the wellness program administrators and users.

In short, employers must go the extra mile to make wise decisions regarding employee well-being and safety by integrating the right digital health solutions in the workplace wellness programs that focus on various wellness dimensions.