Today marks National Workplace Wellbeing Day with many companies providing onsite presentations, bringing in healthcare professionals or giving free gifts to employees. But it is not about one day and definitely not about a box ticking activity. At a Tech forum, Mr. Barry Napier of Cubic Telecom mentioned ’emotional intelligence is the driving factor behind a company’s culture and people’. It is culture and people that instill the DNA of innovation in a company, which in turn helps in staying ahead of competition. So let today be a day about reinforcing the idea of how and why it makes business sense to roll out employee wellbeing programmes as a data driven business strategy and not as a once off or ad hoc event.

At Wind of Change, we believe in regular communication with the organisations, employees and wellbeing providers, to understand the pulse and provide solutions on our own or in collaboration with the wellbeing ecosystem through our WaaS platform. We found measurable metrics help all three stakeholders by helping organisation take strategic decision around rolling out relevant programmes, showing continuous improvement in health to employees, and helps wellbeing providers show effectiveness of their offering. But to do this, primary caveat is, the programmes have to be structured and long term. It is not an overnight change, so one or two events will have to be replaced by longer term commitment from everyone. Good news is, we are seeing interest from the rest of the ecosystem around collaboration to provide integrated solution for organisations.

Since launching our platform in Ireland and India, our insights are showing interesting trends, which are only reinforcing our beliefs. When data flags “Stress” and “Sleep” being issues, impact on other body systems are also high. But those signs and symptoms are individual dependent. 65% of our respondents say they do not engage with existing programmes because they are not tailored to their needs. As a result, workplace wellbeing programme engagement tends to be low single digit in % terms. So a both top down and bottom up approach is needed along with a scalable solution if we really want to make a positive impact.

At Wind of Change, we are constantly striving for innovation. With technology and collaboration, we believe solutions can be tailored for individual needs which will collectively provide solutions for the organisations. The results that comes out of the back end of our system, supports this belief. Hoping to see the industry moving towards more long term strategic solutions and away from once off initiatives.

NOTE: If you are a Manager, Human Resource Manager, Team Leader, Club or Association that think we can make an impact on Workplace Wellness in your Organisation, please reach out to us.