Proliferating New Age Digital Technologies to Boost Mental Health and Wellbeing

The resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore three areas of wellbeing: physical, mental and social. In the early 1970s, wellness was thought of as a lack of illness, the absence of symptoms of disease indicated that we were well. Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines wellness as “a state of composite physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely as absence of any disease or infirmity.” When we blend wellness with today’s digital technologies such as automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR), the potential results are both extensive and exciting.

Mental wellness, a relatively underplayed concept, has been brought to the fore amid recent emerging statistics in the organizational context:

1. 79% of employees have experienced stress at work during the last 12 months.
2. 45% of employees have considered leaving a job due to the stress it has created.
3. Employees who participated in social or community activities regularly saw a ~20% increase in their productivity
4. ~49% of employees think their line managers would be unable to relate to them even if they spoke to them about a mental issue.

A significant collection of organizations have realized this burgeoning importance of ensuring mental wellness for their employees, prompted in part by the importance of these statistics:

1. 72% of employees want to see their employers advocate for mental health and well-being in the workplace.
2. $7-10 million is the amount absenteeism costs employers per salaried employee annually; this cost jumps to $3,600 for each hourly employee.
3. Studies estimate that every $1 spent on improving treatment for common mental disorders generates a return of $3-5 in improved health and productivity, i.e. a 3X-5X return.
4. 400 million is the number of workdays lost globally each year due to depression alone.

Understanding mental health with a typical user journey

Now let’s relate the concept of mental health with a typical user journey -- Mr.X., an employee with multiple layered characteristics -- as we attempt to solve his issues by marrying psychology (mental wellness) and technology (digital) in Figure 1, titled “User Journey of MR X.”

Major roadblocks to accessing mental health and wellbeing solutions at the workplace

According to an internal survey conducted by organizations ,some of the top challenges faced by employees like MR X. include:

1. 25% of the respondents mentioned that they did not have easy access to a consolidated wellbeing calendar.
2. 20% of respondents did not know who to reach out to in the event of a mental health issue.
3. 20% of respondents felt they were unable to quantify the benefits of wellbeing activities.
4. 15% of respondents felt they did not have access to wellness resources.
5. 10% of respondents felt they were not proactively being reached out to.
6. The remaining 10% of respondents had other reasons, such as inhibitions in reaching out to a counselor or having no interest in improving their mental well-being.

Using technology to transform the ‘new normal’ by addressing challenges

Can technology solve problems and bring transformation to become the new normal? The answer is probably an emphatic “Yes” because today technology can aim to solve some of the problems that we would face regularly, illustrated with Figure 2, “What-If scenario based modeling”:

How can the power of digital technologies assist further?

The health and wellness industry, already a booming $4.5 trillion business globally has seen a mushrooming of online sessions for improving mental state today that cost anywhere between $30 and $60 per hour, and considering the COVID-19 pandemic we have been a part of, the future holds immense potential as some of the following areas of application begin to emerge:

1. Analysis of Behavioral Patterns: Technology can be used to correlate an employee’s well-being profile with their performance pattern and draw inferences if there is a significant shift or change that should become a cause of concern and suggest curative measures even before it is visible or identified by managers.
2. Sentiment Analysis: With the help of a few open-ended questionnaires, technology can be applied to analyze the tone and context of replies given by the employees using NLP (Natural Language Processing) and Machine Learning algorithms. If the analysis detects any signs of aggression or detestation, it can trigger an alert to the Counselors, HR stakeholders, and line managers as a potential risk in the organization.
3. Interest Profiling: Technology can help build an employee's social media persona by studying the types of various media handles that they frequently use and their interests on trending topics. Based on the analysis, curated and personalized well-being offerings for each employee can be recommended. In case there is a sudden change in their social behavior -- for example, a change in their types of posts or if they follow extremist groups or fanaticism sites -- there can be mechanisms in place that can trigger an alert to the right stakeholders.
4. Facial Expressions & Speech Analysis: Technology application can be engaged in studying and analyzing facial expressions to identify if an individual is feeling anxious or is under stress. For example, too many eye movements, voice modulation intonation, speech tempo, or repeated use of certain words can indicate that a person is feeling anxious or is experiencing a dilemma.

People, process, and technology coming together: A perfect combo?

In an organizational context, the HR, strategy, or digital department is at the forefront of solving employee and customer challenges. A combination of people (right SMEs), processes (mapping a streamlined workflow), and technology (what solves when and how) is undoubtedly a critical factor for success. Let us look at the various elements that could work in this combo. Figure 3: The Framework

What would the combination of people, process, and technology lead to?

Deploying technology to solve mental challenges could lead to indicative benefits such as:

• ~15-20% higher productivity/performance.
• Covering 100% of associates and determining their stress levels at least in the organizational context.
• 24/7 availability of virtual psychologists that can reduce stress levels by ~20%.
• ~5-10% lower attrition and unplanned shrinkages.
• Integration of the scalable across processes, because BOT can take multiple input formats.

All of these instances eventually lead to happy and satisfied employees that deliver both on the personal as well as organizational front. Organizations now are able to reduce their overall expenditure on employee health while affecting the overall organization brand and Net promoter/customer/stakeholder score (NPS/CSAT). This can also lead to higher employee morale, greater focus of employees from tactical to strategic tasks, and continuous improvement in growth trajectories.

In summary, especially since COVID-19 became a global crisis earlier this year, the success of organizations largely depends on the mental well-being of employees as they help clients and stakeholders navigate these turbulent times. Employees and employers must continue to have their heart in the right place to ensure growth during and after the COVID-19 era to help themselves and their customers flourish

Mehul D. Damani

Customer Experience evangelist, Enterprise Operations Transformation, Wipro

Mehul is a seasoned digital and transformation thought leader with 13+ years of experience and a proven record of accomplishment in collaborating with clients across business domains such as digital transformation, customer experience enhancement, business strategy, B2B/B2C consulting, and marketing and sales enablement. His industry focus encompasses industry verticals such as Retail, Consumer Goods, Travel-Hospitality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech, and Telecom.

Sonal Khaira

Wellness lead, Wipro

Sonal is the wellness lead for mental health and psychological intervention to ensure that wellness programs have strong wellness initiatives in place that can be tracked periodically. With cumulative experience of 9+ years, she believes firmly in the humanistic approach to life, bringing about a change in the way “we work,” and her background in HR and Psychology enables her to understand the intricate details of human psyche.