When workplace wellness springs to mind, most people probably think of an employee gym, flu shots, or maybe a biometric screening. But a wellness program supported by a strong technology platform and collaborative corporate climate can be so much more.
Corporate wellness technology company Limeade recently launched Limeade Interactive, a platform that transforms bite-sized videos and presentations into targeted well-being challenges that educate and inspire employees.
People retain only 10% of new information when they read text, but when they watch videos, retention rates go up to 65%, according to some research.
Karyln Byham, a benefits administrator at Bloodworks Northwest, a medical services lab company based in Washington, was excited to introduce this feature to her employee population because it would “take our current challenges to a whole new level,” she says. “Plus, we can use the quizzes to really understand how people are retaining the information.”
Quizzing helps people retain almost twice as much information as compared to repeated exposure to content, according to the American Academy of Neurology.
Add-on quizzes not only help assess employee comprehension, employers can pose survey questions to gauge how popular the program really is without having to wait for the annual engagement survey to come around.
Employers can study rich reports that show how many people clicked each activity, how many joined the activity or viewed the video. Employers can go even deeper to see how many people retained knowledge of a specific message. If only a small percentage answered a quiz question correctly, for example, they know employees are confused by this topic and can apply this knowledge to the next challenge or video.
A holistic wellness program should go beyond health risk assessments and biometric screenings, says Justin Jed, vice president of product management at Limeade. “We think about how well you reach your potential, your emotional health, your capacity for change, and what’s going on at work,” he says.
Limeade uses a Web and mobile interface to reach employees, which serves to engage workers but also to clue in benefit managers and employers on how successful their wellness program and branding is and what they need to improve.
“It’s also about encouraging the organization to support the employee’s well-being," says Jed.
Cell phones are basically our second brain these days, so it makes sense to have mobile outreach for well-being. But with so much competition from Facebook, Instagram, emails and texts, a wellness app has to rise above the clutter.
“There’s such a difference in an engagement model when you’re being encouraged to make good choices versus being conscripted to do a very specific thing," says Jed.
By adding social recognition to the platform, "it’s not a solo journey of weight loss, or a solo journey of figuring out how I can eat better or reduce stress. It’s about creating a social community around you that can recognize your achievements," he adds.
