SHRI #infoHR – Jan 2020

Equally as important as physical health, our mental wellness is an integral component of health. According to the World Health Organisation, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

The first SHRI #infoHR Wellness series - “Healthy Mind Healthy Life!” held in Jan 2020 focused on creating awareness about Workplace Wellness where leading Mental Health and HR Experts like Dr. Wee Hoe Gan (Singapore General Hospital), Ms. Krystal Tang (Mercer Marsh Benefits) and Ms. Nicole Seah, COO of Rewardz came together under one roof to share key insights and tips to Business and HR leaders and practitioners to design and implement a successful Corporate Wellness program.

The discussions brought to the fore key trends and insights of the current state of Corporate Wellness, like,

• Historically there has been fear of admitting and talking about mental health in the workplace. As a result, the issues have often not been discussed and addressed by employers and employees.
• There has been significant progress, with awareness campaigns and high-profile cases, access to resources (psychologists, mental health providers, health plan coverage), resulting in more acceptance about mental health issues. However, the key issue that persists is that employers are unfamiliar and inexperienced to dealing with the growing impact of mental health on employees
• Some sectors face cultural issues which are likely to exacerbate the problems or make it harder to openly discuss mental well-being.
• US, UK and Australia are considerably ahead in their Wellness journey than some of their APAC counterparts.
• Lack of connection and increase in connectivity is leading to Mental health problems, need to incorporate those while designing and implementing Wellness programs
• Corporate workplace wellness is way more than just physical fitness. In addition to physical fitness, the dimensions of optimal health involve Intellectual Wellness, Social Wellness, Emotional Wellness and Spiritual Wellness. Various components of such wellness program must include fitness, nutrition counselling, discourses on purpose in life, well-thought-out financial planning, social connections and support systems, stress management, mind-body health, career planning and continuing education.
• Even though the benefits of an employee wellness program are hard to see at first, indeed, healthy employees habitually bring a range of advantages to other employees and the organisations they work for. Some advantages include: Increased productivity by improving physical and mental health; less absenteeism; less stressed; higher employee engagement and satisfaction making talent attraction and retention easier; reduction in health care costs among others
• Mental Health Journey can be categorized under four areas (Communication, Integrated Wellbeing, Analysis and Protection) and could be assess on 3 levels. Reactive Approach (Basic): Creating awareness, focus on stress management programs, Mediclaim analysis, EAP etc. Targeted Approach (Moderate): Manager training programs, targeted mental health programs, demographic/persona analysis, benchmarking against best practices, escalation/support matrix or inclusive leave policies etc. Proactive Approach (Comprehensive): Advocating a cultural shift, digital delivery of wellness programs, measuring wellness ROI- decreasing claims, increasing employee engagement, integrated access to care model etc