Each year, wellbeing technology becomes more and more advanced. For you, as a provider of wellbeing services to organisations, it means that to gain an advantage over your competitors you need to keep up to date on new advancements in wellbeing technology, and how they can improve your deliverables. 

But what are the ways in which wellbeing technology can give you an unfair advantage on your competitors? 

Remove admin overheads 

Ever become annoyed by the amount of admin overheads you have, that take away from what you actually want to do? Well good news, this is what computers are here to fix! In particular, software which is created for your exact job role can be hugely beneficial.  

Ever tried to distribute a survey across an organisation? It can be a lot of hassle! Software tools can help you to send out surveys to employees and track responses. But best of all, it can do it repeatedly so you can leave it to keep collecting the data you need and not worry about timelines! In addition, it can also crunch the numbers for you, so you get the data as and when you need it. 

If you can get hold of a tool which has a portal for  employees, then you can easily distribute materials across a workforce. Having a portal allows you to place a range of items, from conversation cards to action plans, which employees can access at any time, without having to come directly to you. You can leave them here and let people help themselves. Also, if you can get hold of the right system, you can usually find some base level materials and assets to work off, so you don’t have to create them all in the first place!  

Computers are also great at remembering to do precise tasks at exact times (and most Humans are definitely not!). That’s why we have to-do lists on computers, particularly one’s which send us reminders. So, if you need a computer to send yourself reminders, how are you going to remember to send all those reminders to clients as you grow? Simple, let a wellness tool do this for you! 

Anonymisation 

Mental health and wellbeing is a really personal thing. Because of that, many people often feel reluctant about opening up about how they really feel in order to save face. It’s a sad truth, and definitely a wider conversation for a future article! But what it means for you, is that data can be extremely difficult to collect, as many will feel forced into providing feedback – which could potentially put people off altogether or leave them providing you with false data.  

Software, however, is smart. It can automatically anonymise data collection for you, so that you get the truthful data you need, to start improving your wellbeing programmes.  

Fortunately for you, most of the wellbeing technology on the market already covers anonymisation, so you don’t even need to worry about it! 

Data analysis & machine learning 

The next stage on from data collection is… data analysis! This can often be a time-consuming process and leave you with less time doing what you love! With wellbeing technology, data analysis can be made a lot simpler, and you can even combine the data you collect from your customers, with data captured from new areas, like HR systems such as BreatheHR.  

Using wellbeing technology means you can make the most of data analytics, using visualisation methods such as charts, graphs and tables to help with your reporting to clients. Data analytics can also help you to identify new trends andincorporate these into your wellbeing programmes before your competitors!  

Some of the wellbeing technology out there also uses machine learning, a method of data analysis that learns about data and identifies current patterns, as well as potential future patterns with minimal human intervention. Imagine being able to predict the likelihood of employees suffering mental health issues due to a certain business decision. Although the decision may generate more revenue, would it be worth it with the potential impact on employees? This is an area which is still not entirely understood, but many technologies are taking giant leaps forward and beginning to identify these trends and patterns. 

We can actually take this one step further into the area of Artificial Intelligence. You might have heard of Alan Turing, a mathematician who, during the second world war, dreamt of the concept that computers would one day be able to think like us. Turing went on to invent the ‘Turing Test’, which set the bar for AI: a computer that could fool someone into thinking they were talking to another human being. If you’re interested in reading more about this, take a look at this article …. . With mental health being such a human-centred area, AI could act as the interface between man and machine, and some wellbeing tools are beginning to strive towards achieving this. 

All this is very complicated stuff. But what it means is that with wellbeing technology, you can harness the power thathas been years in the making, to improve your wellbeing services and get an unfair advantage over your competitors! 

If you are interested in improving your wellbeing services with an employee wellbeing platform that helps you achieve all of this under one roof, as well as having access to free marketing resources for your wellbeing services, being able to create action plans, calculate ROI and much more, please see our Lumien Partner Network. 

As a Lumien partner, you can distribute the platform to your clients at no cost to your company; but improve your services along the way. Simply click this link to find out more.