Wellbeing benefits people actually use

What the largest trials found

In a randomised trial across 160 worksites, a workplace wellness programme reached 36.2% to 44.6% of people at the worksites that offered it, who completed a mean of 1.3 modules [1]. After 18 months, more people reported regular exercise and actively managing their weight, with no significant effect on clinical markers of health, medical spending or absenteeism [1].

A second randomised study of nearly 5,000 people found that those who chose to take part were already healthier and spent less on care before the programme began, and found no significant causal effect on medical spending or productivity after more than two years [2].

Individual programmes such as resilience training, mindfulness and wellbeing apps show a similar pattern. A survey of 46,336 workers in 233 organisations found that participants appeared no better off across several measures of wellbeing [3].

Why so few people use what they are offered

Use is low even for the benefits companies offer most. A practitioner review put the typical use of an employee assistance programme at 3% to 4% of a workforce [4]. Fewer than half of people at the firms in a national study, 46%, completed a health screening or risk assessment [5].

The reasons are practical, since a benefit bought in one country does not work in another, a hotline is not a doctor, and a person who is unwell does not want to read a policy document before they can be seen.

What companies offer today

Counselling and employee assistance programmes are the most common health benefits in the United Kingdom, offered by 71% and 67% of the organisations in the latest national survey [6]. The same report advises monitoring usage and satisfaction to make sure benefits continue to meet people’s needs [6].

What makes care something people use

Across the evidence and our own experience, four things make the difference.

• A person who arranges the care, so the member sends one message and the rest is done for them
• Care that happens where the member is, in their own city or the one they are travelling through
• A doctor the same day, for the problem they have now
• Results explained by a doctor, with a plan the member can keep

Design benefits around a real week

Picture the moments when someone in your team needs care. A child with a fever on a Sunday evening, a persistent cough during a week of meetings in Dubai, a result from an annual check that needs explaining, a knee that has troubled them for a month. Each of those is a moment when a benefit is used or forgotten.

A benefit earns its place when it answers those moments quickly, in the city where they happen, without a form. That is a simpler test than a list of features, and it points to the same answer each time, which is a doctor and someone to arrange everything around them.

It also clarifies what to keep at renewal. Services that people used and rated well belong in the plan. Services that sat unused for a year are better replaced with care that is easier to reach.

How to know whether people are using it

How many people used the membership this quarter, for what, how quickly they were seen, and how they rated it are honest measures of whether a benefit is working.

Ask for those figures as anonymised reporting, with small groups left out, so nobody can be recognised. A partner who cannot tell you how many people used their care is selling a promise.

How The Wellness for teams makes care easy to use

Every member has a concierge who answers within the hour and arranges outpatient, inpatient and dental care, diagnostics and health programmes in 13 cities. Members do not claim, compare or chase, because the care is arranged for them.

Each quarter the company receives anonymised reporting on use, speed and satisfaction, with the method written beside each number.