Covid-19 has forced digital adoption with even the most reluctant and boosted interest in digital solutions designed to support employee wellbeing.
To help employers keep their finger on the pulse of developments in this fast-evolving space, the TechTalk session at this year’s MADWorld Summit showcased ten providers of digital mental, physical, financial, social and/or environmental wellbeing solutions.
Each solution provider taking part in this dynamic session had just three minutes to explain to our panel of judges (one of whom we beamed in virtually) what is different about their product and how it will support employers’ and employees’ wellbeing needs.
Meet the TechTalk@MADWorld Panel / Award Judges
The entrants (in alphabetical order) were:
Corus:
By establishing a common measurement framework by which employers can assess initiatives against a huge range of variables, Corus aims to democratise the wellbeing landscape – allowing employers to realise maximum value by judging initiatives on relative merits.
Corus has been developed by its parent company ON:SONG, who support mental health and wellbeing in organisations worldwide through the delivery of choirs and singing workshops. Their goal is to meet corporate and social needs and make a positive impact on the world through supporting group-based preventative wellbeing.
Fika Mental Fitness:
Businesses are experiencing high levels of attrition, burnout and stress-related absences. Additionally, reports show that as many as 38% of UK employees are considering resignation within 12 months. Fika helps to alleviate these issues by providing proactive mental fitness training to whole organisation populations. Fika gives businesses and employees the tools to gauge their mental fitness levels individually and collectively, and provides customisable courses and exercises to improve their mental fitness.By
Giving employees a series of short, personalised and evidence-based courses, developed with performance psychologists. Fika’s scalable platform is currently being trialled or rolled-out by over 100 organisations in the UK in both education and the workplace.
OnHand
onHand, the world’s first on-demand volunteering app makes employee volunteering as easy as ordering a takeaway. Named ‘Uber for Volunteering’ by IBM Watson, the company is on a mission to make it simple for businesses to create impact while also engaging employees and helping create purpose.
Set up in collaboration with 6 of the UK’s largest charities, the app also looks to inspire employees to make climate positive lifestyle choices through the introduction of easy to achieve impact goals. These include giving up single-use plastic, eating less meat or switching to green energy suppliers.
Peppy
Established since 2018, Peppy support individuals during key life journeys and underserved areas of healthcare. Working with employers and private medical insurance companies, Peppy provides their people with expert-led health and wellbeing support on a secure mobile app.
Areas they support currently include people going through menopause, those who are dealing with fertility issues and anyone bringing home a new baby. Peppy already supports all genders through 3 verticles (menopause, Fertility, Baby) and have just launched a new support service for men and those who self-identify as male.
Peter Larkum Ltd.
Mentality from Peter Larkum Ltd. was created with one clear objective: To provide 100% of staff with basic training in mental health in order to change the culture of mental health in the workplace.
Mentality aims to make mental health training a company-wide responsibility by bridging the gap between no training and comprehensive training. By ensuring everyone has the same base knowledge of how to spot the signs of poor mental health and how to act, it is then possible to leverage crucial preventative solutions. It’s those preventative solutions which are most impactful in lessening the effects that cost companies both people and profits.
Ripple & Co.
Launched in 2018, Plato by Ripple & Co is the brainchild of Eileen Donnelly, formerly Business & Wellbeing Lead with What Works Centre for Wellbeing. PLATO supports those who are the go-to peer supports within a business.
To make them more effective, it uses the valuable data they collect, provides access to a workplace questionnaire that informed the Department for Work and Pensions’ voluntary reporting standards on mental health and links it to a marketplace of providers. All of this enables the earliest possible intervention for the vulnerable. It also enables the implementation of solutions based on data and the development of a growing evidence base.
Synctuition
Synctuition has revolutionised how easy it is to get lost within an audio journey and thus allows even people that have never practiced mindfulness before, achieve a meditative state in just 20 minutes. in 2021, Synctuition launched the world’s first MINDSPA. MindSpa by Synctuition is a physical, private, safe and nature resembling space for people to be able to take a quick mindfulness break wherever they are.
The MindSpa has a zero-gravity chair, a darkened privacy glass and an incredible star studded sky which instantly puts the listener at ease, replicating the feeling of being Under a night sky. With the help of the award winning Synctuition journeys, the listener can practice mindfulness in the most relaxing way possible.
Tahora
Tahora is an enterprise SaaS community mobile app that brings together like-minded colleagues based on their interests, goals or location (office or home working). Work used to be a central place to hang out with colleagues and make friendships. Now, in a world of digital and remote working, and rising loneliness, there’s a need for a consumer-centric platform to facilitate this.
Tahora’s goal is to build deeper human connections and community – crucial pillars for improving happiness, wellbeing and tackling loneliness. The Tahora app is live on iOS and Android. They have paid pilots with leading enterprises in the UK, including Google, Natwest Group, Grant Thornton, and The Metropolitan Police.
Togetherall
Established since 2007, Togetherall is a leading digital mental health provider in public health, education, and the employment space. Commissioned by over 325 organisations (ranging in size from the Province of Alberta, Canada, down to a film school in London), they enable these organisations’ communities to support each other through any challenges they face -people helping people. Togetherall prioritises safety and early intervention, with a clinical team providing round-the-clock care, crisis support and a robust library of courses and resources to help people to self-manage their mental health.
Wellbeing with Cari
Wellbeing with Cari was established in 2013. Cari is is a strategic, neuroscience-based wellbeing platform that enables organisations to achieve peak performance by elevating employee wellbeing for all. Clients are currently UK based public and private sector organisations. Wellbeing with Cari also collaborates with WellTech, EAP and Wellbeing Providers to incorporate proven, neuroscience-based data to enhance their offering and increase engagement.
Founded on the concept of psychological safety, wellbeing by Cari believes that presenteeism is the greatest business risk today which is impacting performance, health – and the bottom line. Their solution aims to uncover and solve presenteeism and the associated problems.
Catch-up:
For those of you who missed this session at the 4th annual MADWorld Summit in October – or if you want to see it again – check out the videos from all ten of 2021’s TechTalkers:
And the winners are:
This video of Hannah Reid, People Director EMEIA, Apple, announcing the winner and runners up of the 2021 TechTalk@MADWorld awards, also provides an explanation of the judges’ choices.
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