12 examples of employee wellness software and apps (original) (raw)

Many companies are moving away from narrowly defined corporate health programs and expanding to a more holistic focus on well-being, but most rely on technology in some form.

Tools range from applications with one main function to those with a full complement of features and integrations with other HR systems used within the organization. When looking for an application to support an employee program, HR and wellness leaders should have specific goals to guide the research. The corporate wellness market has exploded in recent years, and "shiny object syndrome" is a real danger. It's also worth considering products from vendors already in use, such the organization's insurance provider and HR software providers.

Below is a list of 12 applications and services, which provide a range of features to consider when researching the workplace health and wellness market.

Fitbit: Wearable tech for the workplace

Fitbit, arguably the most well-known company on the list, provides wearable tech to track a variety of health-related data points, including steps taken, heart rate and sleep patterns. It offers progress tracking, challenges and capabilities for competition with others. Many companies have encouraged the use of personal Fitbit wearables to promote health and wellness through incentives such as subsidies or reimbursements. With over a decade of health data collected, the company is able to provide detailed personal reports. Fitbit also offers an enterprise-focused product through its Fitbit Health Solutions brand, Fitbit Care, which augments wearables with additional features such as coaching and intervention. The company also offers additional features targeted to COVID-19 issues, such as motivations to stay healthy for those working from home. Early in 2021, Fitbit was acquired by Google.

Employee wellness tips

Grokker: Video health platform

Corporate well-being vendor Grokker offers an extensive library of over 4,000 professionally developed videos focused on physical fitness, mental health, nutrition and other wellness areas. Its platform can integrate with other health and wellness products available on the market, such as Fitbit. Employees can use the platform's gamification features to encourage competition. It also offers a community feature where users can connect with other employees and fitness experts. As with other full-featured platforms, Grokker offers a reporting feature that highlights an employee's progress toward their goals and provides administrators with dashboards and reports to measure employee engagement with the platform.

Headspace: Mindfulness for work

Headspace, known for its popular consumer meditation app, has broadened its reach to chase corporate clients. It now counts Starbucks, Google and Genentech among its Headspace for Work clients. The employee wellness app and program give employees access to the full Headspace library. It offers companies an administrator portal, member support, and launch and enrollment resources, as well as other workplace-focused options. The app offers a range of themes including stress, sleep and focus.

With today's employees feeling a myriad of stressors, mindfulness programs are becoming more popular.

LifeWorks: EAP and health platform

LifeWorks by Morneau Shepell offers an employee assistance program (EAP) platform that's been expanded into a full-service health and wellness platform. The mobile-first platform provides traditional EAP features such as 24/7 counseling and online wellness resources. But it also includes other health-related services, such as integration with wearable technology, gamification capabilities, and online health assessments that cover general health, mental health and physical activity. Based on the assessments, the platform provides personalized tips, recommendations and content to help employees reach their goals. LifeWorks also offers other HR applications related to health and wellness, such as absence management, benefits administration and drug testing.

Limeade: Broad enterprise EX

Corporate employee experience software Limeade offers some health-focused offerings that target many of the standard health features related to physical and emotional health. It also offers features related to financial and work culture health, such as its Inclusion+ product. Through Limeade's platform, employees can put together customized health plans based on variables such as their location, job and health assessment data and use it to track progress. Incentives are part of the program but are tied to reaching various health goals. Employees can earn cash, gifts or paid time off. As with a number of other vendors, Limeade provides the ability to integrate with HR and payroll systems to simplify the enrollment process. The platform includes hundreds of pre-built activities to engage employees, as well as an assessment to help employees measure their starting point and progress along their journey.

MoveSpring: Activity and step challenge platform

Activity challenge platform MoveSpring aims to capitalize on data collected from popular fitness devices and gamify the experience to promote fun and community. A number of challenges are available, with individual and group options. For example, the "Journey" option guides users through a game-like interface and provides prizes along the way. This feature can also be used by teams, with everyone's movements combined to complete a long-distance journey. To encourage continued participation, employees earn stickers for achieving fitness goals. Specific challenges target everything from getting remote workers to become more active to banding together to raise money for charity.

Remote Team Wellness: Customized virtual classes

Virtual corporate wellness company Remote Team Wellness offers a different -- and some might say, perfectly timely -- approach to corporate wellness, by leading live well-being classes tailored for the client. They cater to both large and very small organizations. Customized yoga, meditation and other training sessions are led by professionals in their given field. Remote Team Wellness also offers the option of hiring a virtual chief wellness officer to help the organization capitalize on the benefits of a wellness program without the cost of hiring a full-time resource. The company also offers virtual half or full-day well-being retreat options.

Ulliance: Broad EAP program

Employee assistance program (EAP) vendor Ulliance offers several different programs that can be offered to a company's workforce. Ulliance's focus is on keeping the human touch as it relates to health and wellness programs. It has a number of wellness-focused programs and depending on the specific product, may offer a dedicated account manager, coaches, and support for the HR team to ensure the program remains current, and to help employees stay on track and reach their goals. Similar to other vendors, they offer a portal for employees to take health-related surveys and track their progress. Organizations can also use the portal to track employee engagement with the program. As a more broadly focused EAP, the company also offers content specific to the challenges of COVID-19, including information on virus-prevention best practices and information on domestic abuse and relationship strain, both of which are prevalent realities.

Vitality: Health and weight motivator

Another mobile-first offering, Vitality's behavior change app tailors an employee's program to their current health and goals by gathering information from individual employees. Based on the employee's input, the app shares a weekly plan. Employees also have the option to use their own preferences to develop a plan. Throughout each week, employees receive positive reinforcement and reminders to continue using the application, with the eventual option of winning gift cards.

Wellable: Customizable health programs and challenges

Employee wellness company Wellable focuses on integrating with consumer wellness applications and services to provide user-friendly customizable programs and content. It also offers challenges, leader boards, points awarded and other features to engage employees. Email communications and a bulletin board push communications about new programs and special events, and the program analyzes the data collected within Wellable. Dedicated account reps walk HR or other leaders through challenges, so administration is easier to execute.

Welltok: Broad enterprise wellness platform

Employers can use the Welltok platform as a single point of employee engagement for health, wellness and even financial benefits. Employers can use the platform to customize the offerings to fit their employee populations, and the tool can reach out with a variety of reminders, such as flu shots or 401(k) sign-ups. It uses machine learning to gain insight on employees using a variety of overtly health-related and non-health-related factors.

Woliba: Health engagement and recognition

Woliba offers a platform that bundles their wellness offering with complimentary applications related to recognition, engagement and an intranet that pulls it all together. Similar to other full-featured platforms, Woliba's applications supports the concept of gamification to engage employees. Employees are provided with videos, quizzes and other education items to help them on their health and wellness journey. The integration of the intranet offering differentiates Woliba from other vendors. This provides a constant reminder of the health and wellness initiatives at the organization while also providing a platform to communicate corporate information to all employees.