All that glitters is not gold. While remote work seems like the end of the tunnel for the corporate 9-5 workforce, it is not all rosy. Some thorns can lead to more dangerous problems.
This is where companies should take a step back, assess the situation, and offer wellness tools to remote teams. This will aid their productivity levels and ensure that they are in good health. But before we discuss what digital wellness tools companies should add to their arsenal, let’s look at why exactly remote teams need these tools.
Why Do Remote Teams Need Digital Wellness Tools?
Sarah is a data analyst who used to work a 9-5 on-site job at a company 30 minutes away from her home. She used to rely on natural, built-in boundaries at the office. Her day would start with a commute, which acted as a mental transition. Then, she would look forward to the lunchtime chatter; this is where she could meet up with her colleagues and unwind. Later, after 5, she would pack her things and leave for home, disconnecting from her workplace.
But Sarah’s workplace went remote during COVID-19 and has stayed remote. Now, Sarah’s days look a lot different. While she is very happy with the flexibility of working from anywhere and in her pajamas, the rigid structure she followed has vanished. Her workplace now is a spare bedroom where she lives in burnout, not moving from her place for five hours straight. Working from home has blurred the boundaries for her and caused mental and physical fatigue, which has adverse effects on her overall health.
Her manager soon noticed that the once extremely productive Sarah was now just getting by. Alarmed, she checked on the rest of the team. The conclusion was troubling: many employees were less engaged than before and showed clear signs of digital burnout.
The manager realized that simply providing a laptop wasn’t enough. She immediately compiled a list of digital wellness tools every company must offer remote teams, not just to help them perform their duties but also to re-establish those lost boundaries and ensure they stay on top of their mental and physical health.
Digital Wellness Tools For Remote Employees
As companies cannot physically check in on employees, that doesn’t stop them from keeping an eye digitally. Here are some of the best digital wellness tools for remote employees, categorized according to team needs.
Meditation & Mindfulness Apps
1. Calm
The Calm platform is one of the most sought-after applications for better sleep and relaxation, which is crucial for the remote workforce. Popular companies such as ASICS also use the Calm app to help their employees develop mental fitness through sleep and mindfulness.
Here are some of its most prominent features:
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Sleep stories for adults narrated by celebrities
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Guided meditation sessions, including a 10-minute Daily Calm
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Soundscapes and Sleep music engineered for better sleep
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Calm Health, a platform that focuses entirely on the clinical care for anxiety and depression of employees.
2. Headspace
Headspace is another popular digital mental health company that provides mental health, meditation, and more aid. Sephora, one of the leading brands, offers free access to Headspace so employees can discreetly text with their coach and get the help they need.
Some of its unique features include:
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Guided meditation sessions are often narrated by the Co-Founder, Andy Puddicombe, who is a former Buddhist monk.
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Sleepcasts are audio tours of fictional realms that help sleep.
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Headspace Care, where employees can access licensed therapists and mental health coaches.
3. Meditopia
Employees in non-English-speaking Meditopia breaks language barriers by offering countries often feel lost because most mindfulness and wellness apps and platforms are in English only. Breaking language barriers, Meditopia offers multilingual content, making it a top choice of employers such as Firefly. In the words of the Vice President, Mine Yücesoy Dirancı, ‘We believe that wellness services increase employee engagement and productivity,’ and that’s why companies use Meditopia.
Some of the best Meditopia features include:
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Multilingual support with content in over 10 languages.
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1000+ guided meditations on topics such as stress, body positivity, and more.
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Mindful Meter to track mental health journey and take notes at every stage.
Fitness Challenge Apps
4. Wellable
Mental health can be improved if physical health is also catered to, and that’s exactly what Wellable does. It is an all-in-one employee wellness platform designed to keep companies engaged in well-being programs. CoEnterprise is an example of such a company, as it used Wellable to boost its employee engagement rate from 22% to 44%.
Top services at Wellable include:
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Takes a gamefied approach for friendly competition and health boosters.
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30+ turnkey themes that cover holistic wellbeing, including physical, mental, and environmental.
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Health coaching and on-demand content to meet needs.
5. Personify Health
Healthcare is personal and Personify Health understands the need for a tailor made wellness program that caters to unique issues with plausible solutions. This is a personalized health platform that offers health, well-being and navigation solutions. Companies like Toyota use Personify Health for health risk assessments, physical and emotional health and financial wellness.
As per Olga Leal from Toyota Motor North America, ‘Personify Health has been a great partner. We’ve been able to do things that we hadn’t been able to do before, and we just continue to make it better and better’.
Personify Health offers:
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A comprehensive full-stack service that covers healthcare navigation and advocacy, well-being, and care and condition management.
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Incentives to motivate employees to develop daily healthy habits and challenge their participation.
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Science-backed personalized approach for a tailored experience for each employee.
6. YuMuuv
Corporate teams never shy away from challenges, and that is the reason behind YuMuuv’s success. It is an employee wellness app that offers customizable wellness challenges for employees.
For instance, DHL Canada wanted a common platform that their team can use to increase activity and inter-team engagement. And they collaborated with YuMuuv to achieve inter-team collaboration, wellness discussions and positive feedback on the step count challenge.
Here’s why YuMuuv stands out from the crowd:
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Customizable team and individual challenges, such as step counts, hydration levels, and more.
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Integrates with major fitness devices such as Google Fit, Garmin, and Fitbit.
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Chat function for team interactions and fun conversations to boost morale.
Team Engagement
7. Gather Town
Gather is a Godsend for remote-first companies because it makes remote work feel less remote. This is a virtual collaboration platform that is designed to provide real world interactions in a simulated workspace. Completely remote companies use it to collaborate seamlessly on a daily basis that doesn’t feel like never ending Zoom calls.
Bricx used Gather Town to improve internal feedback time, sync with employees in real time, and boost client satisfaction rates.
Here are some reasons why you’d want to get a Gather Town membership for your team:
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Full communication suite including chat, DMs, calls, calendar integrations, announcements, and video calls.
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Customizable office space so employees can feel a sense of control and improve their space the way they want.
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Natural movements and conversations with gamified movements of the characters.
8. Officevibe
Wouldn’t it be amazing if employees used feedback and actionable insights to improve engagement levels? This is what you can achieve with Officevibe. Stingray used Officevibe to better understand and improve their employees’ experience. With the help of Officevibe, they were able to boost the participation rate and improve the company’s general culture.
This is how Officevibe improves employee wellness:
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Weekly pulse surveys to collect regular and short feedback anonymously.
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Managers can directly respond to anonymous feedback and take action while the employee’s identity stays protected.
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Offers practical advice to improve response to feedback and fix leadership strategies.
9. Donut
Many teams already use Slack for their internal communication, and a simple addition to the platform can completely change things for your employees. Donut is a tool that promotes social connection within teams. It is mostly focused on boosting outcomes while shaping office culture.
Getty Images Manager, Culture and Development, Jihye Kim Bower says ‘Donut meet-ups empower our employees to foster connections across the globe and support building a culture of collaboration and community’
This is what you can expect when using Donut:
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Random and automated coffee chats. This serves as a great ice breaker and encourages social bonding.
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Matches people from different departments to build internal networks.
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Scales key people initiatives with pre-built and customizable programs.
Games & More Fun
10. Gartic Phone
If there is one thing employees miss the most, it is their carefree childhood, when they could play games like telephone with their friends. But growing up doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to games; employee engagement increases by 48% if games are a part of their work life.
With Gartic Phone, you can revisit the telephone game as a team and enjoy the different quirky games it offers. For instance, you will have to guess what the other employee is drawing or duplicate a drawing while the timer is running out.
11. Team Building
Team building should not be limited to boring meetings; truth be told, these meetings do more harm than good. Instead, using platforms such as Team Building is a better idea. This platform promises there won’t be any awkward silences and that your employees can enjoy 90+ virtual experiences that will bring the teams closer.
The activities are so engaging that Google’s HR Manager had to say. “It was great! Now I want to try a tiny campfire for my teams”. If Google can enjoy the activities, so can your team, and it is definitely worth a try.
12. Avva Experience
Do you want to experience completely out of the box activities with your team? The Avva Experience will give you what you are looking for. It is a platform that specializes in providing specially curated experiences for all sorts of working models such as virtual, hybrid and in-person.
For virtual teams, the platform offers interactive experiences where they even send kits and ingredients to each employee’s home so they can actively participate in the activity. Popular companies like Ebay have been using Avva Experience to arrange origami workshops for its interns.
Bonus Tools For Employee Engagement
While the tools and platforms mentioned above are amazing, we’re adding some bonus tools that will help address and improve your employees’ wellness.
For Virtual Employee Counselling:
13. Kindbridge
Kindbridge is an online therapy service that specialises in behavioral health. Its services include, individual therapy, couples counseling, family counseling and group therapy.
14. Talkspace
Talkspace is a platform provides direct access to licensed therapists through different mediums such as text, audio, and video messaging.
15. BetterHelp
BetterHelp is a subscription model for online counseling services with the help of mental health professionals for employees.
16. Origin
Origin is an all-in-one platform that incorporates AI to act as a financial advisor for employees. It can help monitor investments and even build personalized budgets.
17. Best Money Moves
Best Money Moves is a platform helps reduce employees’ financial stress by providing personalized content, tools, and a roadmap to budget and manage debt.
18. SmartDollar
SmartDollar is a digital financial wellness program helps employees learn financial management using a step-by-step curriculum.
To Manage Time Effectively:
19. Toggl Track
Toggl Track is an online tool that allows users to manage time without losing sight of work-life balance, this tool offers a one-click time tracking tool to monitor work hours.
20. Clockify
Clockify is a timesheet app that allows teams to monitor not just work hours but also productivity.
21. RescueTime
RescueTime automatically tracks time spent on websites and applications and then provides detailed reports on productivity.
Conclusion
With more and more companies going remote, managing employees is a learning curve, and employers often have to take the road less traveled to ensure their employees are in the pinkest of health.
Since virtual work has its limitations, the tools mentioned in this article can help you manage wellness and provide opportunities for employee engagement and team interactions.