We all have family, friends and colleagues who recently have jumped ship or simply taken time off to better manage their mental and physical health. This trend has raised awareness among employers about the need to take a more proactive approach to helping employees deal with mental health issues, understanding that it's the right thing to do and that failure to do so compromises productivity, employee retention-and the bottom line.

The shortcomings of conventional employee assistance programs

Employers often provide mental health strategies via conventional employee assistance programs (EAPs). Usually with these programs employees can call a helpline and get free and confidential assistance with their person and/or work-related problems. However, with an EAP, an employer may offer some mental health services to employees, employees often fail to take advantage of them and such programs tend to not address ongoing emotional wellbeing of the employees. Just because an employer provides a benefit or includes it in its benefits guide or benefits portal, employees are not always going to know about it or use it. Avoiding this scenario requires a coordinated effort to educate and engage employees and their family members so they can learn about programs and use them when needed. "Lunch and learns" are not enough to get the message across. Fortunately, the message can be conveyed more effectively through technology that provides access to many innovative tools and services.

Holistic wellbeing services

Employers that devote themselves to employees' families and actively promote mental health awareness have a greater impact on the overall engagement with employer-provided services. And expanding behavioral and mental health goes beyond traditional EAPs. Virtual health and wellness services, including telemedicine options, preventative care programs, behavioral health and chronic condition management, are leading services that attract employees and further engage them in lifestyle changes for their own wellbeing.

To optimize success, the HR department and company leadership must clearly articulate their commitment to mental health support and integrate holistic wellbeing services to expand conventional wellness programs. This makes it clear to employees that their employer has got their back-that their company is led by people who care for them. This goes a long way towards boosting morale-and increasing productivity and employee retention. Green Circle Life's mission is to help you do just that by optimizing the physical and mental wellbeing of your employees. Through our SaaS platform SmartFHR™, your employees can consolidate their healthcare information in one place-making it far more likely that, if they are inclined to pursue services for mental health issues, they will know exactly where to go.

SmartFHR™-an innovative SaaS platform for communication and engagement

Green Circle Life created a single company-branded app and web portal, SmartFHR™. This app integrates all HR benefits and services and health and wellness services with Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities. Companies using the Green Circle Life platform have shown that integrating these services leads to better communication, engagement and job satisfaction through an easily managed, interactive dashboard.

Communication and engagement are essential between an employer and its employees and help foster a rich company culture. Whether employees are working remotely, in a hybrid environment or in the office full time, it is more important than ever that they feel connected to their employer and each other. SmartFHR™ offers tools that promote this connectivity. HR staff now has administrative console to effectively communicate using multi channel capabilities to engage everyone year around.

Summary

More and more companies are now devoted to supporting the mental health of their employees and embracing new technology to do so. Green Circle Life's SmartFHR™ app and web portal is a leading SaaS platform promoting holistic wellbeing that reduces healthcare costs and delivers a proven ROI with extensive employee engagement in company culture. Click here to contact us and learn more.