Meaningful corporate wellness programs: Real personalization is key

Without this comprehensive approach, personalization becomes just another buzzword and fails to make an impact.

The promise and pitfalls of personalization

In most industries, personalization involves a simple data-in/personalization-out model that analyzes behavior to deliver targeted recommendations.

Personalization in health must be rooted in a deep understanding of the individual’s whole-health experience, including the social, environmental and contextual factors that affect their experiences in a wellness program.

Consider how a chief financial officer and a front-line worker may both benefit from wellness programs but face different needs and challenges.

There’s also a contrast between an employee who trains for marathons and another employee with the same title and salary who doesn’t.

A one-size-fits-all approach to personalization can’t succeed in such a diverse environment. Employers must ensure that their wellness programs are equitable and accessible to all employees.

Personalization in action

How can an employer understand an employee’s context?

Not all employees have frequent access to email. Perhaps one employee prefers SMS communication because the employee’s smartphone doesn’t have a robust data package.

Web browser-based technology may meet the needs of the employee with a weak data package because it can be accessed across all devices.

Understanding an employee’s context also involves understanding that employees are more than the sum of their illnesses.

Relevant factors include mental well-being, physical health, spiritual health, financial health, self-care and community connectedness.

Platforms that provide contextualized content about topics such as tobacco cessation, workplace anxiety and women’s health in one place can better meet the needs of the whole individual vs. platforms that address just one health concern.

What about AI?

AI can help scale personalized experiences, but there are limitations to what it can achieve.

Health improvement is more complex than consumer interactions.

Building effective models requires sifting through vast amounts of data, including claims, wearable inputs and user-reported information.

Getting personalization right lies in the balance between personalization bordering on invasiveness and receiving advice that is relevant to an individual.

Without the human touch, a wellness program may be on a short slope to becoming creepy.

To build employees’ trust and provide value, a wellness program must give employees the option to connect with a real person to ask questions, seek clarification and express concerns.

Measuring success: ROI and VOI

The success of your wellness program and its personalization can be measured using indicators along a continuum that includes return on investment (ROI) and value on investment (VOI).

Traditional ROI measures include cost savings from reduced health care claims and an improvement in individual health risk profiles.

These metrics are important but don’t capture the full value of a well-designed wellness program.

VOI encompasses a broader range of benefits, including improvements in productivity, employee retention and talent attraction.

VOI also reflects how wellness programs complement broader workforce culture initiatives and contribute to the perceived value of the overall benefits ecosystem.

Employers must find the right balance between ROI and VOI when evaluating their wellness programs.

Early indicators of success include high engagement rates across the entire employee population, but it’s important to recognize the nuance in what engagement means in this context.

Balancing technology and humanity

Personalization in health and well-being must be rooted in a deep understanding of the individual’s whole health experience and must be delivered equitably across a diverse workforce.

By striking a balance between the power of AI with the irreplaceable value of the human touch, employers can create personalized wellness programs that meet the needs of their employees and foster a healthier, more engaged workforce.

David Werry is the co-founder and president of Well, a health tech and services company based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.