A health OS? Why your clients need this now

The global pandemic has fundamentally changed the way companies do business. Geographic proximity to work is no longer the priority it once was, which has accelerated the existing trend towards remote workforces and virtual offices.

As employees become distributed both nationally and internationally, organizations are looking for positive ways to keep culture and cohesion a priority. This seismic shift in corporate culture along with the rise of telework has created a profound opportunity for consultants to align health and benefits strategies with digital solutions that dramatically impact employee engagement.

The disappearance of physical workspaces and traditional face-to-face interactions puts a greater emphasis on other meaningful ways employees and employers engage. A critical point of interaction that affects employee experience is their health and benefits programs and the way they access and interact with them. Healthcare utilization has historically been viewed negatively as a cost center. Companies that are interested in employee experience and engagement now consider it a net positive when their workforce finds the right care at the right time. Consultants have an opportunity to better support their clients by encouraging the adoption of digital health technologies that significantly benefit employee experience. Enter the health operating system (health OS).

A health OS, is a data-driven platform designed to provide a personalized, single-access hub for employees to find, understand, and use their health, well-being, and benefit programs. This new “front door” to healthcare eliminates the current sea of point solutions via an integrated ecosystem of over 100 insurance carriers, healthcare partners, and HRIS systems and provides employers with a direct line of sight into the health of their workforce.

To the employee, the real value of the health OS is that it makes their benefits easier to find, understand, and use. There are no more portals within portals. No more forgotten logins and passwords, and hours of repetitive data input. Employees now expect a consumer-like experience with all of their digital interactions. They desire a personalized experience with programs designed to fit their unique needs and wants. Their digital health experience should be no different. Employees want a health, benefits, and well-being experience that’s as easy to use as their iPhone and as easy to navigate as Netflix.

We partnered with Josh Bersin on a paper that identifies several strategies organizations can adopt in order to create a compelling employee experience that truly supports the overall health and well-being of their population.