Is your Workplace ‘Digitally Well’?
The Indian corporate culture is one that is characterized by an incessant need to hustle & be ‘always on’. While this need for optimal productivity is not necessarily an unpleasant thing, the means to achieve it often involve a blurring of boundaries between the personal and professional lives of the employees. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that Great Expectations often plague the lives of the working population in the country and the option to pause work-related notifications seems nowhere in sight. As a result, employees are constantly distracted from being their healthiest, most productive, and most satisfied selves. . Now with the emergence of a hybrid working structure, an increasing number of employees are looking to their employers to help them find the sweet spot between work and life in the digital era by establishing a healthier relationship with technology
The intent of this article is to look at what digital wellness would mean in the context of the current work environment, with a particular focus on India. Following this is a discussion that emphasizes the benefits of incorporating digital wellness practices in a company’s daily work and analyzing what it could mean for a company’s functioning in the long term. Thereafter, the article focuses on providing possible solutions as well as digital wellness offerings that are relevant.
Survival (and more than that) in the Digital Era
In the country-specific findings of its first annual Work Trend Index, Microsoft India reveals that 57% of Indian employees feel overworked with the increase in digital intensity. While it is sufficiently clear that hybrid work is the future that we are now looking at, it must also be acknowledged that the notions of time and space must evolve with the need of the hour. Imagining a Digital Wellness strategy that aligns with the contemporary hybrid work mode requires a great deal of learning, unlearning and relearning. The real question to ask ourselves is whether we are prepared to face the challenge of not being able to associate work with a set place to go. Would we be able to embrace flexible work like Work from home/anywhere or hybrid work depending on the flexibility the employee wants? Considering that COVID-19 hasled to the shifting of emphasis on total employee wellbeing, any and all workplace wellbeing initiatives must emphasize the ‘employee experience’ above all.
On a global level, 2022 saw a 252% increase in the weekly meeting time for an average Microsoft Teams user. While the online realm has definitely expanded in terms of its scope and the importance it occupies in our lives, there is also a constant urge to make work in a more human and authentic way. Employees are more likely to be their genuine selves at work when they engage in meaningful conversations with their co-workers and form interpersonal connections. This simple example works as proof of how significantly important the balance between the virtual and the real world is. If there is one big thing we miss about the workplace it's our in-person connection with peers. While we cannot afford to have the workforce breakdown due to a digital overload, it is also nonsensical to start paying attention to an employee’s digital wellness only once there is a dire need to do so. Digital Wellness is no longer a luxury but a necessity for thriving in the Digital World. For starters, one could think about how digitally well their workplace is, at the moment by checking the insights dashboard & assessment:
More so, it has become clear to employers that the emerging workforce consists primarily of Gen Z & Millennials. Not only does this require a new approach to onboard a new talent pool, but also necessitates the will and ability to make this generation feel like its needs are catered to. This is significant considering that recent studies reveal a pattern of brain drain of the Indian student population because of their inability to look at the value that the Indian corporate culture has to offer. This image of technical backwardness is also born from the popular perception that very few Indian companies have been enthusiastic about adopting the latest trends & practices in the world of hybrid work technology. For instance, a host of present-age companies are still in their formative stages and might not have the technology and resources available to focus on sustainability, workers’ wellness and the like.
Helping Employees Find the Sweet Spot
While the above-mentioned contention might have been somewhat true half a decade ago, Indian companies have been able to establish themselves as major global competitors alongside imbibing the best from the world of tech. These would include cloud readiness (a process where an organisation looks at its resources and IT environment and determines if it is capable of migrating to the cloud), digitization of business processes, and a Zero Trust security architecture (designed to protect modern environments and enable digital transformation by using strong authentication methods, leveraging network segmentation, preventing lateral movement etc.,). The NASSCOM Strategic Review 2022 highlights some of these trends. But, all of these digital transformations need to be incorporated into the organization while keeping digital wellness at the core. This is what would ensure that an organization would adopt the good sides of technology while avoiding the associated harms of technology (‘sweet spot’)
Why Should Your Company Prioritize Digital Wellness
The Great Resignation is a recent economic trend that has witnessed working people across countries and sectors shifting jobs owing to several factors ranging from non-fulfilment with work to a lack of the benefits offered. With 4.3 million people leaving their jobs in May globally, there is a greater need to rethink and evaluate the needs of the working population. More so, there is also a significant need to assess one’s relationship with work, in order to maintain a healthy personal equilibrium.
As the pandemic struck and work turned mostly online, there arose a need for greater flexibility and also, prioritizing other aspects of life beyond a job. On the other hand, employees also struggled with the challenge of clear communication and getting the job done in such a setting. Growing dissatisfaction fuelled this trend of resignation on an unprecedented level and the issue still rages. Just in case, you are still wondering why and how this affects your organization, let us remind you of the costs incurred when a long-term employee is lost. Not only are there losses faced in terms of losing an experienced employee who might have been working with a client or project for a long period of time, but also additional costs are borne by the company for hiring an absolutely new person for the role. While the hunt itself might be time-taking, an additional amount of time is also spent in training them for the role. Therefore, profit margins are reduced as a result of a compromise on employee wellness experience.
After having conducting specialised research in the area, the Digital Wellness Institute has come up with calculated figures such as the cost of annual turnover and the costs incurred as a result of the lack of consideration for digital wellness. These are as follows:
Cost of Absenteeism… $1,685
Cost of Employee Turnover… $1,500
Cost of Onboarding a New Hire… $4,100
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Total Cost… $7,285 per employee
How Can the Digital Wellness Institute (DWI) Help Your Company Find the Sweet Spot?
With 89% of employees standing on the brink of burnout due to digital overwhelm and exhaustion, it is more important than ever to identify and acknowledge the problems that persist with handling digital technologies in the corporate world. The Digital Wellness Institute offers courses, consulting, and certification to help employees and companies improve their digital habits in a remote and hybrid workspace. This is a step-by-step process that takes place through a targeted approach based on your workplace needs.. Each solution is designed to improve the aspects of employee productivity, retention, and well-being, thereby providing organizations with the opportunity to be in tandem with contemporary digital needs and one step ahead of the competition in creating a workplace that is thriving and productive.
Change Begins with Insights™
Not sure how your workplace stacks up in terms of digital wellness? DWI’s proprietary Insights Snapshot allows individual employees and organizational leaders to self-assess their workplace across the dimensions of Culture, Leadership, Policies, and Training. This Snapshot - and the paid Insights Dashboard - sets a standard form of measurement by which companies can be assessed and awarded an official designation as a Certified Digitally Well Workplace™. The Certification indicates that the company is a leader in its respective industry. Not only has it taken steps to address issues of digital wellness, but they've gone above and beyond by improving workplace digital culture from within. An alternative designation is granted to those companies who are Aspiring to improve their levels of workplace digital wellness. Aspiring Digitally Well Workplaces™ are those that are committed to improving digital wellbeing within the company through actionable steps for improvement.
Get Your Roadmap to Workplace Digital Wellness Today
The Digital Wellness Institute is here to provide your organization with a customized roadmap for improvement to stand apart from the crowd in a competitive job market. Begin with the Insights Snapshot to see how yours compares. From there, a leading expert in Digital Wellbeing will provide a custom roadmap to becoming Certified. Whether your path for improvement includes industry-leading micro-courses on digital wellness for employees, custom 1:1 consulting with certified digital wellness educators, or tailored speaking engagements from industry leaders in digital wellness, DWI will guide your workplace through its journey to digital wellness.
In case you want to know more, feel free to contact us by pressing the ‘Contact Me’ button & filling in the details. We’d be happy to support you on your Digital Wellness journey so that you and your employees can find the sweet spot between productivity and thriving in the digital era.
-Navya Malhotra & Rijul Arora
