Increasing Employee Wellness with AI Kindness

Did you know that over?450 million people?suffer from mental health disorders?

Even more shocking is that two-thirds of those with mental health disorders never seek help, and that there is less than one mental health professional for every 10,000 people. We currently lose more than $1 trillion per year due to depression and anxiety, employers are becoming more aware that a thriving high-performing workforce stems from a workforce whose well-being is genuinely cared for.

We are also seeing healthcare migrate towards prevention which helps expand our traditional definitions of wellness. Wellbeing and employee engagement technologies are increasingly accessible. The global market is a?$4.2T market?with a CAGR of over 10%.

One of our SalesChoice AI innovations has been launching MoodInsights, a SaaS App. This app allows employees to reflect daily on how they are feeling. share the reasons from a curated list of choices, and optionally share more. It takes less than a minute to fill in individual responses and AI measures sentiment (positive or negative), and uses GenAI to parse insights into more meaningful classifications that allow management to take action.

This type of employee reflection is rooted in mindfulness which is self-regulation and the building of conscious awareness that arises from paying attention to the experience of right now (Jon Kabat-Zinn, 2013). MoodInsights has been designed to cultivate awareness of a) where attention resides b) how emotions and feelings are experienced in "context"; and c) AI and advanced visualization methods further help one’s ability to pay attention and regulate emotion.

90% of executive leaders?know that?employee engagement?is key to business success. The rationale is simple: people who enjoy their jobs work harder, perform better, and stay longer. Additionally, they inspire and encourage their colleagues to do the same. However, as Gallup studies have consistently shown for years, only around?13% of employees are engaged. Research has consistently shown that companies with high employee engagement have strong?internal communication practices.

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) made kindness one of its new sustainability priorities. Asking employees how they are feeling is one positive way that employers can demonstrate they genuinely care. Kindness has been shown to increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood. It can decrease blood pressure and cortisol, a hormone directly correlated with stress levels. People who give of themselves in a balanced way also tend to be healthier and live longer.

Kindness can increase your sense of connectivity with others, decrease loneliness, combat low mood, and improve relationships. It also can be contagious, encouraging others to join in with their generous deeds. Looking for ways to show kindness can give you something to focus on, especially if you are anxious or stressed in certain social situations.

Physiologically, kindness can positively change your brain by boosting levels of serotonin and dopamine. These neurotransmitters produce feelings of satisfaction and well-being and cause the pleasure and reward centers in your brain to light up. Endorphins, your body's natural painkiller, also may be released when you show kindness.

Our thesis for commercializing MoodInsights is that it is well-proven in medical research and how one shows up for work, and fit for duty is a leadership responsibility that cannot be ignored anymore.

Think for example of the reality that drivers are trained to inspect and measure their vehicle's safety by conducting a 360, with limited time reflecting how they are feeling before they drive a vehicle. We set up meeting after meeting, with limited time to allow our talent to pause, breathe, and find an inner calm before going to their task.

With productivity on the decline and mental health and wellness growing, we are challenging leaders to rethink their employee engagement practices. Annual employee surveys are simply too slow, data is flawed and actions too late to bring value. Having daily mood insights allows for more rapid corrective action and demonstrates to employees that you are listening. Even if you cannot resolve some issues, demonstrating empathy and compassion goes a long way to build leadership trust.

With 20-30% of employees starting their day either day or angry, supporting employees to begin their day in a state of calmness is important to reduce accidents and improve health and safety. There is also a 10x risk of safety issues or accidents when humans operate in a sad or angry state of mind.

Building organizations with corporate purpose requires building a kinder work culture where feelings are acknowledged - after all this is what makes us genuinely human.

If you would like to learn more about our AI research on MoodInsights or set up a discovery call with Dr. Cindy Gordon to learn more about the value of creating a culture where there is genuine permission to feel, reach us here.