Protecting employee wellbeing is vital for the future health of workers. Here is a list of seven digital tools that can help achieve this goal.
There are a lot of digital employee wellbeing tools on the market, so it was difficult to keep this list down to a mere seven platforms. We felt it important to include some international well-known tools like Headspace alongside tools made by Irish start-ups like Kota (formerly known as Yonder).
Headspace
If you go on to the Headspace website and scroll down the home page to the small print at the very end you’ll find a link to Headspace for Work. Click on it and you’ll be directed to Headspace’s employers’ guide.
This site is similar to the regular Headspace, a web-based tool and app that provides guided meditations, focus music, sleep sounds and other resources designed to calm and centre people.
But it also has extra tools for employee engagement led by clinical professionals. Depending on an organisation’s needs, these include anything from mindfulness, sleep and focus exercises to unlimited mental health coaching and psychiatry services.
There are also information resources and webinars for employers to learn how to provide support for their teams.
Kara Connect
Headquartered in the Icelandic capital Reykjavík, Kara Connect is a health-tech company that specialises in employees’ mental wellbeing.
It has a distinctly Nordic approach to wellbeing, but it has plenty of international users with networks from around the world. On its website, you’ll see testimonials from Irish users.
Its wellbeing support hub is confidential and bolstered by the expertise of clinical advisers. Earlier this year, we spoke to Kara Connect CEO, Thorbjorg ‘Tobba’ Helga Vigfusdottir, about how the company works.
Kota (formerly Yonder)
While not an employee wellbeing platform in the strictest sense, Kota is an Irish start-up that does have something of a health focus so we decided to include it.
The former SiliconRepublic.com Start-up of The Week started out as Yonder in 2022 before rebranding to Kota recently.
It is an employee health insurance and retirement benefits platform, and it aims to provide employees and employers with a single avenue to automate and track all of these needs. It recently raised a €5m funding round led by EQT Ventures and it has plans to further increase the services it provides, especially in the areas of health and life insurance.
Saol
Saol, from the Irish language word for life, is the brainchild of Olympian athlete Derval O’Rourke and her business partner Greg O’Gorman.
The duo made headlines recently with Saol as it secured €200,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland.
Sonder
Sonder’s employee wellness tech platform provides a range of different services to workers as well as data insights for leaders so they can better track how their team is doing.
It offers on-demand responses and immediate care and support.
Its website says it handles everything from burns to burnout, meaning it specialises not only in mental and emotional wellbeing but also in medical issues and workplace safety.
Go1 (formerly Talivest)
When Cork HR software maker Talivest was acquired by Australian business Go1 in July 2022, it became part of the company and the Talivest branding ceased to exist. However, Talivest’s services did become part of Go1.
The company leveraged Talivest’s employee-focus to integrate with its own L&D services; it works with more than 250 providers to deliver wellbeing and personal development courses for employees all over the world.
Workhuman
The employee experience and engagement platform is very much focused on wellbeing – particularly in the context of how content workers are in their jobs.
Headquartered between Dublin and the US, Workhuman’s services cater to an international customer base. It helps teams build positive workplace cultures, reward employees and track their progress as they do so.
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