Addressing emotional health across a global workforce

Think that stressed-out employees only exist in the U.S.? You might be surprised. Stress and related emotional health challenges such as depression and anxiety have become global issues. According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people around the world suffer from depression, making it the number-one cause of disability worldwide. In addition, more than 260 million people are living with anxiety disorders globally. And the global economic cost is significant, nearly $1 trillion (U.S.) dollars each year.

Support for and inclusion of emotional health programs within U.S. workplaces is growing. But how does that translate to multinational companies? Because of the nature of a global workforce, creating effective solutions can be significantly more complicated. Issues such as multiple languages, cultural relevance, lack of local mental health resources, privacy issues and stigma are just a few of the complications global employers face.

In fact, the process of developing global emotional health programs can be so daunting that according to the National Business Group on Health, 52 percent of multinational employers have yet to develop a global well-being strategy.

Traditional strategies

Of the global companies that have taken on the emotional health challenge, most typically employed one of two strategies:

1. Autonomous – leave it up to each local market to define its need and focus on emotional health as it sees fit
2. Customized – provide a global strategy and a framework but allow each local market to tailor programs to meet its need

These practical strategies have merit and are outgrowths of what is/has been available to-date. Both strategies prioritize the need for local sensitivity and cultural relevance but potentially at the expense of consistency, administrative ease, scalability and measurable outcomes.

A new approach – digitally adaptive

Consistency doesn’t necessarily mean sameness or an inability to adjust to different languages and culture. In fact, it means the opposite – resources delivered in a consistent manner that are adjusted to take into account important global workforce differences.

As a company that both delivers emotional health resources and has a multinational workforce, we put a lot of thought into how we developed our own strategy for global emotional health support. What we discovered is that our implementation approach is a good template for other multinational organizations looking to do the same.

Here’s what it looks like. We felt that a digital platform would allow the emotional health resources we offered to be culturally and linguistically sensitive. But, it would also maintain fidelity to science-based interventions that have been proven to effectively reduce stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms (regardless of language or location).

This type of consistency of delivery would allow us to measure and compare results across geographies and cultures, in order to gain insights for future program enhancements. Another core component was ensuring it was entirely software-based. This would allow us to scale as needed, would be cost-effective, and could be implemented consistently across cultures and geographies.

In comparison to the Autonomous and Customized strategies mentioned above, we add a third strategy that we felt better addressed the needs and aspects of the multinational challenge. It’s an approach we call “Digitally Adaptive.”

Factors for employers to consider

Each of these three strategies (Autonomous, Customized, Digitally Adaptive) has strengths and could be the preferred solution based on unique variables, such as corporate culture, budget, resource availability, size and location of workforce. Here are some important questions and factors to consider when developing an emotional health program:

1. Corporate culture

• How concentrated or dispersed is your global workforce?
• How are decisions made now?
• How are budgets allocated?
• Do employees have easy access to digital technology or access points?

2. Breaking down barriers to emotional health

• How well does the solution address multi-cultural and multi-generational differences?
• How accessible is the solution? 24/7? Worksite only? Mobile enabled?
• How engaging is the solution? Will employees use it?
• How does it work to remove stigma?

3. Measurability

• Can program success be measured?
• Can meaningful comparisons be made between different geographies?
• Are key learnings/successes transferrable to other geographies?
• How does the solution engage employees (hint: no engagement = no results!). How is engagement measured?

4. Other considerations

• How important is it that the program(s) be evidence based?
• Will spouses/partners be included?
• Does the solution take into account appropriate data/privacy requirements?
• Is the program one-dimensional (e.g., resilience, mindfulness) or does it work across the broad continuum of emotional health needs (resilience to severe diagnoses)?

While implementing effective emotional health programs for multinational companies can be more complicated, effective strategies do exist. And, with the prevalence of stress, depression and anxiety expected to grow globally, now is the time to act.

The earlier we can offer emotional health resources to employees, the more positive impact we can have – on items like employee engagement, happiness and loyalty. Although emotional wellness should be part of any sustainable, healthy organization, it doesn’t hurt to know that there’s a clear business ROI as well. After all, when people feel better, it improves every aspect of their lives, can lead to improved productivity and retention, and even lower medical costs.

Tomer Ben-Kiki is CEO and co-founder of Happify Health, a behavioral outcomes technology company. He is an experienced entrepreneur who has held leadership positions at high-growth companies such as Oberon Media, a leading casual gaming company providing for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Microsoft, Yahoo and Sprint. Prior to Oberon, Tomer was the co-founder and president of RichFx, an e-commerce startup.