Nearly one-third of employees worldwide say they don’t trust their employer getting involved in their health and well-being. They are fearful their employer will have access to their personal health information, leading to concern about using the company’s onsite clinic. This can lead to overutilization of urgent care clinics or the emergency room.
So what is the solution? An employer is tasked with providing onsite health wellness solutions for their employees and doing so in a way that reassures them their information is safe and secure.
In order to garner employee trust, practice these three initiatives to kick-start a smooth and trusted transition for your employees.
1. Understand Employees’ Challenges
In order to gain your employee’s trust, you have to understand their current challenges and hesitations. For instance, for some employees, improving their health and well-being may always be strictly a personal pursuit and they might not currently understand the privacy onsite clinics offer.
In these cases, employers can play a pivotal role by creating a workplace environment that supports these employees as they tackle health issues on their own while also reiterating that the onsite clinic, though on site, is very much a separate entity from the workplace.
Using this understanding of individual goals and concerns, companies will be able to create the programs that will engage employees and indirectly improve their health.
Even though most employees (71%) prefer to manage their health on their own, when companies understand employees’ needs, they can build a trusting relationship on personal health issues.
This is also important as ultimately, the success of the health and wellness program depends on the ability of employers to create an atmosphere that will engage employees with the clinic and improve their health and well-being on their terms.
2. Reducing Stress and Empowering Employees
As stated above, employees prefer to manage their health on their own - and do not want it associated in any way with their employer. This is a common misconception about onsite clinics, which is important to stress to employees - the clinic is a separate organization, and though conveniently located, will never communicate any personal health information with their employer.
In order for employees to actively trust the management of their healthcare, they will need to feel empowered and active in these pursuits.
Consider activating an employee assistance program (EAP) which can assist employees with personal difficulties and/or work-related problems that may impact their job performance, health, mental and emotional well-being.
Poor mental health can be directly linked to productivity loss, absenteeism, job abandonment, and higher turnover. In fact, research shows that people with symptoms of depression have a 5x or greater increase in time lost from work compared to those without symptoms of depression.
Offering this confidential assistance program can assist in supporting employee goals, while also building their trust in the separation of their personal information from the workplace.
3. Reassuring Employees About Onsite Clinics
Lastly, it is vital that employers reassure employees’ trust in areas pertaining to health security, especially the use of employees’ personal data so that workers will begin to see the clinic as a go-to resource for improving their health and well-being.
Reassure employees that their medical information will remain confidential and that clinicians will do what is right for the employee and dependent, based on the highest standards of care. It must also be made apparent that the medical care and other health-related services will be delivered by highly qualified, credentialed professionals and kept private.
Privacy is the key word here. Today more so than ever, the need to ensure data privacy and security to be compliant with HIPAA is important. Healthstat has been externally accredited by NCQA, AAAHC and SSAE18.
Our clinicians and wellness coordinators have great credentials and certifications, trained to use proven coaching methods that have leading success rates for behavioral change.
