The challenge for employers is to take a strategic and measured approach to creating and supporting a culture of wellness and a thriving workforce. There is no shortage of examples of initiatives being implemented by Australian organisations. Coupled with traditional EAP, preventative programs and awareness initiatives are being widely adopted by Australian industry. Employee engagement levels for EAP’s and preventative initiatives remains low, and research suggests that many who need help, are still not accessing the assistance and support required. This sees quality clinical support programs and preventative initiatives not reaching a large proportion of the audiences that would benefit.

Stigmatisation of mental health has been shown to be a major factor in reluctance of employees to engage with workplace mental health and wellness initiatives. Mobile mental health APPS and smartphone utilisation is addressing this to a degree, with the average person interacting with their mobile device more than 150 times per day. Research has shown MHApps to be largely un-validated and isolated solutions.

MateCheck has developed a platform technology to connect employees and employers in real time, offering employees easy, confidential access to preventative resources and support and employers’ access to real time organisational trends and a method of monitoring and measuring engagement with all initiatives offered by the organisation.

Utilising a strategic and holistic solutions with measurement and monitoring capabilities, provides a vision for harnessing the power of data to create industry benchmarks and predictive algorithms to shape the wellness ecosystem of the workplace of the future.