Howdy

Work-related stress is a persistent problem, worldwide. No matter the cause, if left unaddressed, stress can soon become overwhelming for an individual, leading to serious physical, mental, and emotional problems. Increased stress among employees often surfaces as rising instances of sick leave, increased burnout, and declining productivity. These signs should not be ignored and must be dealt with before it’s too late. The Danish employee wellness service provider, Howdy, has devised a unique way to ensure organisational and employee wellbeing through its namesake platform.

The Howdy platform enables an ongoing dialogue between employees and their managers, and shares insights on employees’ emotional health. While the meaningful conversation helps employees alleviate stress, the insights help a company act in time and create the needed change. In cases of early signs of breakdown, Howdy’s team of certified psychologists proactively intervenes and helps employees improve mental health and reduce their emotional discomfort.

“We wanted to move past the lengthy, biannual wellbeing and workplace assessments conducted by companies. The long gap between assessments does not allow companies to spot employee stress before it becomes a big issue. We are combining the best of IT and psychology for more frequently occurring assessment to ensure the wellbeing of thousands of employees every day,” states Rasmus Hartung, CEO of Howdy.

The Science behind Howdy

Howdy’s employee wellness platform is based on the scientifically validated WHO-5 (five questions) model, used to indicate an individual’s wellbeing.

The WHO-5 questions—developed by professor Per Bech, head of the research department at the Psychiatric Centre in Hilleroed, Denmark—are positively worded to cover the areas of general mood, relaxation, energy, sleep, and motivation.

Employees are encouraged to fill out their responses from time to time, which are saved in Howdy’s servers, and are analysed by AI algorithms. Based on the evaluation, the employees receive a score between 0 and 100. Any number above 35 is considered a safe score, but if it drops below that, Howdy’s response team, comprising occupational psychologists, management coaches, and physiotherapists, proactively support the employees in need until they reach a safe score.

“We also offer webinars in quick bites; we call them speedinars—a constructive tool to kickstart or strengthen employees’ wellbeing journey remotely,” states Peter Richter, chief psychologist at Howdy.

A recent success story best explains how Howdy’s unique methodologies have brought great employee wellness outcomes. Howdy collaborated with a larger team in Siemens Gamesa UK —a company providing onshore and offshore wind turbines—to help their on-site employees feel more cared for and protected. Siemens Gamesa’s employees have to work in risky environments to manufacture, install, and service the wind turbines. Needless to say, it can take a toll on the workers’ emotional and physical health. By constantly communicating electronically, Howdy’s team of psychologists ensures that the workforce’s stress levels are kept under check, improving overall organisational wellbeing and reducing stress-related sick leaves.

Howdy is now working on adding more user-friendly tools to support the needs of employees and their managers. For instance, Howdy is planning to make employees’ Howdy Score accessible to every user who uses the app within the organisation. This new feature will inspire users to participate in an open dialogue, providing clarity, transparency, and understanding about how an individual’s answers can contribute to the general wellbeing of the organisation.