OCTOBER 2020HR TECH OUTLOOK9group--in many ways, this accountability and "gamification" created a social element that made the challenge a lot of fun. Through similar digital challenges, people have also lost weight and made more time for emotional health.This year, our real focus has been about emotional well-being, about depression and stress. We've created a lot of challenges about reducing stress. Things like a meditation moment challenge, where employees just take a minute to chill. Harmons also instructs its employees to download an app called Headspace and take time to focus on reducing their stress levels while at work.The host has a super-soothing voice. He walks you through a meditation. A lot of it is encouraging deep breathing and trying to relax all of your muscles. People don't realize that when they're stressed, muscles get super tense. Taking a minute out of your day to kind of check in with your body and acknowledge what you're feeling is pretty important.The introduction of the technology itself initiated a conversation between Harmons' Human Resources Department and employees.Utilizing technology for emotional wellness makes it less taboo to talk about. It used to be that people did not talk about their emotional wellbeing. Now, there are so many cool apps out there that support emotional health. We recommend them to our associates all the time.Exploring all avenues, I found that appealing to Utah's competitive nature was advantageous.Whether it's a store vs. store competition or a department vs. department competition, we can use technology to create a fun competition. We can pit the bakery at our seventh street store vs. the bakery at our west store. People like to get competitive. It creates a fun vibe and a sense of unity within their teams.Even with considerable adoptions rates with existing technology, the biggest challenge for Kiel continues to be communication ­ both between the company's 19 stores spread state-wide and in discovering the best way to reach people on an individual level.We're now considering text messaging. We're looking at ways to use email more effectively. We sent out a survey last month, which helped us realize a lot of our employees were interested in programs we already offered. Now we're trying to figure out the best way to communicate to them that these programs exist and are available for free.Grocery stores are not traditionally considered technology powerhouses, but we're finding ways to use it to engage our employees in our wellness program. We can see that people are making changes. I've heard people say it helped them lose 30 pounds or that they're now making better decisions about getting more restful sleep. We're very aware that our associates are our most important asset so to see changes in their spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing is outstanding. Harmons even fuels the beneficial use of its wellness app by incentivizing their employees
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