WebMD Health Services

In 1817, Welsh social reformer Robert Marcus Owen proposed the first 8-hour workday and coined the phrase “eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.” By 1979, Johnson & Johnson’s Live for Life program became the prototype for big corporate worksite wellness programs. It included a questionnaire and a physical assessment with the purpose of collecting information on each person’s activity levels and body fat measurements. The company then provided support to control risk behaviors weight control, nutrition, and stress management.

Fast forward to today. The pandemic-induced hybrid work environment has transformed the definitions of work, worker, and wellness blurring the line between work and personal life. This has prompted organizations to improve how they care for their employees’ mental and emotional well-being. Employers in 2022 are focused on implementing comprehensive employee well-being practices to foster real, tangible, and meaningful value that resonates with their employees.

This is where WebMD Health Services steps in.

WebMD Health Services is a unique employee wellness solutions provider that specializes in delivering well-being solutions, engagement services delivered by experts and champions, and strategic partnerships to help organizations create well-rounded employee wellness programs for all. The company works collaboratively with clients to support their diverse populations, elevate their culture, and deliver real results that make a difference—both for their business and their people.

“Our mission is to empower organizations and their populations with solutions and services centered on improving employee’s well-being,” says John Harrison, General Manager at WebMD Health Services. WebMD Health Services has lived up to this mission since its inception, and has streamlined its services and solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of the workforce.

The company now enables organizations to go beyond Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and take a holistic approach to employee well-being in the post-pandemic era. Drawing on their over twenty years of experience in this field, WebMD Health Services supports over 2,500 organizations encompassing direct/indirect corporate clients and health plans. The company emphasizes customer-centricity and has developed several wellness solutions, including the WebMD ONE platform that helps more than 62 million people reach their well-being goals.

Customized Wellness Plans for the Needs of Every Employee

When it comes to wellness, every individual’s well-being journey varies dramatically from another. To tackle these diverse needs, WebMD ONE provides the guidance necessary to help individuals embrace true wellness.

Anchored to WebMD Health Services’ five dimensions of well-being being clinically managed, emotionally balanced, socially connected, physically fit, and financially secure the platform is highly personalized in delivering a thoughtful and personal approach to connecting individuals with relevant solutions. WebMD ONE is also thoughtfully designed to inspire employee participation and drive engagement which leads to behavior change.

The platform provides a robust health assessment based on an individual’s health status and clinical data. It paints a comprehensive picture of where that person is positioned compared to others of the same age and demographic level. The assessment identifies and highlights health risks and delivers recommended content, tools, tips, and support to facilitate that person’s wellness journey, including financial wellness, reducing stress, overcoming irregular sleep behavior and administering better self-care.

WebMD ONE is built with numerous well-being capabilities, including daily habits tracking, stress and resiliency programs, health coaching, a personal health record, and wellness challenges. Every solution is uniquely designed to aid an employee’s well-being journey. WebMD has seen a 12 percent improvement in stress management for individuals participating in the health coaching program. For example, individuals who want to improve their sleep can leverage videos, recommendations, and tips. Each path is unique to every individual, helping them maximize their focus on their personal sleep behavior change.

Our Solutions Are Clinically Validated By Our Clinical Advisory Board and We Collaborate With Clients To Tailor Organization-Wide Programs With Rewards And Incentives Incorporated Into The Platform

“Our solutions are clinically validated by our clinical advisory board and we collaborate with clients to tailor organization-wide programs with rewards and incentives incorporated into the platform,” Harrison adds.

Connecting Empathy with Wellness

WebMD Health Services discerns itself by giving a human touch to its services and solutions. For instance, the company offers telephonic, digital chat-based, and group coaching focused on important areas such as stress and resiliency or emotional health. Another differentiator is the company’s ability to drive deeper connections through segmentation and personalization inside the WebMD ONE platform enabling flexibility in configuring the level of digital experience, content, and communications for all segments of an organization in one platform.

WebMD Health Services has been a household name for its health information and is popular for its diverse health/ wellness solutions. Many employees prefer third-party service providers like WebMD Health Services to their own employers’ services. This aspect has been verified by collaborative market research between WebMD Health Services and Blue Research.

The results substantiated employees’ trust in WebMD Health Services’ services and solutions. After all, personal well-being data is entirely candid employees’ information.

Holding such unique value propositions, WebMD Health Services has served clients across different industry verticals.

For instance, an employer leveraged a pulse survey to determine their employees’ most critical needs during the lockdowns. The answer ‘self-care’ was an overwhelming need. The client then collaborated with WebMD Health Services, formulated a self-care strategy, and dedicated an entire week to helping employees with their self-care challenges.

Etching a New Identity in Modern Employee Wellness

WebMD Health Services believes that among the greatest challenges to employee wellness in recent history came with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It changed the nature of work for a vast number of the population, resulting in an increase in risk prevalence for sleep, stress, emotional health and depression.

Of those WebMD participants who connect with a stress specialist, 86 percent are also engaged in high-risk coaching to address concerns related to stress, mental health, sleep, physicial health and more..Based on WebMD’s very large and diverse book of business, we observed an increase in risk prevalence for sleep, stress, and emotional health/depression from 2019 to 2021. The data showed increases of two to three percentage points year over year over this time period. Recognizing these needs, the company launched Community and Group Coaching to connect people with one another. They also integrated mental health podcasts and other media on the platform to help people manage their mental health and stress related challenges. Needless to say, about 15 percent of WebMD Health Services’downloads during the pandemic, was content related to the effects of COVID-19.

Having carved a unique niche, WebMD Health Services recently launched manager-specific mental health training podcasts—inside WebMD ONE—to help managers have candid and supportive conversations with employees about mental health. Additionally, the company is always on its toes when it comes to new ideas and better solutions. As a result, WebMD continues to tune the ingredients that they are putting into their strategy to make sure it is hitting the market needs. They also conduct a great deal of market research, including generational research to help the diverse group of individuals of all ages in every organization.

At the end of the day, WebMD believes that employee wellness depends on employer’s commitment to meet employees wherever they are. In essence, WebMD Health Services invests itself in extending how the platform can drive meaningful connections with all the stakeholders inside the client organization.