Power Up Your Wellness Program With Predictive Analytics Leveraging predictive analytics doesn't have to be a mammoth task! The right H&W partner will crunch the data, make your wellness program more responsive and relevant, and engage with employees
By Rekuram Varadharaj •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
A lot of thought, energy, and money are poured into well-intentioned health and wellness (H&W) programs by corporate India. Unfortunately, too often, they miss the mark, stymieing the people involved! But what if the missing link was right at your fingertips?
Every single day, a whopping amount of organizational data slips through the cracks. Predictive analytics takes this routine data, analyzes it to spot trends and patterns, and offers actionable insights. As one PwC survey points out, this scientific approach to H&W is taking the world by storm, changing the very way we approach medical diagnostics and preventive healthcare. And here's why it's just the ticket to ground your own H&W initiatives!
1. Get Answers To Pressing H&W Program Questions
About 80per cent of health data in India is currently unstructured. We may track absenteeism, insurance claims, and demographic data, but that information is rarely if ever, used to offer the most relevant diagnostic tests, screening camps, or health information to the workforce. Or to forecast future healthcare costs or plan preventive care.
To understand just how much predictive analytics can do, imagine a dashboard view of all the H&W data for your company in one place. With answers to critical questions in an instant, you could shape high-impact wellness initiatives that boost engagement.
2. Make Smarter Decisions About Employee Health
The ultimate goal of any H&W program is to make a difference in employee health and well-being. Predictive analytics can help realize this in one swift move. By analyzing data, you can help prevent illness, enable early intervention, avoid adverse events, and better manage likely problems. For instance, if the analysis reveals a large number of smokers in the organization, a smoking awareness and cessation program would be the need of the hour. If chronic conditions like diabetes are a red flag, this can be a focus area.
3. Tailor The Message and Benefits To Each Employee
No one appreciates being blindly bombarded with irrelevant information – and your workforce is no different. But if you woke up to an email highlighting your cholesterol numbers and outlining concrete steps to cut your risk of heart disease by 10per cent, you are going to take notice! Data can help finetune and personalize your H&W plan in many ways:
4. Save Money And Get More Bang For Your Buck
Every penny counts when it comes to budgeting for your H&W plan. Predictive analytics could help you streamline your wellness spends and identify the most relevant insurance features to keep plan costs down, based on risk profiles and diagnostic test results. When San Francisco-based Men's Wearhouse introduced technology to monitor and manage their health programs, they saved $3.3 million on health plan costs in just one year! Your data can even serve as a baseline to measure the ROI (return on investment) and VOI (value on investment) of your program.
Move On From The Spreadsheet!
Data is yours for the taking, but a simple spreadsheet alone won't cut it. Gather the right data points, work out goals, and start tracking with a strong data and analytics platform. You can then figure out what workshops, content, and H&W initiatives will get most traction and make a real difference to employee health. Every bit of data has a role to play!
And remember, leveraging predictive analytics doesn't have to be a mammoth task! The right H&W partner will crunch the data, make your wellness program more responsive and relevant, and engage with employees. That's beside suggesting care delivery and initiatives based on preliminary indicators.
With the right kind of help, you can easily integrate predictive analytics into the very DNA of your H&W program. So don't hold off any more – put your data to work today and see how it makes a world of difference to your people and your company!
