If there’s one thing we know about well-being programs, it’s that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. To make a well-being program truly successful, we must consider the unique needs and health goals of each individual—as well as what’s important to the organization. In this week’s blog, we discuss WebMD Health Services’ ability to segment large, complex populations to ensure that every participant receives a program that is personalized, relevant, and meaningful.
Change is a constant…and a well-being program needs to adapt.
Organizations have complex well-being needs that change over time. Consider an acquisition—suddenly, there’s a whole new population that has to be brought in quickly to the well-being program. Or, a certain segment of the population decides to unionize, necessitating key changes to benefits. In both situations, you need to have a well-being solution provider that can adapt on the fly.
WebMD ONE makes it easy to achieve well-being goals at the organizational level…
With WebMD ONE, making a change for one population is as easy as flipping a switch. That’s because the ability to segment multifaceted populations is baked right into our system architecture. There’s no need to spend hours on coding updates or charge extra fees.
And the segmentation options are unlimited.
- Want to create one wellness challenge for employees at corporate, and another for employees in the field—both with different incentives? We can do that.
- Need to target messages about completing a health assessment to just one office? Easy.
- Want to solidify your culture of well-being by hosting a Global Invitational Team Steps Challenge? Everyone can receive the same inspirational message, translated for specific audiences.
…while still focusing on the individual.
Where our solution really shines is our ability to get personal with participants based on attributes that are unique to them. What they do for a living, where they’re located, what their health risks are based on age and gender, what kinds of health goals they want to work on—all of these are factored into the solutions that participants engage with in WebMD ONE.
Consider the case of a baggage handler at an airline.
We’ll call him Brian. He’s 34 years old and works in Dallas. Based on what we know about his occupation, location, and age, he might receive:
- Safety reminders and tips to prevent back injury;
- Places to get a healthy meal in the terminal; and
- Information on ways he can volunteer to maintain social connectedness.
After Brian completes the health assessment or biometric screenings and starts to interact with the WebMD ONE platform, we learn a bit more about what’s relevant to him:
- His biometric data indicates he is pre-diabetic, so we invite him to join the Diabetes Management Program and share ways he can boost his fruit and vegetable intake.
- When he watches a strength training video, we follow up with an article about how to properly stretch after a vigorous workout.
Here’s what we could do for an offshore engineer at a large energy company.
Aesha is 40 years old and works for two weeks at a stretch on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean.
- With 12 to 14 hour shifts and a highly physical job, proper sleep is essential. Aesha gets tips on sleep hygiene and is encouraged to set sleep goals in Daily Habits.
- It’s not easy to be away from family for weeks at a time. We make sure to support Aesha’s mental health with prompts to Stay Connected, our social connectedness program.
- Now that she’s 40, she should consider getting a baseline mammogram. We send out a reminder right after her birthday.
Aesha’s health assessment and her engagement with WebMD ONE helps us target the right content and programs:
- Her cholesterol levels are high, so we share heart-healthy recipes she can try when she’s at home.
- To help meet her weight loss goals, we encourage Aesha to use the Positively Me Health Coaching program.
Another benefit of our segmentation capabilities: you can hold the reins.
Although we are more than happy to update on behalf of our clients, another advantage of our platform is the ability for clients to make modifications to their programs without us, based on real-time information from Data Insights. No need to log a request and wait for a programmer to make the change. For example, if you have a wellness champion network and one of your champions wants to highlight the healthy food options in their facility, they can create the content just for those at the facility in real time.
And it works for health plans, too.
Health plans support a wide range of employer groups that have their own custom programs. Our segmentation capabilities allow health plans to maintain one portal for all their business segments, rather than having multiple portals built out for each one of their groups. That makes it easy for them to manage all their employer groups in one clean, accessible space.
Don’t just take our word for it—one of our health plan clients said that “WebMD shines in terms of having that ease of saying, ‘This employer wants to view this program or customization, and then this one has something completely different.’ That was something we weren’t getting from our current vendor.”
People have so many potential benefits and programs available to them. The hardest part is keeping it simple and only showing the most relevant information to each person. The ability to segment programs, information and interventions that are scalable and easy to manage is vital to keeping the most up-to-date information right where your employees need it. In summary, to be successful, a well-being program must be able to do two things at once:
- Easily adapt to changes at the organizational level, and
- Stay relevant and meaningful to each individual.
WebMD ONE has that capability, which makes it unlike any other in the well-being industry. Interested in learning more about how our segmentation solution can help your organization achieve its well-being goals? Contact us at connect@webmd.net.
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