Employee burnout is expensive!
Burnt out employees are 2.6x more likely to be seeking a new job.
most employees don't make use of their health benefits.
This is a mostly North American phenomenon and there are a number of reasons for this:
1. Culture - there is a strong stigma if you are not working hard, although that is changing, especially after the pandemic.
2. Understanding - a lot of people don't take the time to understand their benefits packages.
3. Multiple Benefits packages - many couples will put each other on their benefits. So a person will be on two benefits packages in order to try to get maximum coverage. It's also insurance in case one person loses their job. Then both people still have some health benefits.
But trying to keep everything straight is a nightmare!
The research showed that there were mental health apps and benefit apps...
Mental Health & Wellness apps, such as Headspace, offer guided meditation and mindfulness exercises to promote calm and relaxation.
Break monitoring apps, such as WorkRave, remind the user to take regular breaks for stretching, food, biology, etc.
Employee monitoring programs, such as InterGuard, track desktop, laptop and/or mobile phone activity such as internet use, emails, and mouse clicks/keystrokes.
Statistics showed a major increase in health app interest, and people seeking psychological services during the pandemic.
...but nothing was solving the problem since burnout continued to rise!
Our solution - Use AI to keep track of benefits!
How it works:
Step 1: Onboarding
Employee benefit information is uploaded into the system when a new employee is hired, or when the system is adopted.
Additional benefits, say from an employee's spouse/partner, can be added to the system.
The employee's calendar, timesheet, and email are also connected to the system.
All data collected is completely private and not shared with the employer. If any data is required, it is kept anonymous, unless there is a legal need/court requirement for disclosure.
Step 2: Monitoring
The Better Benefits application monitors employee behavior (such as time taken to answer emails) and recommends different workplace benefits to help mitigate burnout. Users can also input their stress levels on a scale of 1-10 throughout the week to create a more accurate picture of their mental health.
The system keeps track of which benefits have been used, the maximum limits allowed, and forecasts based on the calendar of what benefits may be required down the road.
For example, after reaching a difficult deadline with excessive overtime the system may suggest taking a vacation day. Upon their return they will be asked to rate the effectiveness of the
suggestion on their mental health.
suggestion on their mental health.
For smaller daily help, the system can also connect with users various devices to send
notification reminders to take breaks, stretch, and hydrate.
notification reminders to take breaks, stretch, and hydrate.
Even if a user does not have benefits available, other reminders provided by the app such as
taking daily breaks, staying nourished, and simply talking to a friend can greatly impact one's
mental health and affect the likelihood of burnout.
taking daily breaks, staying nourished, and simply talking to a friend can greatly impact one's
mental health and affect the likelihood of burnout.
How We came Up With Better Benefits
The main research focused on why people burnout and/or quit their jobs.
According to Monster.ca the top 5 reasons why people leave their jobs are:
1. Insufficient pay or unfair pay practices
2. Lack of honesty/integrity/ethics
3. Lack of trust in senior leaders
4. Lack of work-life balance
5. Unhealthy/undesirable culture
Other reasons included - lack of control, unclear job expectations, and lack of support. Most employees stay until something forces them to leave.
As a team, we decided to focus our solution on Work/Life Balance because we felt that we could make the biggest impact in this area.
The idea for Better Benefits came from extensive research into the Health and Wellness space. We also did a deep dive into AI and how it could monitor productivity and analyze large data sets.
AI was the key to our solution.
Designing Better Benefits
We started with basic sketches of our main screens. We created a basic Adobe XD prototype to completely plan out the idea and see how the proposed features would work in reality. This lead to further research and modification.
The links to the original prototypes have been deactivated since this project. All that remains are the screen captures and other digital assets that were created for submission.
The Logo
The Better Benefits logo was not a major focus during the project and was created after the project was submitted. The team felt that it was more important to showcase the research and UI planning that went into the design rather than the graphical elements.
Styling
While the logo did not receive a lot of attention, the color and styling did. The team wanted a color scheme that was WCAG accessible but was also calming and portrayed professionalism and confidence. The font choices were a source of spirited discussion.
Prototypes
The first prototype was simply about seeing how many screens we needed and mapping the user journey from start to finish.
The second prototype was more polished but still required more styling. However, the general concept and majority of the screens were designed. The main items that were missing were a progress bar and navigation.
The final prototype
This is a screen shot of the final Adobe XD prototype. Unfortunately, the account that the prototype resided on is no longer available. The majority of the elements are present in the interactive prototype. The only element that was not on the prototype was the logo. The final graphics would have been completed if the project had been able to move forward.
Award WINNING SOLUTION
There was a competition during our 4th Year held in partnership with Red Thread Innovations of Toronto, Ontario. Red Thread would choose the best project of the year and develop it with the student group of that project.
We won the contest! However the company decided not to pursue our idea for development. But they did invite us to apply to work at their organization.
In addition to this win, we organized, summarized, and documented all of our research, citations, and work into a giant archive. We submitted it with the help and encouragement of our professor to Sheridan College's research council. To our astonishment, we won the Sheridan Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities (SRCA) Award in 2022.
The Team
Linda Hatch (me): Team member, researcher, videographer, archivist
Jessica Fulkerson: Team Leader, designer, researcher, presenter
Warren Scobie: Team member, researcher, presenter, scribe
Emily Betts: Team Member, researcher, designer, presenter
