5 ways YuLife can help your employees improve their wellbeing

The success of any company, by definition, depends on its people. And so common sense dictates if you want to boost performance and productivity, encourage loyalty and minimise staff turnover, you need to look after your employees' wellbeing. 

This idea is backed up by a stack of evidence, too. For example, a 2022 study by the University of Warwick showed that happiness made people around 12% more productive during randomised trials and piece-rate working under laboratory conditions. 

No wonder that some of the world's biggest companies, such as Google, spend a lot of time and effort on maximising employee wellbeing, providing everything to on-site doctors to napping pods and free haircuts on site.

But you don't need huge budgets or lavish schemes to improve employee wellbeing. In most cases, it's not about the amount of money you spend; it's more about devising a carefully considered wellness strategy and making the best of the resources you have to promote it. 

And the good news is that signing up with YuLife for an employee benefits insurance package can make a major impact on employee wellbeing at the same time as providing best-in-class insurance benefits; killing two birds with one stone, as it were.

How so? Because YuLife is not just about giving people payouts if the worst happens; it's also about providing easy-to-access, life-changing benefits in the present day. Read on as we outline five ways that YuLife membership can boost your employees' wellbeing.

1. Encouraging physical activity and mindfulness

We all know we should look after our physical health through regular exercise, and our mental health through regular relaxation and mindfulness. But life often gets in the way. Thankfully YuLife has found an innovative way around that problem. 

When a company signs up with YuLife, all of its employees get access to the YuLife app. This uses the principles of gamification to make wellness engaging and fun. 

Users earn YuCoin by completing daily wellness activities and challenges, such as walking, cycling and meditation tasks. YuCoin can be exchanged for real-world rewards, such as shopping vouchers and discounts, or donated to charities and environmental projects. 

By gamifying fitness goals and offering incentives in this way, YuLife motivates employees to lead active lifestyles. This not only improves their physical health but also enhances their mental wellbeing by reducing stress and boosting mood.

2. Fostering a sense of community

No person is an island. Yet in these days of remote and hybrid working, many of us are feeling like one. In this light, creating a supportive community and fostering social connections among employees is crucial for overall wellbeing. 

The YuLife employee app helps to facilitate this through its wellbeing challenges and community features. Employees can participate in team challenges, set personal goals, and track their progress against those of colleagues within the YuLife app. 

This not only encourages healthy and friendly competition but also promotes camaraderie and teamwork. No wonder that the app boasts industry-leading levels of engagement wherever it's introduced, with take-up rates typically around 80-90% of the workforce.

And that's not all. Because employees check in with the YuLife app regularly, it makes it a great place to promote the company's own wellness initiatives and campaigns. Companies might also choose to promote a drive to raise YuCoin for a chosen charity, whether that be planting mangroves in Madagascar or helping Ukrainian refugees. 

The 'feel good effect' of such events can be especially bonding in companies where employees feel otherwise separate and atomised. By fostering a sense of community in this way, YuLife helps create a positive workplace culture that supports employee wellbeing and boosts morale.

3. Mental health support

Another benefit of giving all your employees access to the YuLife app is that it provides an easy way to access their benefits. That's particularly important when it comes to mental health support, which people typically aren't relaxed asking their boss directly about. With YuLife, in contrast, they can access resources and help directly, from within the app.

Benefits delivered via an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) called YuMatter include structured clinical counselling, which may be complemented by computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), for personal and mental health issues. Employees can also access coaching on career development, and advice on issues affecting work-life balance. 

By helping employees with their mental health challenges in this way, YuLife empowers employees to manage stress, improve resilience, and enhance their overall emotional wellbeing.

4. Financial wellbeing resources

As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, mental wellbeing and financial wellbeing are becoming increasingly interdependent. And that's a problem for employers, because if staff are suffering stress, anxiety and depression over financial issues, they're not going to be bringing their full self to work.

Financial stress can significantly impact an employee's overall wellbeing and productivity. YuLife recognises this and provides helpful resources to help employees manage their financial health effectively. For example, all YuLife members get six months' free access to Moneyhub, a money management app that helps people build good financial wellness habits.

In our complex modern world, it's often difficult to understand just how healthy one's finances actually are. That's why Moneyhub allows employees to group accounts from different providers, including current accounts, savings, investments, pensions and more, in one central space. Then through clever AI, the app analyses transactions across all these accounts, and auto-categorises them so that it's easy to see what's going on.

5. Holistic health insurance 

We’re seeing more and more firms offering group health insurance to their employees, and that's not surprising. When you factor in the costs to the business from sickness and absence due to long waits for NHS treatment, private medical insurance starts to make a lot of business sense. 

Offering business health insurance inevitably means you'll have a healthier and happier workforce, that's more productive, efficient and motivated as a result. Plus it will help you lure and retain the best talent for your business because it's such a highly prized benefit; a more important consideration to many than even salary levels. 

With YuLife, employees get fast access to private health treatment, with referrals for cancer, mental health and MSK conditions typically without needing to see a GP first. There are also cash benefits if employees opt for NHS treatment over private care; ambulance cover for in-patient, day-patient treatment; and help with home nursing following in-patient treatment.

But that's not all. YuLife takes a more holistic approach than traditional health insurance providers, which promotes overall wellbeing and encourages employees to take an active role in managing their health in the day-to-day. 

That means employees get easy access to wellbeing tools and support services. These include the Bupa Blua Health VGP smartphone app, which allows them to speak to a doctor and other healthcare professionals whether they are at home, at work or on the go. 

There's also the the Bupa Anytime HealthLine, which provides medical advice 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; the Bupa Family Mental HealthLine to support parents and carers; and the Bupa Menopause HealthLine, which provides guidance and support with menopause symptoms. All these tools work in tandem with the YuLife app's promotion of healthy habits, with the result of raising employee wellbeing across all parts of your business.

In Conclusion

Today's challenging business landscape means that prioritising employee wellbeing is more important than ever. YuLife offers a refreshing approach to employee benefits by going beyond traditional insurance coverage. 

By integrating holistic health insurance, promoting physical activity, offering mental health support, providing financial wellbeing resources, and fostering a sense of community, YuLife empowers employees to take charge of their overall wellbeing. 

Implementing YuLife in your organisation will help you create a workplace environment that values and supports the health and happiness of your employees, leading to increased engagement, productivity and retention. In other words, investing in employee wellbeing with YuLife is not only the right thing to do, but it also makes sound business sense.