The first employee wellbeing subscription service specifically for micro and SME businesses has been launched by Frog Systems today (25th May) at the Watercooler workplace wellbeing event at Olympia, London.
The SME businesses offering is the first digital wellbeing solution to be offered as a month-to-month subscription that can be paid for by credit card for up to 100 employees, without the need to sign up for an annual licence.
Called Ashia Plus – Ashia means hope and life – it provides access to 1000’s of lived experience videos where employees can learn from people who have dealt with similar life challenges, regular broadcasts covering all aspects of wellbeing and ED&I, an innovative Small Changes evidence-led self-help wellness programme, wellness-related product offers, plus the UK’s most comprehensive directory of signposted support.
Phil Worms, CEO of Frog Systems, said: “The struggle to balance home and work life and the growing cost-of-living crisis is creating the perfect conditions for a mental wellness tsunami. Ashia Plus provides smaller businesses with a budget-friendly way to support their employees. It offers preventive, rather than reactive support, by helping people to understand the issues they might be going through and encouraging them to take action.”
Mental and physical health support for smaller businesses
The new pay-as-you-go service is targeted at the 5 million+ smaller and medium-sized businesses in the UK that often struggle to provide support for the mental and physical health of their staff due to the cost of adopting a formal Employee Assistance Programme or lack of in-house expertise to manage wellbeing.
Earlier this year Mark Rowland, the chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, called for “a radical change in our approach to mental health by prioritising prevention” after the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) revealed that the annual cost to the UK economy of poor mental health is at least £117.9 billion – equivalent to 5% of UK GDP*. While Deloitte’s UK Mental Health Support report 2022 ** states that for every £1 invested in mental health and wellbeing support, a business gets an ROI of £5.30 per employee because of the resultant drop in sickness absence and presenteeism. It said, “..the economic argument for putting wellbeing at the heart of post-covid recovery is clear.”
Includes expert-led wellness programme
Dr Laura Coia is a GP who has witnessed the impact of increased levels of stress on people’s health over the past few years. She helped design the Small Changes self-help wellness programme that forms an important part of the new Ashia Plus subscription service from Frog Systems.
Dr Coia explains: “There has been a significant loss of social connection in the workplace as a result of the pandemic so it’s important that employees are given a helping hand. The Small Changes programmes in Ashia Plus have been developed in response to what I and my clinical colleagues see every day in our surgeries. They are not goal-based but instead focus on giving people the knowledge and courage to make small behavioural changes that will improve their mental and physical outcomes.”
Searches for help and information are anonymous on Ashia Plus, which means a business is able to link their staff to confidential support in a safe space.
Phil Worms adds, “Employees can be reluctant to admit they have a problem to their line manager or their HR team if there is one. If we are to continue to tackle the stigma around talking about our issues, we must create safe, accessible environments where people feel comfortable and confident. Ashia Plus is specifically designed to work on mobiles, tablets and PCs, by placing video and broadcast content at its core. We are deliberately delivering wellness support in a format that today’s consumers are demanding.”
Three Ashia wellbeing options
In addition to Ashia Plus, Frog Systems provides two other wellbeing solutions. Ashia Pro offers businesses and organisations with over 100 employees the opportunity to customise their content and access real-time analytics to guide their wellbeing strategy. Ashia Premium provides a bespoke platform for campaigns and causes wanting to amplify a particular mental health or wellbeing issue.
Details of the new SME businesses service and additional Ashia solutions are available at www.ashia.com
** https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/consultancy/deloitte-uk-mental-health-report-2022.pdf
