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Why and How Leaders Should Improve the Digital Health of Employees?

Technology is a double-edged sword in the current digital work systems for employees. On one hand, it can enhance their productivity, communication, and collaboration. On the other hand, it can also cause them to experience burnout, fatigue, and stress. Since employee well-being has been a strategic priority for all ethical leaders, this warrants leaders monitoring employees' digital health (while not interfering with employees' personal lives) to avoid experiencing digital fatigue, anxiety, or tech addiction to improve health and wellness outcomes. Digital health for employees encompasses the strategic application of technology to enhance the workforce's physical and mental well-being, aiming to improve health outcomes. Five tips can help strategic leaders leverage a digital workplace to achieve competitive advantage.

Tip 1: Set clear boundaries with realistic expectations for digital communications: Leaders should communicate with their employees about using digital tools like email, instant messaging, video conferencing, and social media. They should establish clear guidelines for when and how to use these tools, and respect the employees' preferences, and work-life balance. For example, leaders should avoid sending or expecting urgent responses to emails or messages outside of work hours, unless it is absolutely essential. This can help reduce the stress and pressure that employees may feel from constant digital communication and allow them to have a better work-life balance.

Tip 2: Encourage periodic breaks from digital devices:  Leaders should encourage their employees to take regular breaks from digital devices and engage in offline activities that can enhance their physical and mental health, such as exercise, meditation, hobbies, or socialising. Leaders should also model this behaviour by taking digital breaks themselves and sharing their offline experiences with their employees.

Tip 3: Ongoing check-ins: Conduct regular one-on-one or team check-ins to assess the well-being of employees. Use these opportunities to discuss workload, challenges, and areas where digital support can be improved. Leaders can foster a sense of belonging among their teams by starting each meeting with a personal check-in, where everyone can share how they are feeling, what they are grateful for, or what they need help with.

Tip 4: Foster a supportive environment that values breaks and downtime: Encourage employees to step away from their screens during breaks to foster healthier social relations with colleagues. Ensure employees have easy access to support resources, such as IT help desks, mental health resources, employee assistance programs (EAP), and other support services, to address any digital or personal challenges they may face.

Tip 5: Constant monitoring of the digital health of employees and seeking feedback to tailor support services:

While not intruding on privacy, leaders should monitor and evaluate the digital health of their employees and the organisation using various indicators, such as digital usage, productivity, satisfaction, engagement, well-being, and performance. Leaders should also solicit employee feedback about their digital health experiences, and identify the strengths and areas for improvement. This can help leaders understand the impact of digital health on their employees and the organisation and make informed decisions and adjustments to optimise digital health outcomes.

The above five strategies can help leaders look after the digital health of employees to improve their performance, and job satisfaction and foster a digital-ready culture and organisation.





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