Michael Haddad
President, TeleSense Canada Inc.
Employees are a company’s backbone, so investing in employee health and wellness is like buying insurance. It’s just smart business.
Organizations that prioritize employee health and wellness improve employee engagement, optimize organizational productivity, and are better able to attract and retain talent.
A recent Deloitte study on workplace mental health programs revealed their significant return on investment. The report included staggering numbers on the annual cost to the Canadian economy of poor mental health in our workplaces, and concluded that there’s a moral and economic imperative for employers to take action.
A fresh approach
TeleSense is a Canadian company that’s disrupting the traditional health care system and providing employees with health care — both physical and mental — on their own terms.
Traditional employee health benefits may cover your eyeglasses or dental work, but they don’t provide the comprehensive health care that employees need. TeleSense provides on-site point of care — corporate workplace clinics with nurses and all the assessment tools required to make diagnoses — so employees can skip the walk-in clinic or long wait at their physician’s office and book appointments flexibly. It also connects employees with its specialist network as needed, and provides a telemedicine platform where employees can access their results.
TeleSense goes above and beyond the growing trend of “Uber health,” as Michael Haddad, President of TeleSense, calls it. “A video platform isn’t a medical assessment platform,” he says. “There’s a reason that we have hospitals and medical instrumentation. Apps bring convenience, but they don’t bring diagnostics for medical conditions. We actually do clinical assessments. TeleSense is a medical service, not an app.”
TeleSense’s on-site care differentiates the company, as does its proactive approach to health care. It gathers and shares important information with employers, without compromising employee privacy. “We deliver proactive alarms to employers when they have a situation with increasing mental stress at their workplace, before it becomes a problem,” says Haddad. “That feedback is important to them.”
TeleSense provides on-site point of care so employees can skip the walk-in clinic or long wait at their physician’s office and book appointments flexibly.
Benefits all around
The benefits of happy, healthy employees are many. TeleSense increases employee engagement and improves organizational productivity by reducing the number of sick days employees must take. The on-site clinics make booking appointments without having to take time off quick and easy.
TeleSense also reduces health care costs by eliminating costly emergency room visits for non-urgent problems, and saves on transportation costs by eliminating trips to doctor appointments and walk-in clinics.
TeleSense is also a major retention tool. “Today, employees are seeking the full package,” says Haddad. “This is a way for companies to differentiate themselves.”
Investment in employee health is undoubtedly good for business. Medical services like TeleSense can provide the comprehensive care employees want and employers need to reduce absenteeism, disability claims, and disengagement.
