Just Ask Max, a new digital wellbeing service, has been launched to lead the response in helping to improve the ‘digital health’ of employees. The platform believes the UK is poised to be next in adopting the new ‘Right to Disconnect’ regulation sweeping across the Europe, and says digital health is quickly emerging as the fourth segment of employee wellbeing, adding to financial, physical and emotional wellbeing.
Many countries around the globe have been working on the best way to implement an effective right to disconnect legislation by either putting a cap on the workday or workweek or limiting communication outside of working hours. Both options are meant to help and protect employees from any repercussions if they choose to switch off. Following pressure from the Labour Party and other MPs across the UK this could become law later this year.
A Monster survey from 2020 found 69 per cent of remote workers are already experiencing burnout symptoms and with four to five times more people working remotely expected post-pandemic (McKinsey, 2021), supporting people’s digital lives is set to become a significant area of growth in 2021. Over the last year, UK employees have been given greater workloads and are logged on an extra two hours each day whilst working remotely (NordVPN, 2021) as the lines between personal and professional space have become blurred.
Jonny Pelter, Just Ask Max’s founder and CEO, said: “The ‘Right to Disconnect’ is so important to employees across the UK as the pandemic has accelerated remote working and this has had a huge impact on our work life balance. Employers already have a duty of care to do more to understand and promote digital welfare in the workplace but having a legislation will ensure that all businesses change to protect their employees.”
The Just Ask Max platform helps employees use technology in a safer, more secure and healthier way. Employees can get their home devices protected, protect their wider family online, assess their digital well-being, learn healthier tech habits, understand how to work from home productively and get personalised support direct from a community of experts when something goes wrong.
The launch of the platform comes as the business world adapts to the new normal and many businesses across the UK announce hybrid models with staff working from home for the majority of the time. The acceleration of remote working during the pandemic, the mental wellbeing issues that have arisen, and the emergence of ‘digital burnout’ has all acted as a catalyst for a need by employers to support their people’s digital health.
“Employers are finding that existing mental health support mechanisms are able to treat the symptoms of issues like digital burnout, but not address the source of the problem directly,” adds Pelter. “Our service is different to anything currently available – we’re moving away from the product-based ‘point solution’ that is dropped into an organisation (and often then just left) and towards a service-based model where we combine technology, engagement activity and wellbeing workshops to provide continued support over time.”
Just Ask Max has a highly expert team of behavioural science, cyber security, psychologists and digital well-being advisers as part of its growth plans in the corporate market.
