Digital Wellbeing

Wellbeing has lately become such an important agenda for companies around the world. People have started to be more open about mental health and it has become a priority for organisations to create a wellness space where people feel safe to share their challenges and to ask for support. Wellbeing is fundamental to our health, and it enables us to achieve what we want in life.

There is an area that is still overlooked and that is digital wellbeing.

Digital wellbeing refers to the impact of technologies and digital services on people’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Technology is now an integral part of everything that we do and sometimes can distract us from the things that matter the most. It seems that sometimes we forget that technology should improve our life.

At DDC we are striving to find a balance with technology that feels right for our colleagues and clients. We want to create a digital workplace designed to improve productivity and engagement. We encourage everyone to adopt healthy technology habits. Furthermore, our focus is on delivering quality data and to ensure that the information we provide doesn’t create digital information overload for our valued clients.

How is technology affecting you?

• It decreases productivity through the constant stream of notifications
• Technology has facilitated an environment where employees are expected to be always contactable and accessible – this had a major impact on the life- work balance
• Poor sleep from long exposure to blue screen light
• Face to face interactions is being neglected
• It creates addictions as technology, especially smartphone trigger the reward system in our brain
• Constant use of technology leads to mental health issues

DDC’s strategy to digital wellbeing

• We encourage our stakeholders to be aware of their digital habits
• We have established guidelines and restrictions and implemented software architecture tools to encourage healthier technology habits
• We encourage employee to respect each other’s time by limiting non-essential communications – the overload of communication we receive on a daily basis, especially emails, creates unnecessary work stress
• We keep an eye on new trends and ensure we are using the right platforms for essential communications
• We avoid meeting fatigue – video calls, that have a clear purpose can be time-saving, however they can be tiring and this is why we keep our meetings short, to the point and only when needed
• We respect Colleagues Status – There are digital tools we use that allow users to set when they are available or busy. We encourage everyone to respect when co-workers are busy. This allows people to concentrate on a task without distractions
• We provide good ergonomics equipment– the amount of time we spend sitting our screens places stress on our muscles and natural posture
• We provide quality data to our clients that supports them to make, quick, accurate and informed decisions.
• We provide digital wellbeing training to help staff to focus on the risks and benefits of their own behaviour with technology

Digital wellbeing brings a holistic perspective to health and wellbeing as it blends physiological wellbeing with mental wellbeing. We all depend on the technology and organisations are no longer able to ignore the impact of digital wellbeing on their employees and clients. We encourage all our stakeholders to build digital capabilities, to start preventing digital overloading and to emphasise the importance of caring for people in an “always on” era.