Why Digital Well-being Is Crucial for Today’s Diverse Workforce

By The HR Research Institute, powered by HR.com

Whenthe workforce grows more diverse and multinational, a need for greater digital wellness in the workplace grows along with it. It’s important to understand why these two workplace trends progress together and how organizations can enhance the well-being of an increasingly diverse and inclusive workforce.

Remote Work Is Here to Stay

One of the main reasons for the increase in workforce diversity is remote work. It was not just a pandemicfounded concept, but COVID-19 happened to catapult it as a phenomenon. Businesses located in the Americas now have employees working from all over the world. Today, there are some virtually boundaryless organizations made up of employees with various backgrounds in terms of cultures, languages, and nationalities. Some employees don’t even have fixed locations. So-called digital nomads can work, for example, from cafés or campsites. This means that the workforce is becoming more diverse not just in terms of ethnicity, gender, or locality but also backgrounds, lifestyles, and orientations.

Organizations in the U.S. are increasingly likely to have international employees, a trend that is especially growing among small and mid-sized organizations (SMBs). A recent report states that 75% of SMBs say they plan to increase their international employee headcount over the next one to three years.

How it impacts your organization

What makes this expansion of boundaries possible?

Computers, phones, and the internet are driving work today and are bridging the proximity gap to a great extent. But with digital interventions, safety, and security concerns also appear. Data theft through public Wi-Fi hotspots, third-party websites storing personal information, and malware are just to name a few.

When the remote work culture exploded, an exceptionally pressing need for online and digital safety became crucial. When you have employees from different regions on your payroll, you are bound to face different arrays of digital threats. The kind of gadgets they use for work (PCs, Macs, desktops, phones, and tablets) face particularly unique threats as well. Certain geographical locations might be more prone to specific cyberattacks or scams than others. Different regions around the globe have different laws and regulations related to data protection, privacy, and digital rights. And, we cannot overlook the fact that user behaviors and attitudes toward cybersecurity may vary by culture. All these factors have a major impact on your organization.

What digital wellness solutions can do

A comprehensive digital wellness program can potentially address region-specific and device-specific threats. A diverse workforce, especially one that operates globally, needs to be aware of and compliant with region-specific regulations. Digital wellness programs can help educate and ensure compliance across the company for all employees.

About the Research

In this article, we allude to data from the HR Research Institute’s survey on Digital Wellness that was fielded in 2023 in partnership with McAfee, the global computer security software company. The survey had 204 respondents from a wide range of industry verticals, all of them being HR professionals from large organizations (at least 1,000 employees) in the United States.

HR.com in association with McAfee Digital Wellness™ indicate that the importance of digital wellness has increased due to employees working in remote/ hybrid work modes. In fact, our report shows that no organization disagrees with the idea that digital wellness has become more important as employees engage in such work arrangements.

A full 96% of the organizations that participated in “The Need for Digital Wellness” survey conducted by

Survey

By prioritizing digital wellness, organizations can ensure that employees have the necessary tools and resources to maintain a healthy digital workspace, manage digital distractions, and promote overall employee well-being.

Neither agree nor disagree Agree Strongly agree

Diversity Is Commonplace

Within the United States, workforces are increasingly diverse in terms of ethnicity, gender, and nationality. On the race and ethnicity front, the “White alone” population declined by 8.6% between 2010 and 2020, while the multiracial population increased by 276% and the Latino population increased by 23%. When it comes to women, although they represent about the same proportion of the U.S. workforce in 2022 as they did in 2012, they are increasingly likely to hold leadership positions. And, apart from ethnicity and gender, other diversity categories include those related to age, disability, culture, neurodiversity, and more.

Organizations are prioritizing diversity more and more because of the numerous advantages that come with it. Among these advantages are increased productivity, innovation, improved problem-solving, and fresh perspectives, all of which can improve business outcomes. Employers are tapping into the digital era that opened up after the advent of remote work and making the best possible use of it in engaging a diverse workforce.

How technology impacts your workforce

Older adults in the workforce may struggle with technology adoption, digital illiteracy, and the use of complex software and devices. They may also face physical limitations that hinder their ability to use technology effectively.

Gender and identity-related online harassment and cyberbullying are becoming prevalent among both women and men. Employees from ethnic or cultural minorities may experience online racism, xenophobia, or hate speech. They might also encounter difficulties accessing resources or services in their preferred languages.

Assistive technologies support differently-abled employees at work. Text-to-speech apps, braille converters, voice recognition software, and the like have proved to be greatly useful in making digital work easier for them. But these assisted technologies also come with threats like invasion of privacy, theft of personal data and identity, and financial exploitation. Staff with mental health issues may experience challenges related to online addiction, social media comparison, and exposure to triggering content that affects their emotional well-being.

What digital wellness solutions can offer

A complete digital wellness solution levels the playing field for all employees. They can help organizations shield all employees from security threats all the while providing opportunities to customize wellness initiatives based on individual physical and mental health status, age, gender, and race. On the other hand, employers get to learn about employee needs and wants from digital wellness solutions. Digital wellness has the potential to evolve into an important pillar of an employer’s DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) strategy.

Features like virtual private networks (VPNs), identity monitoring, identity theft protection, and real-time protection would make the most sense for a diverse workforce. The identity monitoring feature scans the dark web for the personal data of individuals. The personal data clean-up feature removes private data from websites, helps protect employee privacy, and stops identity theft.

Diversity gives back to digital wellness too

When a digital wellness solution secures a unique threat from a diverse work environment and reports back to the solution provider, it also catalyzes the R&D to design proactive and agile digital wellness products that address demographic-specific issues. So, when organizations having a global presence implement a digital wellness solution, the product would be scalable based on geography, would be offered in many languages, and would understand the threat landscape of employee’s location.

Global Organizations’ Role in Digital Wellness

Offering digital wellness as a benefit

When your employees spend a large portion of their day on various devices, digital wellness becomes as important as health, dental, and vision coverage. Offering digital wellness solutions as an employee benefit is becoming increasingly common. Nine out of ten organizations that participated in our survey say they offer a digital wellness solution either as a core employee benefit or a voluntary benefit.

But, what do they offer as part of the benefit? Even though virus/malware/ransomware removal software (60%) was the most cited digital wellness initiative organizations currently offer to their employees, education about digital wellness practices (57%), personal data clean-up (53%), device protection (51%), and identity monitoring (50%) are also being offered by many. This finding shows the level of importance and commitment organizations are placing on digital wellness.

Survey Question: What digital wellness initiatives does your organization engage in? (select all that apply)

Supply virus, malware or ransomware removal services or software

Educate employees about digital wellness best practices

Offer personal data cleanup (i.e., removes personal data from websites)

Offer device protection for employee’s work device(s)

Offer identity monitoring (e.g., scans dark web for personal data)

Offer device protection for all devices in employee’s household (including family)

Offer credit monitoring (e.g., aler ts for new credit activities, such as a new line of credit)

Educate employees how to identify phishing scams

Supply a vir tual private network ( VPN)

Restore an employee’s identity that has been stolen

We do not have any digital wellness initiatives

In addition to offering, choosing the right provider is crucial. A well-rounded digital protection solution would have your employee covered in terms of privacy, devices, and identity theft. When these features are available, employees are better protected when they access your servers from all over the world. It is important to note that while a benefit may be only the employee, these employees make an organization. When every individual employee is protected, it provides a second wall of protection for you, the organization.

Benefits specialists and HR professionals also have a critical role to play in this process. Not only must they be able to choose the right solutions, but they should also be able to track digital well-being, answer questions about initiatives, and establish related training. They should also be able to explain the features of digital wellness solutions and how employees can make the best use of them. The acceptance of any digital intervention begins with knowledge and clarity and it is the responsibility of the HR professionals and digital wellness experts to aid employees achieve that.

Educating the workforce

In almost all organizations, managers set the tone for digital well-being. Digital protection is a crucial aspect of digital wellness and employees must be made fully aware of the usefulness and importance of digital wellness solutions. Managers can help by initiating information sessions and reinforcing the training programs. To do that, they must understand the digital safety requirements of diverse employee groups and be able to suggest the most suitable digital wellness benefits. They should also be able to nurture a culture of digital well-being among the workforce and that will go a long way in creating a secure digital space for everyone to work in.

Conclusion

Greater workforce diversity and better digital well-being solutions support one another. Organizations must find the balance between accommodating the diverse needs of an increasingly global workforce and standardizing offerings so these benefit offerings can be efficiently and fairly provided.

Some actionable steps include conducting regular digital wellness surveys to understand employee challenges, investing in training modules that cater to different levels of digital literacy, and collaborating with digital wellness experts to stay updated on the latest threats and solutions. We believe organizations should also offer solutions that provide an array of protective features such as virtual private networks (VPNs), identity monitoring, identity theft protection, and real-time protection from viruses, malware, and other threats. In the end, embracing digital wellness is not just a protective measure, it's a strategic move that can enhance employee productivity, satisfaction, and overall well-being in today’s increasingly diverse and inclusive workplace.

For more information related to digital well-being, please go to McAfee Digital Wellness