FIRST DIGITAL WELL-BEING EMPLOYEE BENEFIT LAUNCHED IN THE UK

Just Ask Max, a new digital well-being platform and support service, has been launched to manage the digital health of employees, with homeworking set to continue in a major way as Covid-19 is brought under control in the UK.

The development comes following the news that nearly all of Britain’s biggest 50 firms plan a flexible work-from-home model following the Covid lockdown[1] and that remote workers do more unpaid overtime than those who go into an office[2]. Official figures show home workers do an average of six hours of unpaid overtime per week, compared with 3.6 hours for office workers, compounded as the lines between personal and professional space have become blurred.

Jonny Pelter, Just Ask Max’s founder and CEO, said: “The acceleration of remote working during the pandemic plus the physical and mental well-being issues that have arisen as a consequence, has acted as the catalyst for employers to start looking after the ‘digital health’ of employees. Our service is different to anything currently available and is designed to help employees and their families use technology in a safe, secure and healthy way.”

Through the Just Ask Max platform, employees can get their home devices protected, assess their digital well-being, learn how they can change their behaviours for heathier tech habits, understand how they can protect their wider family online, how to work from home productively without losing focus to digital distractions and stay safe when working online to ensure they don’t become victims of the ever increasing sophisticated scams that can affect the security of the organisations they work for.

In addition, the platform provides the added value benefit of providing wider expert advice to support the safety of their families when using digital devices – from laptops to smartphones. In addition to the platform, Just Ask Max’s service also includes a range of workshops run by digital well-being experts.

Jonny added: “We help workforces avoid digital burnout so they can enjoy a healthier relationship with technology. While financial, physical and emotional well-being have long been on the HR agenda, employers and their HR directors now have a duty of care to do more to understand and promote digital welfare in the workplace given the changes to the ways we are now working as a result of the last 12 months.

“The pandemic has normalised remote working however, Zoom fatigue has already been well documented, so much so that HSBC has announced the pilot of Zoom-free Fridays[3]. Digiholics are the new workaholics, as employees are increasingly ‘always on’ with the demarcation between home and work having become indistinct.”

Just Ask Max has a highly expert team of behavioural science, cyber security, psychologists and digital wellbeing advisers as part of its growth plans in the business market.