GesA tool identifies job demands and resources of employees at work and promotes direct interventions on individual and team level: a strong tool for mental health promotion at work.
GesA is one tool by Kauffeld & Lorenzo, developed also through a cooperation with us, WATA Factory. It is an acronym that stands for GESundes Arbeiten, which translates to healthy working. In this article, we will delve into more detail to explore what the tool can accomplish and how it can assist businesses in developing their employees in a healthy manner.
Today’s working world places increasingly higher demands on employees and managers. Health problems and mental illnesses are on the rise, leading, among other things, to absenteeism from work. This makes the identification of both requirements and resources in the workplace a new central concern for executives and company management.
At the same time, it is evident that measures taken are often not planned in a targeted manner and cannot be established in the long term, but rather implemented sporadically following a “scattergun approach.” However, the greatest benefit can only be achieved when measures are individualized: Without a specific analysis and corresponding measures, interventions implemented in a scattergun manner are not efficient. Analyzing individual and team requirements and resources is time-consuming, and feedback is usually not provided at an individual level, which significantly impacts employees’ motivation to participate in such analyses over the long term. That is the point where GesA can come into play and help companies.
What is GesA?
This tool conducts diagnostics for resources and demands of employees at work and promotes interventions to enhance the current state, thereby promoting their health and job satisfaction. By combining an app, an action wiki, and a dashboard, companies using GesA can optimize the health management for their workers on three levels.
- First, for their employees: The GesA app enables your employees to independently identify and analyze personal resources and demands in their work environment using a scientifically validated questionnaire (Schulte et al., 2021). Based on this, they receive individual, behavior-based measures for improving their own state. They can always decide for themselves whether and which results they want to share anonymously with the company or their supervisor in order to initiate changes in their work environment.
- Second, on the manager level: The voluntarily and anonymously shared app results are presented in a web-based dashboard, allowing managers to evaluate and analyze the situation in their areas of responsibility. With the help of the comprehensive GesA wiki, they can derive measures related to given conditions and gain comprehensive information on the topic of health-oriented leadership behavior.
- Third, the company management: The web-based dashboard allows company management to access the voluntarily and anonymously shared app results at any time and stay informed about the current status in their company. Through a filtering function, the results can be easily output according to predefined criteria. This enables potentials and changes in the company to be understood even faster and suitable measures to be planned accordingly.
Why use GesA?
Mental health is becoming increasingly important for leading companies, as the number of mental illnesses in the workplace context is rising, and the number of well-educated workers in the job market is decreasing. We observe a trend and see that it is time to think preventively, to protect employees, and thus increase their commitment to your company. Additionally, laws and recommendations like the ESG criteria are becoming stricter. A professional solution to meet these external obligations and to advocate for the mental health of employees is provided by the GesA tool. This approach, with a scientifically validated questionnaire for diagnostics and direct feedback, combined with interventions on an individual but also on a systematic team level, is unique.
Strong features of GesA
This tool offers a comprehensive solution for managing the health of your workforce, specifically targeting work-related psychological factors. It consolidates various aspects of health management into a single platform, streamlining processes for your company. One of the key features of this tool is its scientifically validated analysis of demands and resources.
The involvement of employees in the health management process is prioritized. Through individual evaluation, immediate feedback, and tailored measures generated by its algorithm, this tool ensures that each team member receives personalized support. This approach not only addresses the needs of individual employees but also enhances overall workplace well-being. Furthermore, this platform caters to both individual and team levels of health management. It offers an extensive information pool comprising behavioral and contextual measures to improve working conditions and promote the health of employees and managers alike.
Integration is seamless with this tool, whether it be with existing measures within your company or external resources. It understands the importance of accommodating company-specific preferences and allows for customization to meet your unique needs. Finally, this tool includes robust evaluation features to reflect changes and trend measurements over time. This enables you to track progress and make informed decisions to further enhance your company’s health management strategies.
WATA Factory has played a pivotal role in the development of GesA, harnessing our deep expertise in software development and steadfast commitment to employee well-being. With our specialization in a variety of programming languages, we’ve tailored GesA to precisely address the nuanced demands of modern workplaces. As we continue to grow, GesA stands as a testament to the tangible results that collaboration, innovation and a commitment to employee well-being can bring about.
Want to know more?
If this post made you curious do not hesitate to visit the website of the GesA App. Furthermore, you can, at any time, contact Dr. Julia Straube (j.straube@kauffeld-lorenzo.de) directly. An online meeting can clarify further questions or requests. They are happy to help. It is time to take mental health more seriously. Let’s do that together.
