ConneXionsAsia makes giving its business

Singapore

IMAGINE using your business products to help employees in companies get healthier.

That's exactly what ConneXions- Asia (CXA) does. Its business is built around transforming the employee benefits industry in the Asia-Pacific region to better encourage health and wellness in the workplace.

According to the Willis Towers Watson's 2015/2016 Staying@Work survey Asia Pacific, a sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical exercise, lack of sleep, and stress are among the top concerns for employee health and wellness in the region. Stress causes 77 per cent of people to regularly experience physical symptoms and 73 per cent to regularly experience psychological symptoms globally.

Companies currently spend US$300 billion annually in stress-related healthcare and missed work. These healthcare costs are projected to increase over the next three years. According to Mercer's Asia Pacific Total Health and Choice Benefits 2011 Survey Report, the top three drivers for promoting health and wellness in the workplace are productivity, performance, and talent retention. Though health and wellbeing programmes offered by employers in the region have seen some progress, the effort has not necessarily translated to success.

This is where CXA comes in. It sees itself as a social impact company where giving is its business. CXA helps organisations to unlock wellness in the workplace by shifting the focus of employee benefits from treatment to prevention and disease control. Companies' insurance budgets are converted into a fixed amount for each employee to personalise his own benefits. Employees can decide how they want to spend this fixed sum allocated by their employers. In doing so, CXA helps reduce long-term healthcare costs and premium inflation while improving employee health.

Now, imagine using these business products to help employees give too. CXA has begun exploring a feature to allow employees to make a donation with their remaining flexible dollars at the end of each year.

Said CXA founder and CEO Rosaline Chow Koo: "Giving is one of the best ways to enhance feelings of wellbeing. Studies prove that the more we give, the happier we become. Giving promotes cooperation and social connections. Every act of giving has the power to create a ripple effect that can change the world."

A founding member of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre's (NVPC) Company of Good initiative, CXA is not only making a social impact on the health and wellness of working adults; it is also working to facilitate charitable donations by enabling peers to give better and more holistically.