PSP Investments | Case Study

In 2019, PSP Investments, was looking for an add-on to their health benefits plan that would suit the fast-paced reality of their workforce. Their key goal was to ensure that all employees had quick and easy access to the resources they needed so that they could proactively take care of their health and well-being. Another objective was to ensure that the service provider they chose was aligned with their vision of becoming a more data-driven and digital workplace.

Challenge

Provide employees with a wide range of easily accessible, fully-integrated health benefits to accommodate the fast-paced lifestyle of PSP employees and their families
Find a service provider that aligned with PSP’s data-driven and digital workplace vision

Solution

Implement Dialogue’s core programs (primary care, mental health, and EAP) incrementally, eventually offering the entire suite of Dialogue’s Integrated Health Platform (IHP)

About PSP Investments

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments ) is one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers with $204.5 billion of net assets under management as of March 31, 2021. It manages a diversified global portfolio composed of investments in public financial markets, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources and credit investments. Established in 1999, PSP Investments manages and invests amounts transferred to it by the Government of Canada for the pension plans of the federal Public Service, the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Reserve Force. Headquartered in Ottawa, PSP Investments has its principal business office in Montréal and offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. For more information, visit investpsp.com or follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn.

As an organization with a very fast-paced work environment and with a desire to continuously deliver a best-in-class employee experience, PSP wanted to make sure that their employees could have quick and trusted access to professional medical support whenever they needed it.

Many employees have young families and children at home who also require access to health resources. It was important to support them so that they manage their time more efficiently and provide them with the tools that offered faster and more catered response (either concerning employees themselves or their dependents).

One of PSP’s guiding principles is to ensure that their benefits plans are as integrated as possible and that data is kept completely confidential, thus choosing trustworthy partners who can play a part in helping them achieve that goal. In this instance, they were looking for a healthcare provider who would align with their company vision.

Following a successful trial run of Dialogue’s primary care program in 2019, PSP had already planned to fully implement Dialogue’s primary care services within their entire workforce in April 2020. The rollout of the primary care program to all PSP employees happened to coincide with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Dialogue’s medical team of general practitioners, nurse practitioners, and nurse clinicians were available to help treat PSP employees and support a wide range of non-urgent health concerns through our virtual platform, saving them a trip to a walk-in clinic.

Dialogue played a crucial role in the well-being of many
PSP employees during this unexpected time, only further
validating PSP’s decision to launch Dialogue in the first place.

2019 Primary care program

2020 Mental health program

2021 Employee assistance
program (EAP)

Dialogue’s IHP: A preventative, actionable solution

With the primary care program proving to be a huge success, PSP decided to offer Dialogue’s suite of programs offered through the integrated health program (IHP) and launched the mental health program in October 2020, followed by Dialogue’s employee assistance program (EAP) in March 2021.

Having all three programs centralized in one place for employees emphasized one main benefit in particular: prevention. “Our employees feel that it’s easier to eliminate certain worries or stress that they may be experiencing,” Olivier Ouellet, Director of Benefits and Wellness at PSP Investments says. “Instead of postponing their in-person trip to the doctor’s office to get an issue checked out, PSP employees now turn to Dialogue instead”.

By bringing together the three core programs on Dialogue’s all-in-one platform, this one-stop-shop approach to employee health benefits eliminated any confusion employees had around which service provider they needed for whichever issue they had. Instead, it became very simple: access Dialogue to help solve any primary care, mental health, or work-life balance issue they are seeking help with. Above all else, PSP appreciates how simple it is to use Dialogue’s platform.

“It’s digital, easy to use, and there are follow-ups afterwards,” Ouellet says. “This is an experience that people will remember, and that’s what we want. When we’re able to make our benefits programs modern and distinctive, it’s a win-win for everyone.” And by creating a memorable care experience, employees easily recall their access to Dialogue when an issue arises in the future.

Introducing Dialogue's reimagined EAP

During a Dialogue client advisory board event in 2019, Ouellet had brought up the fact that many companies, including PSP, would like to offer an integrated platform to their employees to support them for all health and well-being matters. It was thanks to influential perspectives such as PSP’s that Dialogue built a reimagined EAP experience that resolves client pain points of traditional employee assistance programs.

With the satisfaction of clients such as PSP in mind, Dialogue launched their EAP in late 2020, and by March 2021 PSP had officially swapped out their former employee assistance program for Dialogue’s new and improved offering. Dialogue’s EAP proudly offers a clear offering and reliable support through a convenient, virtual experience. With rapid in-app consultation booking, employees can now easily access specialized, continuous support for work-life balance issues from Dialogue’s team  of non-clinical specialists, including legal advisors, financial professionals and career counsellors.

A key focus on mental health accessibility

“We kept seeing headlines in the news mentioning how difficult it is, even through private practices, to secure an appointment with a psychologist,” says Ouellet. For PSP, the main advantage of Dialogue's mental health program was the easy accessibility to resources that are otherwise so difficult to find. With Dialogue, PSP employees now have quick access to mental health specialists, general practitioners, nurse practitioners, therapists, and case managers to provide support for stress and mental health concerns.

Results

A simplified, data-driven experience for HR

The modular nature of adding Dialogue’s integrated health platform made administration easier for HR and simplified communication of new programs to employees, since all employees members were already familiar with Dialogue. This made the onboarding process much smoother than it would have been in the case of introducing an entirely new platform.

Whenever it did come time to introduce one of Dialogue’s new programs company-wide, HR took a teaser approach. Around 2-3 weeks prior to program launch, they made a point to create a “teaser effect” by hinting that a new module (program) would be made available to employees soon. Coupled with Dialogue’s own onboarding initiatives, messaging reiterating what is accessible was also issued, reminding employees of the resources at their fingertips and keeping Dialogue top of mind in time for the new program launch.

Dialogue’s transparent reporting of program success also happened to perfectly align with PSP’s goal of becoming a more data-driven, fully-integrated organization. Being able to track and record metrics of Dialogue’s programs offered PSP new ways to measure employee well-being and determine just how well Dialogue is performing among staff.

Dialogue’s mental health program has also resulted in a notable 11x ROI* for PSP. Moreover, when employees were asked how much time they would typically spend away from work for a doctor’s appointment, the general response was around 4.5 hours. “It’s made it extremely easy to demonstrate how Dialogue can bring about a positive ROI for us,” says Ouellet.

Additionally, all of the organization’s current platforms and their processes are managed digitally, therefore Dialogue blends in seamlessly with their digital approach to work.

“For us, Dialogue was completely aligned with PSP’s company’s vision and with our technological point of view,” Ouellet says.

*Based on Dialogue's calculations of cost savings

Since implementing Dialogue’s services, there has been a 60% utilization rate among employees. This high level of utilization has also led to a 35% improvement in anxiety, 40% improvement in depression, and an 91% all time average satisfaction score.

The continuity of care that Dialogue offers has been a key factor in why PSP employees have responded so warmly to its services. Employees love that they don’t have to retell the story around their concerns more than once. Because Dialogue’s multidisciplinary care team works from the same platform, all medical staff can access a member’s patient record, which creates a seamless process towards recovery.

“Employees believe that Dialogue is really a one-stop shop and that they can access all the support they need in one place, even if they encounter different Dialogue medical staff along the way. I think that’s what our employees appreciate the most,” Ouellet says.

Olivier Ouellet

Director of Benefits and Wellness at PSP Investments

The fact that Dialogue is regarded as a one-stop shop reduces uncertainty and confusion around where employees can go to seek help. Ouellet mentioned that in the case of a divorce, for example, PSP employees may require both psychological support and legal counsel, and with Dialogue, employees can book an appointment with a mental health specialist and a legal advisor from a single platform.

How Dialogue simplifies both the PSP employee
and HR experiences

Employee advantages

Continuity of care – shared patient information means not having to repeat their stories with multiple healthcare professionals, and follow-ups to ensure a path to recovery
Employees are able to proactively take care of their health thanks to Dialogue’s easily accessible services
Helps families a lot – many employees with young children and families at home who are also taking advantage of these services
91% satisfaction rate and NPS score of 74 among employees who expect a high standard from their employer
Time saved – employees save an average of 4.5 hours with Dialogue

Organizational advantages

Employees know they have one place to check for all their general and mental health concerns
Actionably demonstrates that PSP is committed to playing a role in making their employees’ family lives as healthy and happy as possible
Easy to add and communicate new programs  to staff
11X ROI and over $660,000 saved in disability costs and presenteeism savings for the mental health program

Help Centre

Elevating PSP Investments’ employee well-being in
Canada with Dialogue’s
Integrated Health Platform™

Challenge

Solution

Results

About PSP Investments

Challenge

As an organization with a very fast-paced work environment and with a desire to continuously deliver a best-in-class employee experience, PSP wanted to make sure that their employees could have quick and trusted access to professional medical support whenever they needed it.

Solution