Customer story: Heltti is more than a flu clinic for Hellon

“Occupational health has never before in my career been such an important and close part of my work. Heltti is always on top of the well-being of Hellon’s employees. Our Heltti team knows Hellon and Hellonians inside and out and can therefore help us in a profound and preventive way. And when you’re this close, it’s easier to contact about delicate matters too.”

– Karoliina Lehtonen, Hellon’s Operations and People person

Hellon’s 40+ staff is a tough crowd when it comes to using services. When your daily job is to create the world’s best customer experiences, your occupational healthcare provider can’t be a regular disinfectant-smelling clinic. Heltti has been helping Hellonians stay healthy ever since Heltti was founded in 2014 and introduced its revolutionary way of producing and experiencing occupational healthcare services.

Over the years Heltti’s model has proven successful and the company has been chosen as Europe’s best workplace in the health sector. Hellon, a pioneer in service design, has grown to be the most awarded agency in its field with customers, such as Pepsico, Vodafone, SiljaTallink, Yara, HSL, Tesco, Bank of Ireland, Mandatum and the Finnish government. Not a bad journey Heltti and Hellon have taken together!

Heltti’s services complemented with health insurance

n the beginning of 2020, Hellon moved to a new model that Heltti was offering: Heltti complemented by health insurance. The new model means that Heltti is the main organizer of occupational healthcare and it’s responsible for preventive care and health guidance, mental health services and general practitioner’s services remotely. With the help of the health insurance, illnesses and health problems needing a physical visit are taken care of by Heltti’s partner network around Finland.

Heltti is always the first point of contact for Hellonials, no matter what the issue, be it renewing a prescription, coping with stress, a physical ailment or questions about where to have a COVID test done. Often the issue is resolved over the phone or in MyHeltti, Heltti’s online service, without having to physically go anywhere. In fact, 76% of all health matters at Heltti were already before COVID handled remotely on the phone or in the online chat.

“Heltti is an integral part of our organization, an important support pillar and safety network. It’s easy to seek for advice and help in all health matters”

Preventive and mental health care with Heltti, medical treatment with clinic partners

Even though ¾ issues can be resolved remotely, sometimes you need to go the doctor’s. If Heltti’s professionals find that a Hellonian needs to see a doctor in person, they give a referral to the right doctor covered by health insurance.

“This combo of Heltti and insurance is very employee-friendly, it’s not complex and technical as insurances often are. Hellonians have a clear path: we always contact Heltti first and either the issue is resolved there or if there’s a need to see a specialist in person, then we have a wide network of clinic partners and Heltti can refer to the right one. When we visit a clinic partner, we always take the insurance card or at least the insurance number with us. This Hellonians now know by heart: always first contact Heltti and take the insurance card with you when visiting a partner clinic,” says Lehtonen.

Karoliina Lehtonen shares a real-life example: she had had back pain for some time and contacted Heltti. Heltti referred her to a private clinic, which was proactive and called Karoliina to book an appointment for an examination. Finally, her back was fixed at hospital, which specializes in musculoskeletal disorders. All this took less than two weeks and Karoliina says the process couldn’t have been smoother.

A colleague of Karoliina had an eye infection but they didn’t need to go to the doctor’s as they got the help they needed via Heltti’s online service MyHeltti. They sent a picture of the infected eye and the doctor was able to assess the situation and prescribe medication remotely.

“Hellonians are quite used to not having to go to the doctor’s anymore. Heltti is an integral part of our organization, an important support pillar and safety network. It’s easy to seek for advice and help in all health matters. We have medical care on our speed dial if you will. It  makes us feel safe.”

Why a combination of occupational health care provider and insurance?

Buying all occupational healthcare services from one company wasn’t even an option at Hellon. Or only having health insurance. Why not?

“I fear that relying solely on the health insurance would result in a mess of referrals. And no one would see the bigger picture if employees use different places on their own.”

Lehtonen also believes that without Heltti, people would wait until they are sick, not preventively seek help. Moreover, people would most likely seek less mental care if it was solely up to the employee to make an effort to arrange it.

“Heltti is the driving force behind us. And as I said earlier, they are well aware of what we need as knowledge workers. In addition, Heltti’s fixed-fee system makes sure Heltti has an incentive to keep us healthy,” Lehtonen lists reasons for choosing the combo of Heltti and health insurance.

“Heltti’s help is an irreplaceable part of our growth story”

Burnout is a work accident of today

Heltti focuses on the occupational health care and well-being services of knowledge workers. The founders of Heltti felt that the traditional occupational health care system didn’t meet today’s office workers’ needs: the #1 reason today for sickness allowances are mental health problems, exhaustion and burnout. This is why Heltti has designed its services for knowledge workers right from the start.

Typically with Heltti’s model, the number of visits to the doctor decreases by 55-65% and the share of health care costs for medical care declines to about 35%, whereas preventive care rises to 65%. Thanks to Heltti’s fixed monthly fee, a healthy employee is in Heltti’s interests and therefore the focus is on preventive care.

“Hellon is a 10-year-old organization and as the individuals, also the company itself has matured as our strategy is sharper and targets are more ambitious. Going through this change, it’s important for us to have a partner that understands us and is a good fit for people whose most important work tool is their head. We’ve recently hired 10 new people and will hire another 10 later this year. Heltti’s help is an irreplaceable part of our growth story,” Lehtonen summarizes.

“Before Heltti my relationship with occupational health care providers was very distant and there was no real interaction. This is different now.”

Heltti is a part of Hellon’s HR

As mentioned earlier, Heltti and Hellon work closely together and Heltti’s team knows Hellon’s organization and its people, the way creative people work and the strengths and challenges of the company. The company-level data shows clearly how the company and its people are doing. However, the key point with knowing each other is that it’s easier to look behind the numbers.

“I can just call our own nurse at Heltti, go through some issue and they know exactly what I’m talking about. I also get personal coaching from an experienced occupational psychologist. I’m extremely satisfied with Heltti’s preventive services and the coaching. Because they know us so well, I can trust they focus on the right things at the right time. Before Heltti my relationship with occupational health care providers was very distant and there was no real interaction. This is different now.”

Hellonians job is to design human-centric services and that requires a lot of brainwork, which can strain the mind. In addition to adding that human aspect to customers’ services, the human is in the centre of Hellon’s own practices and the well-being of employees. The empathic company culture makes it easy to talk regularly and publicly about how people are doing. Hellon also encourages people to contact Heltti’s psychologists sooner rather than later – it pays off to seek help preventively.

“I’m confident that without this type of cooperation we have with Heltti, our sick leave numbers would be higher. For example, during the pandemic, we haven’t had a spike in sick leaves.”

Hellon www.hellon.com
Founded: 2009
Employees (2021): 40
Revenue (2019): 4,2 miljoonaa euroa
Customers: HSL, Yara, Pepsico, City of Helsinki, Volkswagen, Vodafone

Read more Heltti’s customer stories