HRTech Interview with Dinesh Sheth, Founder and CEO at Green Circle Life

Dinesh, can you share a brief overview of your professional journey and how you came to establish Green Circle Life?

As the founder and CEO of Green Circle Life, I am dedicated to improving the lives of millions of people, one person at a time. This can be achieved by offering a communication and engagement platform – SmartFHR™ – that aggregates all employee-facing HR, wellness, and healthcare services into a single digital HR ecosystem. With this platform, Green Circle Life helps organisations become more productive by building a culture of health and wellbeing as their employees take advantage of their company-provided benefits and services.

Solving complex problems and building products that last a long time is something I’m passionate about and consider myself a serial entrepreneur for this reason. I’ve launched several companies and products — both domestic and off-shore — across multiple industries, including information technology, investment, financial services, and telecommunications.

Green Circle Life and the SmartFHR™ platform was created to change the paradigm of the healthcare industry and guide employers to lower healthcare costs, all while improving employee outcomes and wellbeing. It is rewarding to see employees and their families benefiting from this service. The best part of this journey is yet to unfold, but it is rewarding to work with talented people who are invested in solving big problems and creating delightful user experiences.

Looking ahead to 2024, what key trends or transformations do you foresee in the field of Human Resources, particularly in the context of employee well-being and engagement?

There are several emerging trends that HR leaders will consider in 2024. Wegovy, Zepbound and similar new weight loss drugs, which seem to have magical properties in them, are transforming healthcare due to their results. While widespread investment by employers in these drugs will not happen overnight, employers must weigh the costs and benefits of investing in these medications now because employees will demand them from their employers this year (if they have not already).

Another key consideration is that this year is a presidential election year, bringing stress, geopolitical tension, and division to the office. Every company has a diverse culture, with people from all backgrounds, political opinions, religions, and cultural factors. HR leaders will need to constantly focus on their goals of keeping company culture strong, retaining their employees, and continuing to enhance their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It is important to ensure employees are happy in their work as we navigate the stress of an election and wars that are beyond our control.

Finally, HR will be preparing their technology stack to ensure they have the platforms in place to guide their organization through changes as the acceptance, expectation and adoption of AI-powered tools continues to accelerate.

How do you believe emerging technologies will shape the future of HR practices, and what role will Green Circle Life play in supporting these advancements?

Emerging AI- and ML-powered tools have captured the attention of companies for their applications in automating tasks, reporting, communicating, and much more. Employees are only starting to use primitive AI-powered tools like ChatGPT to improve their productivity, and as more advanced integrated tools become available, more of their jobs will be automated.

Over the next couple of years, companies will focus not only on how they implement AI technology but also policy around their use in the workplace. These technologies present opportunities to automate many HR tasks, creating opportunities to deliver better benefits at a lower cost as they drive health and wellbeing at an enterprise level.

Green Circle Life has always been an enabler in the HR technology space, and as organisations look beyond point solutions for their employees and seek to gain flexibility and ease of management through automation, platforms like SmartFHR™ that engage and enable employees in times of change are going to be a key solution to address HR challenges.

As a leader, what personal strategies do you employ to stay ahead in an ever-evolving industry, and how do you ensure that Green Circle Life remains at the forefront of innovation?

Understanding the challenges that the HR industry faces is the first step in identifying important problems to solve. I read often and try to gather as much information as possible about our industry and its evolving technologies. We listen and work closely with our clients and prospects to better understand their challenges. Additionally, industry conferences, organizations like HR Tech Cube, and their publications play a vital role in bringing problems and opportunities to our attention, enabling us to refine our research and development work to meet current and future needs.

I have found that being able to understand client needs and bringing together leaders from different disciplines to solve problems has been instrumental in my professional life. These skills have led me to create successful businesses and remain at the forefront of innovation.

With a focus on employee well-being, how can organisations effectively balance the use of technology while maintaining a human-centric approach to HR practices?

Technology is an enabler, not a replacement, for a human-centric approach. Resource-constrained HR teams struggle to deliver the experiences their organizations need and employees expect. HR leaders need to anticipate employee needs and proactively deliver relevant resources that can help employees improve their experiences and engagement in the workplace. HR can leverage technology to improve their own productivity and offer tools to employees to improve their productivity.

When you create a designated digital HR ecosystem, you don’t need to flood your employees and their families with emails, flyers, newsletters or worse, text messages. With a digital ecosystem, you can deliver timely help and actionable information. This platform should be an app that improves productivity, employee health and wellbeing (and avoids a negative reputation).

What challenges do you anticipate organisations facing in the coming years, and how can they proactively address these challenges to foster a positive workplace environment?

In 2024, HR organisations must focus on maximizing the return on their investment in employee benefits and human capital overall. With inflation, the low unemployment rate and other factors driving the cost of products and services, there will be greater emphasis on cost control. Organisations will be carefully measuring the results from each provider and will be replacing vendors that do not perform.

Fortunately, a platform like SmartFHR™ can help organisations maximize their benefits usage, improve productivity, reduce attrition and absenteeism, and save millions in cost as the platform improves engagement and profitability, key factors to being leaner in 2024. Additionally, analysing the data offers a real-time view into how employees are engaging with their benefits, enabling you to deliver personalized experiences that improve their wellbeing.

With the oncoming adoption of AI-driven tools and technologies, HR leaders who control their digital ecosystem will be able to deliver results that will improve their workplace environment, just as our clients have shown with their adoption of SmartFHR™.

Can you share some specific examples of how Green Circle Life has positively impacted employee well-being and engagement within organisations?

Any well-run organisation will offer great benefits and compensation packages to their employees. However, the value of those great benefits is measured by employees’ awareness and engagement with these benefits, and more importantly, the ability to use them when needed. I can share client results from three different industries: the first is an auto parts retailer with more than 100,000 employees, the second is a regional bank with over 7,500 employees and the third is an energy company with about 5,000 employees.

Each of these three organisations has deployed SmartFHR™ and achieved high usage rates, respectively reporting rates of more than 80, 75 and 70 percent of their employee population in 2023. We have helped these employees truly engage employees and their families in their benefits as well as improve their population health. These clients have increased participation by three- to ten-fold over the past few years, and that demonstrates the power of a platform that not only delivers resources but also allows users to engage with their organisation’s resources and services.

One of our clients used another prominent HR and wellness tool in the past, but our platform has expanded its touchpoints with employees, enabling easy enrollment and onboarding of new hires, emphasizing its company culture, and improving the health and wellbeing of all employees. More than 75% of employees reported improved health and wellbeing after interacting with the SmartFHR™ platform. We have published several case studies showing results these clients have achieved using the platform.

What advice would you give HR professionals and business leaders striving to create a workplace culture that prioritises employee satisfaction and overall well-being?

Wellness benefits are not a “nice to have” anymore, they are a must-have for all employers. Employees are analysing the employer-provided mental health benefits, wellness resources and weight-loss programs for themselves and their families and will continue to compare their benefits packages with alternative options that offer the benefits they want and need.

HR leaders must be persistent when solving the problems their workforce faces, but this can be difficult to balance with the demands of a HR role. As these roles keep evolving, successful leaders will be defined as those who are change agents and prioritize employee happiness and satisfaction. Recognizing opportunities to help the organisation through innovative technology will be crucial in today’s rapidly changing environment. Technologies such as AI will be a great enabler of productivity and will allow HR to focus on preparing a technology stack that will drive employee satisfaction and wellbeing.

How important do you think adaptability is for HR professionals, and how can they cultivate a culture of adaptability within their organisations?

Between COVID-19 and remote work, AI-powered tools, and other major shifts over the last few years, HR leaders have had to be incredibly adaptable to the changing market and work force. These market shakeups are a valuable example of how important it is to be mindful of the costs, benefits, and long-run impacts of offering them to employees, as well as promoting a culture of introducing and embracing new ideas. HR leaders must constantly evaluate their strategies to ensure their technologies and ideas continue to suit organisational needs.

In conclusion, what final thoughts or key messages would you like to leave our readers with regarding the future of HR and employee well-being in the business landscape of 2024?

As benefit costs continue to rise for employers and employees, HR teams must remain focused on lowering them for both parties, maximizing the value derived from their investments and ensuring that employees are aware of their total rewards package.

It’s important to find and implement best practices to improve employee engagement, ongoing communications, retention, and benefits utilization. There is an overwhelming volume of point solutions in the wellness space, so having a central hub for all health and wellness services will bring greater usage and value from your investments. Additionally, offering resources that promote sustainable lifestyle changes increases the ROI for benefits investments by lowering health costs and improving productivity.