Workplace Health is Not Well
How many workplace wellness programs have you seen launch with much fanfare, only to fizzle out within months?
I've seen plenty, including programs I was responsible for!
Australian organisations invest billions into workplace health and wellbeing initiatives, yet most CHROs and Health Advisors struggle to demonstrate meaningful impact.
It's not a lack of good intentions that makes it hard; it's the challenge of combining meaningful health insights with evidence-based strategy.
Let's take a quick pulse check.
McKinsey and World Economic Forum research indicate an economic impact of $1,100 to $3,300 per worker through improved health.
Productivity losses from mental health conditions alone is $39 billion.
Yet 4 out of 5 workplace health programs fail to deliver measurable ROI.
Why this disconnect?
Most programs rely on generic approaches, opinion-led content, and annual surveys that can't capture real behavioural change.
TENSH is here to change that.
We partner with workplace health specialists to give them the insights and tools to amplify their impact and deliver high-ROI, evidence-based solutions.
How TENSH Works: Three Game-Changing Components
TENSH has three integrated components that work together to transform workplace health. Each is based on years of knowledge, experience, and insights from both successful and unsuccessful programs.
The TENSH App: Personalised Behaviour Change That Actually Works
The TENSH app is the centre of our platform - a worker's personal health coaching and accountability tool that builds awareness of high-impact health habits with personalised behaviour change support.
TENSH’s Main Features
TENSH Tracker: monitor high-impact habit adherence in seconds daily
TENSH Score: proprietary health score that measures progress and adherence
Traffic Light Report: review seven-day habit performance compared to population health guidelines
Personalised Education: recommended modules and knowledge checks based on actual habit performance
WHO-5 Wellbeing: research-validated tool to monitor wellbeing every 14 days.
The TENSH app is free to download and works on any device. Anyone can use it, whether their organisation uses TENSH or not.
Here's why this matters: we were tired of seeing workplace wellness apps selected based on cost rather than effectiveness, so we made a genuinely good one available for free.
Healthy Takeaway
Free access removes cost barriers while evidence-based habits and real-time tracking drive sustainable behaviour change, giving you employee engagement without budget constraints.
Organisational Reporting: Data-Driven Decision Making That Protects Privacy
A user-friendly workplace health app is great, but it's not revolutionary. We agree, but our Organisational Reporting Platform is.
TENSH has developed a Privacy-First Framework that enables workers to share de-identified, aggregated data in organisational reports voluntarily. This lets you understand workforce health gaps without compromising individual privacy.
How it works
Workers opt in to contribute using a QR code to join their organisation
De-identified data exports into your organisation's report
No identifiable or individual data is ever provided to the organisation.
Why would workers share data?
We thought about that a lot. Here’s our take:
Enables more targeted, relevant programs
More secure and actionable than traditional wellbeing surveys
Maintains complete anonymity while contributing to organisational insights.
The result?
You can identify specific health challenges, such as sedentary behaviour patterns, and then develop targeted interventions, measuring results at 3- or 6-month intervals with real behavioural change data.
Healthy Takeaway
Privacy-first data sharing transforms guesswork into targeted interventions, enabling you to measure actual behavioural change rather than survey opinions.
Organisational Content: Evidence-Based Education That Saves You Hours
Data-driven insights reveal where to focus your efforts. Now you need effective interventions.
TENSH Organisational Content streamlines content development and ensures organisationally aligned health communications.
Creating health content is the most time-consuming part of a health SME's role. You have to research, write, edit, get approval, and hope it resonates with employees.
TENSH Organisational Content includes:
Comprehensive habit breakdowns: deep-dive content for each of the ten TENSH habits
Chronic condition education: engaging content covering Australia's ten most prevalent chronic conditions
Annual health guide: 12-month calendar with key health events, monthly trends, and suggested program themes
Health insights: communication frameworks for leaders and managers, ensuring alignment with evidence-based content
The game-changer: all content aligns with the TENSH app. A manager can discuss a Health Insight talking point, and workers can learn more or track that habit within the app immediately.
This saves Health Advisors hours each month by removing the need to research, draft, edit, and submit content for approval.
Instead, you can deliver or tailor existing evidence-based content and spend more time doing what you do best: developing health initiatives tailored to local needs.
Healthy Takeaway
Evidence-based content libraries save you 10+ hours monthly while ensuring consistent, research-validated health communications across your organisation.
Why TENSH Was Built: Same Challenges Across Organisations
Many workplace health programs are well-intentioned but poorly supported. Sound familiar?
Here's the typical health program lifecycle:
Identify a problem that could benefit from a health program
Find an executive sponsor who likes the business case
Receive funding and launch with enthusiasm
Struggle to demonstrate ROI due to complex metrics with multiple inputs
Identify program improvements requiring additional funding
Lose executive support due to a lack of clear ROI from the previous program
The program continues with no additional funding, support, or measurable outcomes
If you're a health advisor or CHRO, you probably feel seen right now. It's a scenario I've encountered countless times.
The circular argument:
Executives say worker health is an individual responsibility, not organisational
Health advisors say executives need to support strategic health priorities
Both points are valid, but nothing changes
I wanted to build a solution that addresses both parties' pain points and enables each hypothesis to be tested with real data.
My belief: TENSH empowers health advisors to develop programs tailored to their workers' actual needs and demonstrate efficacy through user-generated behavioural data.
Full transparency: The TENSH platform could show that some workplace health programs have minimal impact or negative ROI. This is low-probability given the volume of evidence supporting workplace health interventions, but it's possible. At least then you'd know with certainty.
The Bottom Line: Evidence-Based Health That Works
TENSH enables organisations to identify actual health risks and support workers in developing high-impact, sustainable health habits.
What makes us different:
Evidence-based foundation: every habit aligns with national health guidelines and peer-reviewed research
Behaviour change support: track actual habits, not opinions about habits
Privacy-first approach: meaningful organisational insights without compromising individual privacy
Integrated solution: app, reporting, and content work seamlessly together
The result? You move from expensive guesswork to evidence-driven health programs that demonstrably improve employee wellbeing while delivering measurable ROI.
Ready to break the cycle of well-intentioned programs that can't prove their worth?
We are seeking organisations and workplace health advisors to participate in our pilot program in August. If either of these sounds like you, reach out via DM or the TENSH website:
→ Startups, SMEs and NFPs with 10-100 workers and demonstrated commitment to worker health.
Join the Organisational Pilot Program to develop a 12-month roadmap for worker health.
→ Workplace health advisors are eager to explore the future of digital health in the workplace.
Join the Workplace Health Professional Pilot Program to see the platform from both sides.
Fit neither of the above, but love the mission? Mention TENSH to one person who might be keen - it could be the start of something great!