The science behind our approach.

Like most science and breakthrough models, we have built our approach on the shoulders of giants and giantesses. So, geek out with us for a second, okay?

Approach

Theoretical Framework for Wellbees

Theoretical Framework

We utilize Self-Determination Theory, a macro-theory of human motivation and development, as an evidence-based and cross-culturally validated approach to depict psychosocial experiences and wellbeing. According to Self Determination Theory (SDT), basic psychological needs include autonomy, competence, and relatedness, the nutrients of effective human functioning, constituting necessary conditions for growth and wellness (Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT researchers' considerable effort to explore needs satisfaction in interpersonal contexts (e.g., workplace, gym, school, parenting, clinics and health care, leisure, friendships, and romantic relationships) showed that autonomous motivation (instead of a controlled motivation), increased positive affect and enhanced psychological wellbeing (Deci & Ryan, 2008). However, although work is the most dominant common domain of adult life, not all workplaces are designed equally in terms of Employee Experience (EX); some might be highly engaged and fulfilling, and some others might find it a total disaster because of controlled reasons or lack of any reason. Considering the possible meanings of work, it is not only a means to survive as a source of income but is itself an important arena for self and collective realization, and personal satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2017)

SDT researchers' considerable effort to explore needs satisfaction in interpersonal contexts (e.g., workplace, gym, school, parenting, clinics and health care, leisure, friendships and romantic relationships) showed that autonomous motivation (instead of a controlled motivation), increased positive affect and enhanced psychological wellbeing (Deci & Ryan, 2008).

However, although work is the most dominant common domain of adult life, not all workplaces are designed equal in terms of Employee Experience (EX); as some might be highly engaged and fulfilling, and some others might find it a total disaster because of controlled reasons or lack of any reason.

Considering the possible meanings of work, it is not only a means to survive as a source of income but is itself important arena for self and collective realization, and personal satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2017)

Psychological ROI of Wellbeing Initiatives

Psychological ROI

As the field of psychology started moving from the illness model to the positive psychology model in the 1990s, wellness became a research topic in many areas of human life. Among those, positive Employee Experience (EX) is an increasingly targeted topic by companies to elevate the human experience, motivation, and satisfaction at work. Also, with the pandemic creating a mental health crisis, there is a rising demand for employment benefits such as wellness perks, employee assistance programs, and self-care practices. However, the impact of those benefits needs to be studied more via evidence-based research. This discrepancy between academia and industry is likely due to either lack of collaboration between labs and companies or the companies' limited research resources and staff outside of academia.

Why do we do what we do at Wellbees?

At Wellbees, we are working hard to address this gap. That is why our scientific approach is based on Self-Determination Theory which is an organismic approach for wellness, growth, and development and has been validated for the last 50 years of research beyond the lab settings in every domain of life, from work life to parenting, from exercise to diet, from romantic relationships to intellectual development, from health behaviors to volunteering.

Upcoming

For this purpose, we have an answer for “why we do what we do”. Believing that wellbeing is not a luxury anymore but a necessity, this calls for a solid academic and scientific collaboration. By partnering with the Motivation and Wellbeing Lab of St John Fisher University at New York, we work together to analyze the impact of our corporate employee wellbeing platform and its psychological return on investment for our users by lending support from Self-Determination Theory.

By collaborating with psychology professors and their students, we are also piloting multiple projects where we aim to show
1) how to utilize psychology lab to conduct real-life research beyond the lab,
2) how to utilize psychology to create content and intervention strategies via an app/technology for empirical support,
3) how to be a role model of industry-academy collaboration for scientifically informed practices, and community engagement to better inform decision-makers and stakeholders so that more wellbeing concerns can be addressed at work.

In Wellbees, we are working joyfully to merge empirical industry work and evidence-based lab research based on SDT! It is such a meaningful goal for us to do so. Let’s dive deeper into SDT.

What and Why of SDT?

SDT

Despite the functional role of need-fulfilling experiences for ongoing motivated, fulfilling, and meaningful behavior, it might not always be the case as we find different contexts pressurizing, controlling, and frustrating. Such as at work! The quality of human experience of these three basic needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence are essential to people's wellbeing, in the same way that sun, soil, and water are nutrients essential to plants.

SDT points to the importance of human propensity towards growth and healthy development, leading to intrinsic motivation and feeling full of energy to achieve goals (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Therefore, as a metatheory of human experience, almost 50 years of SDT research shows that satisfaction versus frustration of these needs can be a protective factor for wellbeing and a risk factor for illbeing, respectively, in various contexts. Since the pros/cons of the workplace can impact beyond work, such as family, physical/mental health, spirituality, and more, employee wellbeing is becoming more of a demand from the workforce and an interest from companies. It is evident from the numbers as well. The cost of ignoring workplace wellbeing to employers is up to £45 billion, whereas the investment in positive employee experiences and focus on their mental health returns £5 for every £1 spent (Hampson & Jacob, 2020). However, the psychological ROI for these perks from an evidence-based framework is less studied than the economic Return on Investment (ROI) (Schneider et al., 2020). Therefore, our research projects within this scientific framework add to the body of knowledge regarding the extent to which and how these interventions can help employees by utilizing this science-based knowledge on our employee wellbeing platform. The findings can emphasize how technology can be beneficial in implementing supportive strategies and interventions for individuals and organizations. Using SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2017), we can also understand how EX conditions facilitate or hinder human capacity for wellness and flourishing via human-computer interaction for psychological benefits. By targeting this intersection, our research team believes we can pioneer further researchers to understand the broader utilization of psychology in emerging HR technologies.

Aren’t there many other motivation and wellbeing approaches? So, why SDT?

Many social and psychological theories identify the immediate psychological antecedents of behavior but neglect the origins of such antecedents. Many approaches tell us the goal; however, the answer to "How do we get there?" is missing!

Why SDT
    • For example, everyone can now agree that "meaningful work" is needed for engagement and high performance. Nevertheless, how do we create meaning and ignite a culture where people can authentically pursue meaning? Via "autonomy support."
    • Yes, we all know a sense of belonging is essential to prevent turnover. However, how do we foster that feeling? Via "relatedness support."
    • Sure, everyone would love to feel mastery at work; how about how to promote this? Via "competence support."
From an SDT perspective, our content, experts, and interventions acknowledge that humans are not mechanisms but organisms that need supportive mechanisms. Employees are organisms with dynamic needs to flourish, and this cannot be done alone in a healthy ecosystem: social bonds are the catalyst for that desired intrinsic motivation and performance. Concerning self-determination, because employees feel that their actions are affecting others and because they feel personally responsible for the choice to expend tremendous effort, persistence, and social behavior, they are likely to experience their actions as self-determined, which is intrinsically rewarding and pleasing to the self within social relationships (Ryan & Deci, 2017). We aim at work this way: being sociable, capable, and joyful individuals. Therefore we need to focus on the process, not only the outcome. This approach is why we design our user journeys the way they are; we posit that the self is a process, not a product. Moreover, this is how SDT helps us create mechanisms involved in motivational transfer from one context to another and the factors that assist in developing autonomous motivation, vitality, flourishing, and overall wellbeing that apply to every level of life!

The hierarchical model of targeting motivation:

Global, contextual and specific!

Using Vallerand's (2007) hierarchical explanation of Self-Determination Theory, our app has different features that tap different levels. Below is a chart that explains what each level corresponds to, what it represents, and examples of how we tap each by borrowing related other evidence-based practices known in psychology literature.

Level Correspondence Representation Examples
Global Level The executive personality Motivation at the global level represents generalized tendencies to be autonomously motivated and is expected to affect behavioral engagement across several contexts as an overall personality and attitude towards life. Our goal is to empower every individual to be at the driver’s seat of their own wellbeing journey by having an internal locus of control and autonomous functioning. This covers being autthentic (Kernis & Goldman, 20xx), self compassionate (Neff, 2002), and having a growth mindset (Dweck, 20yy), and learned hopefullness (Tomasulo, 2020) by using their own character strengths volitionally (VIA) to attain multiple positive psychology outcomes (PERMAV model).
Contextual Level Domain-specific functioning Motivation at the contextual level reflects reasons to participate in various behaviors in a particular context. Contexts refer to behavioral categories encompassing many given behaviors or actions in specific settings, such as occupational (e.g., in the office) or extramural (e.g., at home, after work) contexts. Addressing the 8 pillars of wellbeing (emotional, physical, environmental, financial, social, spiritual, intellectual, occupational/professional), we are providing experts, tools, and contents for each that facilitate competence development through the power of social bonds (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Brick by brick, seeding an ecosystem motivation (Crocker, 2010) where each employee paves the way for wellbeing mutually inclusive of everyone, without tying their self-worth contingent on mere results but rather enjoying the organizational progress together.
Specific Level Microsteps towards change At the situational level, motivation is conceptualized as the impetus to engage in specific bouts of a given behavior, and, by definition, motivation at this level is particular and is less likely to be transferred across behaviors or contexts. A vital aspect of the model is that motivation at each level affects cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes specific to that level. We design interventions for each individual developed around evidence-based models inspired by the Tiny Habits Model by BJ Fogg, Ph.D. and Founder of Stanford University's Behavior Design Lab. We apply this behavior change paradigm by adding SDTs need supportiveness features to get the best results from our challenges, journeys, and all instructions around these contents in the form of autonomous motivation for each desired outcome.

In a nutshell:

The way we design the employee experience (EX) in our platform is inspired by the Self-Determination Theory, which encourages a self-paced and sustainable journey. As heard a hundred times, we are focusing on autonomy.

And autonomy is:

1

A need that we support that comes hand in hand with meaningful social connections and competence support,

2

A desired quality of motivation that makes the change sustainable and volitional,

3

A trait-level individual difference explains the difference between ill-being and wellbeing at the end of the day.

When it comes to organizational change, our focus is not on the mere individual. We bow at the altar of ecological change, which prescribes multiple layers of interventions to change organizations because any meaningful change in a company takes a multi-pronged approach. Call it either an organizational healing or a healing organization. We are here for this!

Relying on SDT, we point out the importance of human propensity towards growth, healthy development, and positive wellbeing; leading to intrinsic motivation for and feeling full of energy to achieve goals (Ryan & Deci, 2000). As an organismic macro theory of motivation, human behavior, and personality development, we are concerned and passionate about how social conditions facilitate or hinder human capacity for wellness and flourishing above and beyond the workplace (Ryan & Deci, 2017).

Thus, our user journeys focus on facilitating this human capacity where science backs us!

Product View

Wellbees is an employee wellbeing platform. It works for a world where employees reach their potential and actualize themselves. It supports holistic wellbeing for individuals to be well, and all its features are a step towards achieving these needs. We identify areas of improvement and support the user in this process and present the "hows" for the best future outcome.

Product View

Wellbees helps employees meet three basic psychological needs to develop their potential: autonomy, relatedness, and competence. When employees meet these three needs, they achieve job satisfaction and full functioning. It is believed that the need for a new job search will disappear for the employee who develops, grows, and improves in every domain because they can produce, shape, change and develop the job they desire in his/her workplace. With this goal, Wellbees also performs the turnover analysis. Wellbees has a variety of functions that seamlessly promote these needs and enable every employee to reach their potential. In addition to this, there are specific features that directly tap these needs and support them:

Autonomy support

Autonomy support:

written and media content, programs and experts, market products

Relatedness support

Relatedness support:

clubs, events, profile screens, challenges, duels

Competence support

Competence support

badges, programs, challenges, gamification function