Zurich Livewell | not only for health-minded people but also those who need a little “healthy nudge”

Interview Helene Westerlind — CEO LiveWell by Zurich

As Digital Insurance Group we have the privilege to talk to the leading insurers and love to learn from their experience while adding our technological solutions and views. In this series we share the views of some outstanding people in the life and health insurance market. We ask them about how they embrace life& wellbeing as an insurance company and how they look ahead. This week: Zurich!

Helene was appointed early 2020 to build and lead LiveWell for Zurich on a global scale. LiveWell is a Zurich owned, yet independent innovative, digital health and wellbeing service that supports people to take charge of their health so they can feel and function at their best. LiveWell is currently offered to corporate employers, as part of an insurance proposition, or through corporate partnerships. The LiveWell journey is only starting with plans to also become available direct to consumers.

Helene mentions two distinctive factors at the core of LiveWell. Firstly, the program is holistic: looking at wellbeing from a physical, mental, financial, and social perspective. This provides broad value to the customer and building blocks for optimal wellbeing and balance. Secondly, no matter the health journey LiveWell provides support for the highs, lows and everything in between targeting not only health-minded people but also those who need a little “healthy nudge”.

The LiveWell offering supports Zurich’s vision to create a brighter future together, by helping to create healthier lives. Many insurers are moving away from protection to prevention and adding social and engagement tools to help them get there. What’s more, Helene mentions their truly customer obsessed culture and the importance on defining solutions that meet both customer and business needs. She alludes to industry research which shows millennials are more likely to purchase life insurance products that include interactive programs with wellbeing benefits.

In the positioning of LiveWell, data storage, data security and privacy are of utmost importance. In developing a global sustainable offering, LiveWell used General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards as the starting point, building a scalable and compliant solution. Data is used to foster relevant health experiences and to improve health outcomes. Data is never shared to third parties without consent and is always de-identified and aggregated for reporting purposes.

Trust is key, it needs to be purposeful

Helene agrees with the overall statement that generally customers of the services on the LiveWell App are OK with sharing data with LiveWell if there is an up-side for them. For example, LiveWell offers health points to individuals on their LiveWell App to reward healthy actions such as reading a health article or listening to a meditation and/ or meeting a certain target such as 7–9 hours of sleep a night. For some people the self-awareness and gamification in health points is sufficient, for others it needs to result in a reward. Incentives to drive positive lifestyle choices are important but either way, Helene notes the real reward comes with good health and making the path to better health engaging.

Having years of experience within the commercial insurance space, Helene is very clear about her passion for the purpose of LiveWell. It is about creating one trusted place for health and wellbeing needs. From content and meditation to build health awareness or linking to telemedicine providers for extra support. Each LiveWell experience is relevant to the individual and based on personal interests, like nutrition or parenting.

Whether LiveWell is the orchestrator or part of another ecosystem time will tell. In some ways it is not even the most important thing for Helene. She is very clear on LiveWell’s purpose: which is to make a positive impact on people’s lives.

So, what does that mean for life insurance? It is fundamental to shift the focus to prevention to ensure healthier customers in the long-term and cost savings across multiple fronts. Consumers expect this and it results in life insurance being more relevant by truly putting customer needs first.