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Meet Evermood: The Berlin startup promoting mental well-being in the workplace

Sarah Magill
Sarah Magill - [email protected]
Meet Evermood: The Berlin startup promoting mental well-being in the workplace
The team at Evermood. Photo provided courtesy of the company.

The office can be a difficult place to talk about mental health issues, but one Berlin-based startup is trying to change that.

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In early 2019, Lara von Petersdorff and Marvin Homburg founded Lytt, a digital platform for the safe and anonymous discussion of sensitive issues in the workplace.

READ ALSO: How a new app is fighting workplace discrimination in Germany

In January 2020, they took things a step further with the launch of Evermood, a platform which takes a preventative approach to stress in the workplace, by aiming to catch conflict situations early on and by promoting healthy routines and habits. The next pilot stage of the platform will be starting in March. 

Why the workplace?

Over the last forty years, there has been a significant increase in depression and anxiety in Germany and mental health issues are now the second biggest cause of workplace absenteeism. 

Although many diversity and health management departments in German companies are paying increasing attention to the subject of mental health, “many people feel that mental health is still seen as a taboo subject in the workplace,” said Hakan Housein, Communications Manager at Evermood.

READ ALSO: Do internationals face discrimination in the German workplace?

“Evermood gives its users an anonymous, safe space, where they can communicate their problems to their managers," said Housein, a German business communication expert who has previously studied in Germany, Australia and the Netherlands.

The Evermood App encourages workers to follow healthy routines. Source: Evermood

Evermood not only provides a communication channel for sensitive issues between employers and employees, but also wants to make mental health awareness part of everyday work life and to “make mental well-being an integral part of corporate culture,” said Housein.

READ ALSO: Herbal tea and sick leave: An American's ode to the German attitude towards health

The platform encourages companies to take part in activities that involve the entire organisation, with initiatives such as a two-week meditation challenge.

Employees will also be able to do weekly, anonymised self-assessments and surveys, which will enable them to track and better understand the state of their mental health and to work on it. 

Employers will then receive anonymous reports on these assessments along with analysis data from Evermood, which they can then use to make the right decisions for their teams' mental well-being.

How will the platform help internationals?

Housein thinks that Evermood will be of particular benefit to internationals working in Germany. 

“When you are working for a company in a country you are not native to, it can be difficult to know how best to approach mental health issues,” he said.

“When you are feeling anxious, it can sometimes be hard to know who to turn to and to know how to deal with a specific crisis, so the individual support area and anonymity of Evermood can really help out there.”

READ ALSO: What are the main reasons internationals in Germany turn to therapy?

The product is also offered in German and English and the team is currently working on making many other languages available.

Evermood Communications Manager Hakan Housein. Source: Evermood

Who wants to use the platform?

“Interest in Evermood has been way beyond what we could have imagined,” explains Housein, “companies in areas where the workforce typically experiences high stress levels, such as law and finance, have been very keen to use the platform.”

However, introducing the platform into the public sector has presented more of a challenge, as “when it comes to integrating new solutions, there are a lot of guidelines and regulations which need to be followed”.

What happens next?

During the pilot stage, the Evermood team will be in constant contact with their customers and the beneficial impact of the platform will be measured by  customer feedback – with HR managers and decision makers giving insight on how the product is being received, so that the team can adjust it according to what works and what doesn’t work.  

Evermood will also track anonymised data, to see exactly how workers are engaging with the app.

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