PharmaLex Case Study: Connecting a Global Workforce With Wellness Challenges

PharmaLex, a fast-growing global company of about 3,000 people, wanted a wellness program that would connect employees across countries and departments – without creating a lot of admin for a small team. YuMuuv's COO Claus Kennerth Tikki spoke with Janhavee Walvadkar, Manager of Global HR Processes & Systems at PharmaLex, about why they switched providers, how they rolled out YuMuuv and what they learned.

At a Glance

• Company: PharmaLex, about 3,000 employees in many countries
• Challenge: poor employee feedback on the previous wellness provider and a small wellness team
• Program: step challenge, water drinking challenge and other health activities
• Launched: early 2022
• Result: positive employee feedback and stronger connections between colleagues in different countries

The Challenge

As PharmaLex grew, employee health and wellbeing became a clear priority – especially for the new generation of talent the company wanted to attract. Before YuMuuv, PharmaLex worked with another wellness challenge provider, but employee feedback was not positive, so the HR team started looking for an alternative.

Goals

• Connect a global workforce – let employees from different countries compete, chat and take part in challenges together.
• Keep administration light – the health and wellness team is small, so setup, promotion and tracking had to be quick.
• Be easy to use – for every employee, not just the sporty ones.

Choosing YuMuuv

PharmaLex found YuMuuv through an online search and was impressed by how friendly the app was and how easy it was to administer. Janhavee, who already led the company's global health and wellness initiatives, saw it as a good fit for the company culture after speaking with the YuMuuv team.

Rolling Out YuMuuv

1. Getting buy-in. Janhavee presented the app's features and benefits to management, who supported the plan. Fitting within the existing budget made approval easier.
2. Setting up challenges. The YuMuuv team provided technical support, and PharmaLex set up its first challenges.
3. Onboarding employees. PharmaLex sent employees a short manual to get started, and YuMuuv support answered questions along the way.

Results

PharmaLex launched YuMuuv in early 2022 with a step challenge, a water drinking challenge and other health-related activities. Feedback from employees was very positive: people enjoyed connecting and competing with colleagues in other countries, and many felt more engaged with their colleagues and the company.

PharmaLex measures success mainly through employee feedback. There is no formal ROI calculation yet, but the response has been a clear sign that the program is working. For ideas on what to measure, see 17 wellness KPIs.

Key Takeaways for HR Teams

1. Listen to employee feedback – if people do not enjoy a tool, switching can restart engagement.
2. Choose a platform a small team can run – easy setup and good support matter more than long feature lists.
3. Use challenges to connect locations – global challenges create shared moments across countries.
4. Mix activity and habits – a step challenge plus a water drinking challenge reaches different people. See the complete list of YuMuuv challenges.

Run a Global Wellness Challenge

Planning a challenge across countries? Read how to set up wellness challenges for remote workers and how to create a step challenge, or explore more stories in our case studies.

Book a demo to see how YuMuuv can work for your global team.