Supporting the “Whole Human” - 2023 Hatch x Samata Health Case Study

Ever wonder what happens when two companies dedicated to employee wellness decide to start a partnership? Spoiler alert—the answer is a lot of good!

How do we know? In June, we hit the one-year mark in our partnership with Hatch!

Since our launch in 2022, Hatch has grown their headcount, expanded their Samata Health benefit & others, and been recognized with multiple “Best Places to Work” awards.

We’ve outlined how they got there below!

The Challenge: Supporting the “Whole Human”

When we first connected with Hatch in April 2022, they were already very invested in supporting their employees’ wellbeing. On our first call with Hatch’s Senior Director of People Operations, Melanie Wagner, she described a company culture that views each employee as a “whole human,” and a leadership team that is open about the importance of mental health.

With a team so committed to supporting their employees, we wondered what led her to chat with us?

Prior to our partnership, Hatch, like most clients, already had in place:

• A benefits package that included a health insurance plan.

• A traditional EAP.

And yet, Hatch employees were still struggling to access talk therapy.

Hatch isn’t the first employer to go through this challenge. In fact, we hear daily from employers, employees, benefits brokers and others who are facing the same issue.

Hatch’s leadership team wanted to ensure their employees could access personalized therapy sessions with licensed providers—without any barriers to access.

But why is this happening?

For well over a decade, there have been concerning therapist network shortages across insurance plans. But COVID accelerated the problem, as demand for therapy quickly grew. In fact, a secret shopper study in 2023 that covered 12 different insurance plans across six states and found that:

“More than 80% of the listed, in-network, mental health providers staff attempted to contact were therefore ‘ghosts,’ as they were either unreachable, not accepting new patients, or not in-network.”

The Solution: A Diverse, Ghost-Free Therapist Network

Just six weeks after our first conversation with the Hatch team, we started our partnership. At its core is our mental health benefit. For our first benefit term, each Hatch employee had access to 12 sponsored therapy sessions on our digital platform. Through this benefit:

• Employees schedule personalized sessions with licensed therapists at no cost to them.

• Employees are able to search for therapists by clinical specialties, cultural competencies, racial or ethnic background and more to find a provider who truly meets their needs.

• Employees book therapy sessions instantly with just a few clicks (no wait-lists or phone calls)!

And if a team member wasn’t in need of therapy, they also benefited from Samata Health’s mental health trainings & resources throughout the year.

With a fully remote team, Hatch was also interested in providing more opportunities for connection and personal development. We kicked off the first week of our benefit with a live, therapist-led workshop for their team on coping with burnout in a work-from-home-world.

The Impact: A Happier, Healthier Workforce

(and some awesome awards, too!)

The Hatch team was quick to warm up to us. Within the first couple of weeks, over a dozen Hatch employees completed sessions with our therapists. But we wondered if this excitement would fade once we were no longer the shiny, new benefit.

Turns out, that was a silly question. Within just one year, the Hatch team completed over 300 therapy sessions on our platform! So when we hit the one year mark, Hatch increased its support to 16 sponsored therapy sessions per employee, per year—and also added this same coverage for qualifying adult dependents. Since then:

• The Hatch team’s engagement rate has surpassed 30% (more than 10x higher than traditional EAPs, at just 2-4% nationwide).

• The Hatch team has completed over 450 total therapy sessions on our platform.

This is impressive as-is, but as we’re sure you’ve noticed by now, the Hatch team goes above and beyond.

Hatch was founded on principles of rest and wellbeing. They’ve committed to these values in their supportive team culture & policy framework, and in meaningful investments in their team.

It should come as no surprise, then, that during our partnership, Hatch has been recognized with multiple “Best Places to Work” awards, including Inc.’s 2023 Best Workplaces! Hatch credits Samata Health with contributing to their healthy culture & market-leading benefits package:

“Hatch views each employee as a whole human, recognizing that people must lead balanced lives to bring their best selves to work. Through policies like mental health days, 12 free therapy sessions, and family-planning benefits, Hatch’s benefits package prioritizes mental wellness.”

TL;DR

We are so proud to partner with innovative companies like Hatch that share our commitment to employee mental health, and go the extra mile to support their teams! Their metrics alone show how important & impactful it is to have such a supportive culture in the workplace.