Customer story

Making mental fitness a daily practice at Hochland

Hochland chose Kyan Health to provide scalable, individual mental help across its global workforce.

Over 35% usage rate across factory teams
On-demand mental health tools and coaching
Seamless direct access to expert care

∅ 100

Total hours spent on Kyan Health app – monthly

The challenge

Sick leave reached new record levels in 2023

Hochland, one of Europe’s leading cheese manufacturers, employs over 6,000 people worldwide. As the company continued to grow and evolve, so did the complexity of its workforce’s needs.

Health insurance companies' absence reports back up how people feel with numbers: “The sick leave calculated for 2023 is the highest since records started,” says Techniker Krankenkasse, a health insurance company.

In 2023, every employee in Germany took an average of around 15 days off sick. One reason for this is the increase in mental illness, which is often long-term.

Although it accounts for only 4 per cent of cases of incapacity to work, according to the AOK health insurance fund, it causes 14 per cent of sick days. These rose by 48 per cent between 2012 and 2022.

These figures alarmed the Hochland team — prompting the company to recognize both a pressing need and a clear opportunity to take action by prioritizing mental health, launching targeted support initiatives, and fostering a more resilient, people-first workplace culture.

The solution

Scaling personalized mental health support with the help of Kyan

To address these gaps and deliver more meaningful support, Hochland partnered with Kyan Health. The goal: offer a holistic, easily accessible platform that empowers every employee to manage their mental health proactively—wherever they are.

Kyan Health stood out for its ability to seamlessly combine science-backed digital tools with expert-led care. The implementation process was designed to drive awareness, build trust, and encourage adoption from day one.

Implementation highlights

Tailored Needs Assessment: Kyan collaborated with Hochland’s HR team to identify regional stress factors and priorities.

Comprehensive Onboarding: Awareness campaigns, internal webinars, and aligned messaging helped introduce the platform in a clear and inclusive way.

Flexible Support Options: Employees could choose from digital self-guided programs, live coaching, or therapy—accessed confidentially and at their convenience.

By focusing on personalization, cultural fit, and trust, Kyan Health enabled Hochland to create a new standard for mental health support—one that employees could actually use and benefit from.

The outcome

Building a culture of mental fitness—and seeing results

Since launching the platform, Hochland has seen a noticeable increase in engagement with mental health services also noted by the German Lebensmittelzeitung.

Employees are using the support proactively, reflecting a broader cultural shift toward openness and acceptance around mental wellbeing.

Feedback from across the organization has been overwhelmingly positive—teams value the flexibility and variety of the resources available, while managers report feeling better equipped to support their people.

Early indicators are also promising on an operational level: HR leaders have observed a decrease in stress-related absences and greater stability within several departments.

"It is important to us to offer both prevention and emotional support when employees are in urgent need of it."