Today, we’re excited to share a conversation with Robin van Dalen, the Co-founder and co-CEO of Inuka Coaching, a company focused on improving mental health and workplace wellness. Founded in 2018 in Amsterdam, Inuka offers a platform that facilitates access to coaching and support for employees across various levels in an organization. Their services are grounded in scientific research and aim to deliver practical, measurable outcomes in enhancing workplace well-being.
With a background that combines entrepreneurship and a deep interest in mental health, Robin van Dalen has played a crucial role in shaping the company’s vision and services. Her journey includes significant experiences in both academic research and the corporate sector, contributing to his expertise in the field of workplace wellness.
Could you start by walking us through your entrepreneurial journey and how it led you to become the Co-lead of Inuka Coaching? what inspired you to focus on mental health and workplace wellness?
I’ve always been entrepreneurial and impact-driven, having small companies on the side to pay for my studies leaving for Ecuador when I was 18 to do volunteer work and during my studies trying (and failing to) set up a shoe-making social enterprise in one of the slums of Kenya, Nairobi.
The journey to co-leading Inuka Coaching began during my master’s at Cambridge, where I researched healthcare mistakes, leading me to the health and well-being sector. From there I went on to do a management traineeship at a company I admired a lot, Philips. While working there, I encountered a personal crisis, resulting in strong depression and a six-month leave. Fortuitously, this led to an opportunity to develop mental health innovations at Philips.
This work introduced me to my co-founder, Prof. Dixon Chibanda, whose coaching method, developed through his ‘Friendship Bench‘ project, was highly effective in addressing mental health issues. We recognized the potential to scale this method using technology, leading to the creation of Inuka Coaching. This platform has since expanded internationally, offering support in over 15 languages and positively impacting numerous employees’ mental health.
Can you give us an overview of what Inuka Coaching does and how it differentiates itself from its competitors?
Sure, Inuka offers a well-being platform and service to companies seeking to build a more resilient, engaged and high-performing workforce. Employees can get started with a trained & certified coach within 48 hours, in 15 languages. We also do a lot of activities around this to ensure education and engagement around the topic of well-being, mental health and personal growth. And from our platform, we also help people find other resources the organisation might already offer.
How we differentiate from competitors are 3 key things:
- Inuka is for everyone, not just for a pocket in the organization. Typically, coaches are only accessible to the happy few at the top, psychologists are for people already struggling, and EAPs are only reached when it is too late. Big organisations offer a ton of things, but people simply don’t know about them, where to go and what is for them, they’re overwhelmed. We are the first access point, the first line of support.
- We not just are a tick-in-the-box like many other tech solutions, but we deliver actual, measurable results for people and the organisation. We always do pre and post-measurements so people get to see the results.
- All aspects of our service are rooted in science, and we have published the results of our coaching approach in top scientific journals.
Looking back on your journey to founding Inuka Coaching, What were the key challenges you faced while establishing Inuka Coaching, and how did you overcome them? Would you have done anything different?
The most challenging aspect was the transition period after leaving Philips. We acquired the technology stack through a loan, but it proved to be a significant hindrance. Any attempts to modify or enhance features resulted in system breakdowns. Additionally, we encountered numerous bugs that were impossible to resolve, as the technology was based on a proprietary Philips platform, which was essentially a ‘black box’ to us. We spent six months trying to address these issues, constantly questioning whether it was worth the effort to continue. Eventually, we decided to abandon the existing technology and built a new system from scratch in just three weeks, which we then immediately brought to market. In retrospect, I would have opted to develop our technology from scratch right from the start, rather than taking the existing tech from Philips.
As a first-time founder, I encountered many challenges. One of the most daunting was financial uncertainty; for a whole year, we were unsure if we could afford to pay our salaries each month. This period was incredibly stressful. Fortunately, we’ve stabilized since and have a healthy, growing business now.
Inuka Coaching is playing a role in reducing the stigma around mental health. Can you discuss your strategies for addressing this sensitive issue in the workplace? And why Is so important to address this pressing issue.
We have developed a simple and effective rollout plan grounded in the latest scientific insights into this topic. The key is to have leadership share their own stories around mental health, coaching and therapy, and try and endorse Inuka themselves. This is important because it is no longer about a couple of people in the organisation: it is about almost everyone: more than half struggle with their mental health, and three-quarters of the new generations join and leave organisations because of mental health reasons. See below:
How does Inuka Coaching ensure its services are accessible and relevant to a diverse range of employees across different sectors?
This is what makes us truly special: from the outset, we designed Inuka to be accessible to everyone. This is also a key aspect of being a B-corp. Our pricing (the most popular package is €59 per employee per year) is affordable, enabling organizations that collaborate with us to typically offer this service to their entire workforce. We achieved this through the design of our platform, which includes multiple languages, simple language, and the use of a scan-and-coach method, as well as techniques proven effective worldwide.
Our hiring and training practices for coaches also reflect this approach. Unlike major players in coaching and therapy who predominantly hire trained and certified individuals – who are often university-educated, female, and white – Inuka hires and trains coaches whose backgrounds match the target organizations where we implement our services. This approach is enabled by the innovative system developed by my co-founder, which effectively trains almost anyone who is empathetic and motivated. Our rigorous training and selection program ensures that all coaches pass two exams before becoming active on our platform.
Furthermore, our training is ICF (International Coach Federation) certified, representing the gold standard globally. This approach allows us to offer high-quality coaching that is truly accessible to everyone. This is evidenced by our diverse customer base, ranging from the Amsterdam Firefighters to accountants, supermarkets, and Tommy Hilfiger Europe. Moreover, our commitment extends beyond Europe and high-income countries. Through the Inuka Foundation, we utilize the same coaching system for impact projects, reaching vulnerable communities in places like Kenya, Zimbabwe, and the Palestinian territories.
How do you measure the impact of its programs on an organization’s overall well-being and productivity?
Employees always start with a (scientifically validated) well-being self-scan to measure their well-being level. Typically a big chunk of the organization fills this out, which gives a good overview of how people are doing in different parts of the organization. Most organizations ask their employees to fill this out regularly, and at least once a year. We also always ask people to fill the scan out during and after the coaching program to measure their progress. This way we can measure the direct impact of the coaching on overall well-being. Next to that we also have a consultancy offering where we look at an organization’s key metrics such as turnover and sick leave, to put all the data together.
How are new technologies, such as AI shaping the health and wellness sector? Is it integrated into your services?
It will have a big impact, soon. Especially on all the self-help tools out there, AI will be much more personalised and tailored so probably push many of those out of the market. For us, however, one-on-one human coaching, has always been highly personalized, and we believe in our hypothesis that the human connection only will become even more important in an AI-driven world. And that human skills such as emotions, empathy, and communication will be even more important too. Plus, scientifically speaking, the interventions with the highest and most sustainable behaviour change are always involving some form of real human connection. We have designed Inuka around that, and we will continue to do so. We do work on using AI for automation, scaling up and quality control. So everything where no human is required.
How do you envision the future of workplace wellness and mental health support? And the future of Inuka Coaching?
We envision a world in which everyone is empowered to grow, and where people see challenges of life as an opportunity to grow and get the best out of themselves and life. Practically for Inuka, it means that every company has some of their employees trained and certified as Inuka coaches and that all employees have access to Inuka coaching.
Reflecting on your entrepreneurial journey, what have been your most significant learnings, and how have they shaped your leadership at Inuka Coaching?
Challenges in life are an opportunity for anyone – and also our company – to become better, and become closer to what we envision our company and ourselves to be.
What key advice would you give to aspiring startup founders, especially in the health and wellness sector?
Follow your passion, and take advice and opinions carefully, but stay on your course. Everyone will have strong and opposing opinions, so treat them as pieces of information that you can use, but it’s you and your team who know best where to go.
