Lauren Bailey For years, digital offerings played second banana to in-person options for many employers aiming to connect with and support employees. Not anymore. As employers and employees face down year two of the coronavirus pandemic, digital supports have moved from understudy to centre stage. “The pandemic has changed the environment significantly, as we all know, and what it brought into focus was well-being over anything else,” says David Fellows, senior vice-president of human resources at the Toronto Dominion Bank. TD is just one of many employers that rapidly adopted virtual health apps last year to help their employees weather the effects of the pandemic. Employers “were on this path of evolution to get greater adoption of digital apps into use and what 2020 did is it really accelerated that more than we anticipated,” says Nigel Branker, president of health and productivity solutions and executive vice-president of Morneau Shepell Ltd.