Over a third of employees (38%) experience chronic daily stress in the workplace, while three in four (74%) are calling for employers to provide wellbeing solutions to help them manage work-related stress. These findings are part of a new report on workplace stress, entitled ‘Managing Stress: Your Hidden Advantage’ from workplace health startup Walking on Earth (WONE). 

The report explores the true cost of stress, both to employees’ health and to businesses’ bottom lines, asserting the importance of finding the optimal balance of stress to fuel vs hinder us. The authors call for a new approach, harnessing recent advances in AI technology and science to help employees regulate stress levels during the working day through the delivery of micro moments of recovery. 

“We’re using technology to advance all areas of our working lives but we’re leaving the most important one behind: our people. Whilst technology and science are advancing, the quality of our working lives is declining. We’re more stressed than ever before. In an era of ‘human capital’, people feel like they are being treated like cogs in a mechanical machine. We have normalised a society where the majority of us are suffering chronic levels of workplace stress. And this is taking a serious toll on our health.” commented Walking on Earth founder, Reeva Misra. 

The report findings, based on proprietary data from WONE’s stress management platform, reveal significant differences between generations. Set to make up 30% of the workforce by 2030, Gen Z are more likely to expect their employers to provide wellbeing solutions. According to research from Gallup, the main factor that Gen Z employees look for in their workplace is ‘an employer who cares about my wellbeing’, putting this ahead of the organisation’s financial stability and leadership ethics. 

WONE’s own customer stress index reveals that, on average, 67% of employees feel their mental health and wellbeing is supported by their company –  the proportion is significantly lower amongst Gen Z employees, at 52%. Yet, when we look at usage data for the WONE platform, Gen Z users engage at more than double average rates, with 95% of Gen Z employees actively using the solution. 

Stress is pervasive; according to research, 83% of employees experience workplace stress. In 2021, poor mental health cost businesses an estimated £56bn in sick days, presenteeism and staff turnover. And the numbers are increasing. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report estimates that low engagement is costing the global economy US$8.8 trillion; that’s 9% of global GDP. 

Reeva argues that the solution lies in finding ways to monitor and regulate our stress response: “Stress doesn’t always have to be bad for us; it’s an evolutionary response made for our survival. By combining the latest research in AI technology and neuroscience with ancient preventative health practices, we can calculate the optimum balance of stress, helping us unlock a hidden advantage that allows us to thrive and be at our best. 

The key lies in micro moments of recovery, and to deliver this, we have to understand which activities can help to break the stress cycle. 

For all our complexity as humans, there’s real simplicity in some aspects of our nervous system signalling. A hug still sends the same message that we are safe as it did in our caveman days. When animals or babies are settling down to sleep, they often take a double inhale followed by a long sigh. Stanford Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has studied this ‘cyclic sighing’ and showed it to be one of the most effective ways to reduce stress, improving ‘mood and anxiety as well as causing ‘reduced physiological arousal (respiratory rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability)’. And that’s just two inhales and one sigh. 

Deep slow breathing, physical movement, laughter, creative expression and positive social interactions are all micro moments that signal to your nervous system that you are safe. 

WONE’s stress management platform helps employees to understand and manage their health before stress becomes chronic. The WONE Method is a three step system, where the platform measures stress, provides recommendations personalised to the employee’s needs via an AI coach, and delivers interventions of preventative health solutions delivered by world leading experts.

“We’re encouraging businesses to take a new approach to helping employees manage stress at work, by delivering micro moments of recovery throughout the working day. If we can learn how to regulate our stress, we can break the cycle of chronic stress and turn it from foe to friend,” concludes Reeva.

To read the full whitepaper, Managing Stress: Your Hidden Advantage – https://resources.walkingonearth.com/stress-whitepaper