Examining the associations of using the Calm app with team mindfulness and psychological safety in remote workers

Abstract

Objective:The purposes of this study were to (1) illustrate how remote workers engage with an employer-provided mindfulness meditation app in the workplace and (2) examine the relationship between workplace app engagement, team mindfulness, and psychological safety among remote workers. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to employees within the United States who had received a subscription to Calm as part of their health benefits. Employees reported on three types of engagement with the Calm app in the context of the workplaceopportunities use to Calm together during the workday, using Calm with team members, and discussing Calm content with teams -and completed measures of team mindfulness and psychological safety. Fixed-effects regression models were used to assess effects of workplace app engagement on psychological safety and team mindfulness in remote workers. Results: Of 60,000 workers contacted, 801 employees completed the survey (1.3%) and 437 were full-time remote workers (0.7%). Only 20% of remote workers reported having opportunities to use Calm at work. Opportunities to use Calm at work was positively associated with team mindfulness (β = 2.39, p = 0.005) and psychological safety (β = 1.85, p = 0.005). Using Calm with team members was only significantly associated with team mindfulness (β = 2.99, p = 0.046) and discussing Calm with team members was only significantly associated with psychological safety (β = 1.17, p = 0.029). Conclusions: Creating opportunities for employees to engage with a mindfulness meditation app while at work may help foster team mindfulness and psychological safety, especially for remote workers. Considering the research limitations, future studies should investigate longitudinal relationships within workplace teams.

Testing the Pragmatic Effectiveness of a Consumer-Based Mindfulness Mobile App in the Workplace: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Considering the popularity of music in the Calm app and many consumer-based mobile apps that offer similar music content, future studies are warranted to determine the effects of music on mental health and productivity. Furthermore, as is to be expected, we observed variable engagement across work sites, which could indicate other site-level characteristics (eg, workplace culture, networks of communication, and psychological safety within a team) that may have differentially influenced uptake across sites [ 66 , 67 ]. Future pragmatic trials implementing the Calm app in the workplace setting would benefit from additional consideration of these key contextual drivers of reach and uptake.…”

Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review

“…Furthermore, some studies used commercially available apps (and, thus, ones not tailored to companies) to test their effectiveness among their target group. Examples of these apps are the Calm app [ 43 , 57 ] and Headspace. Effectiveness in terms of, e.g., stress perception, perceived mindfulness and perceived well-being could be demonstrated [ 27 , 34 , 39 , 40 ].…”

“…One such study, by Hwang et al (2019), found significant changes in the experimental group in terms of stress, emotional labour, well-being and self-efficacy. Other studies focussed on public school staff [ 32 ], male-dominated industries [ 54 ], pharma employees [ 27 ], university staff [ 40 , 46 ], governmental organisational staff [ 25 , 42 ], remote workers [ 57 ], or entrepreneurs [ 53 ], or else included different employers [ 26 , 38 , 58 ]. The remaining 15 studies investigated office workers.…”

“…From an employer perspective, the most commonly mentioned positive factors of mHealth programmes, when compared with nontechnical interventions, were the ability to reach many employees due to smartphones’ wide distribution––possibly even reaching workers with nonstandard working hours, e.g., shift workers [ 9 , 17 , 26 , 31 , 34 , 38 , 39 , 44 , 49 , 51 , 53 ], as already mentioned under the factors of independence of time and place. Furthermore, authors referred to flexibility, the possibility of integrating various programmes into one app and cost-effectiveness [ 9 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 27 , 32 , 35 , 38 – 41 , 43 , 44 , 47 , 56 , 57 ]. Interestingly, one paper concluded further that employees found it beneficial that employers could monitor the workplace through apps and track activities because they finally could witness firsthand the difficulties that employees face [ 52 ].…”

“…Opportunities for using mHealth apps for WHP are defined as future options for the developments mentioned in the studies, such as those associated with embedding apps into other employee support package features and future technological developments. In particular, these apps’ projected cost-effectiveness compared with nontechnical solutions, the possibility of integrating app use into other WHP programmes, additional functionalities and evidence-based developments also were mentioned [ 24 , 29 , 31 , 38 , 39 , 53 , 55 – 57 ]. Clearly, these opportunities resonate with technical developments reported in the various studies over time.…”