For Business

Stress is the biggest cause of long-term absenteeism according to a UK employer survey (CIPD) and is identified as the Number 1 driver for staff turnover intention in a range of professions and industries, including international organizations (Giauque et al). A quarter of the Swiss workforce now say they are so stressed at work that they feel they are overwhelmed (SECO, 2016). This is detrimental to their health and happiness, causing significant absenteeism and reduced productivity; which in turn translates to worsened company reputation and investor relations and loss of profit for the business. Considering the impact of stress on both the company and its employees, most large companies today offer wellness services to their staff or at least have some stress management program in place for their employees.

Burnout is probably the most famous stress-related illness, and it has devastating effects on tens of thousands of people in Switzerland each year, many of whom continue to struggle with physical symptoms and associated stigma in years to follow. Some professions are harder hit than others, especially "people-helping professions". Other factors go hand in hand with burnout regardless of industry, such as quantitative and qualitative work overload, unmet expectations, feeling underappreciated and above all a lack of control. Some of these predictors can be flagged by scoping the workplace. We propose mass-testing of employees by online questionnaires, which provides invaluable information to management as to where the workforce stands, and actionable advice to lower burnout risk amongst personnel.

In our final report we provide a fingerprint of your business with full metrics of your current standing, together with recommendations for actions to take in order to decrease probabilities of burnout from occurring in the workplace.

Our questionnaires places a spotlight on individual differences in personality traits to guide advice in final reports. Indeed, decision-makers all too often fail to realize is that there is no universal effect of stress. There is good stress and there is bad stress; and people are affected in different ways by the same stressors. For instance, weekly reviews with the boss may help a grounded and calm person stay on top of work duties (good stress/eustress), whereas the same intermittent meetings can cause counterproductive pressure for an individual high in trait anxiety and lead to consistent heightened stress levels due to this perceived increased work pressure (bad stress/distress). In fact, consider anxiety disorder alone, which is the most common of mental disorders and is estimated to affect more than 5% of the EU/EEA workforce (Wittchen, 2010). This disorder is highly predictive of how threatening an individual interprets a given situation. Note that Persometrics cannot, and will not, reveal data that can be tied to individual employees. The report given to management will only include descriptive data on a higher level.

As a follow-up, we suggest that employees receive test-kits from Persometrics where they get their individual tools on how to combat bad stress and decrease their risk of burnout. As experts of stress biomarker testing, Persometrics has developed a biomarker index that is an early predictor of burnout and other stress-related health issues. Each employee takes a saliva testing kit to their home and provides samples at very specific times in relation to their awakening. The results and report with life-style advice are returned to the employee. Individual confidential talks with our stress consultants can also be arranged.