It is more common nowadays for employees to provide some type of caregiving to older loved ones, often parents. Also, with increasing healthcare costs, the burden of financial costs may fall more on these caregivers. The stress that comes with caregiving and providing financial support has been well-documented: Caregiver obligations have been linked with lower productivity, higher stress, and poor health for the caregiver.4
Due to financial strain and increasing costs related to healthcare, more Americans are declaring that they’re retiring later, with 40 percent saying they are going to retire after the age of 65.6 Older workers offer many advantages to the workforce, especially their experience and expertise, but they may incur more healthcare costs due to having a higher likelihood of chronic conditions. Also, those who planned to retire later were “more likely to report stress, poor health, and feeling stuck in their jobs than people expecting to retire sooner.”
37 percent of full-time employees say they think about or deal with financial issues while on the clock at work7
Since 2007, Americans have been saying that money is their top stressor8
Almost half of American adults have problems with “paying household expenses on time”9
Mindfulness is “the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.”13 Promising research has found that a mindful approach may help ease “the effects of stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions.”14
The connection between mindfulness and overall wellness becomes even clearer when you look at research regarding mindfulness’s impact on physical health.
In one study, 88 smokers who wanted to quit were randomly assigned to either a mindfulness course or a “standard” tobacco cessation program (which focused on triggers and lifestyle changes). Four months later, the mindfulness group had a higher success rate than the tobacco cessation program group (31 percent vs. 6 percent).15
One estimate states that one-third of the entire U.S. workforce has at least one sleep disorder.18
Among workers aged 30 and older, 74 percent say that lack of sleep affects their work performance.
In addition, a majority of Americans report using a computer within one hour before going to bed, an example of poor sleep hygiene.19
In the world of health and wellness, the most common example today would be mobile device apps connecting with a wearable fitness tracker, such as a Fitbit®. But that iteration only represents the first phase.
The next stage of the connected experience will allow for more data about the choices people make about their health to come from a wider range of devices. Imagine drinking from a mug that can analyze the nutritional value of whatever you’re drinking, or measuring your blood glucose with a device that connects and communicates with your smartphone. These devices are already on the market, or are in development (but they are not in wide use).25 Think video gaming systems, household appliances, clothing, cars, and much more, feeding a cloud of data that will further inform and guide the behaviors of individuals.
Businesses want to use analytics to learn consumers’ behaviors so they can better guide and influence those behaviors; similarly, employers want to do the same with employees because they want to know what is driving organizational costs and how to curb them.
As for the employees themselves, it is obvious that there is intense interest in becoming or staying healthy, but their actual behaviors can often fall short of their goals.26 Surveys also show that they want more “health management guidance” and incentives to be more engaged in their wellness programs.27 That connected experience 2.0 will provide those opportunities.