Original Articles
Examining the associations of using the Calm app with team mindfulness and psychological safety in remote workers
2022 年 4 巻 1 号 論文ID: 2022-0001-OA
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2022 年 4 巻 1 号 論文ID: 2022-0001-OA
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 workplace — opportunities 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.
In April 2020, 88% of Americans found themselves under stay-at-home orders due to the novel coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19), and as a result, many companies were forced to shift to remote working conditions1). Employees working remotely have reported increased feelings of loneliness and reduced self-esteem and sense of self-efficacy2). Even as restrictions have loosened over the course of the pandemic, many companies have continued to require or allow remote work, which may contribute to new challenges to mental well-being and employee morale3). Thus, there is a critical need for companies to recognize and provide support for the mental health of remote workers.
In the past decade, employees have increasingly advocated for healthier work environments where they feel recognized, included, and safe4,5). Employers have begun to acknowledge how employee mental well-being is not just a concern for the individual employee but also for the company at an organizational level. Stress among individual employees can lead to a strained or negative work environment that impacts other team members, contributing to performance decline at the team level due to miscommunication, relational conflict, and low motivation to engage with colleagues6,7). One study8) found that one teammate’s individual stress response had a “contagious” effect on their teammate’s emotional experience while completing a collaborative task together. Further, this contagious effect had lingering effects on other teammates during a later performance task that was completed independently, emphasizing the close relationship between employee well-being and overall team functioning8).
In light of the recognition that mental well-being is important at the organizational level, companies have started making mental well-being a higher priority and increasing resources available to support their employees9). Before the pandemic, many companies started offering on-site mental health services to help reduce employee travel time and healthcare costs, but the shift to remote work has left many companies searching for alternative ways to offer virtual care to remote workers4). Given the growing availability of on-demand mental healthcare mobile apps and websites, paired with the known effects of employee mental well-being on both individual employees and workplace teams, there is a need to understand how employers can provide these resources to enhance both individual and team mental well-being and promote a healthy, positive team climate4,10).
Mindfulness in the workplaceApproximately 60% of mid- to large-sized companies in the United States currently offer some form of mindfulness program to employees11). Mindfulness is defined as the awareness that arises from intentionally paying attention to the present moment12). There are well-documented benefits of mindfulness interventions for mental well-being (e.g., reducing depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms), physical health (e.g., decreasing blood pressure, bolstering immune system functioning), and general wellness (e.g., supporting positive mood, increasing self-compassion)13,14). Mindfulness also offers interpersonal benefits that can improve social interactions and relationships in the workplace, such as increased quality of team-member exchange (i.e., the degree to which an individual perceives their work relationships as “reciprocal, co-operative and mutually supportive”)15(p7)). Additionally, mindfulness can help individuals improve their emotion regulation abilities, which may also improve their work productivity and interactions with coworkers15).
Along with workplace mindfulness programs, organizations are increasingly incorporating mindfulness mobile applications (i.e., apps) into employee health benefit offerings16). Mindfulness apps are a scalable and cost-effective strategy for promoting mental well-being in the workplace17). Because mindfulness apps can be accessed “on-demand,” they can remove potential barriers to accessing or utilizing mindfulness interventions by allowing employees to easily and discreetly use the app from any location on a mobile device18). However, little is known about how these app-based interventions can be used to improve overall team functioning.
Team mindfulness and psychological safetyTraditionally, app-based mindfulness interventions have been implemented and evaluated at the individual level, despite the increased recognition that group and organizational environments are also critical for employees’ mental well-being19). Yu and Zellmer-Bruhn (2018) introduced the concept of team mindfulness, defined as “a shared belief among team members that team interactions are characterized by awareness and attention to present events and by experiential, non-judgmental processing of within-team experiences”20(p6)). Team mindfulness may impact the general workplace climate by fostering a greater sense of community, increasing perceived workplace social support, and improving group cohesion and overall productivity21). Although mindfulness is often seen as an individual practice, interventions targeting team mindfulness have the potential to extend personal outcomes to the greater team21). Further, team mindfulness interventions can help teams collectively work through relationship- and task-related conflicts in a non-judgmental space, as well as help individual members develop awareness and regulation skills that promote positive social interactions21).
Team mindfulness also closely aligns with the concept of psychological safety, defined as the perception of a “shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”22(p354)). Psychological safety is reflective of employees’ willingness to trust their team members to not reject, invalidate, or take advantage of them and is a key determinant of team performance and employee well-being22). Leaders and team members who possess mindfulness can help create supportive team environments where employees feel empowered to be themselves, feel safe to take risks, can be vulnerable in front of each other, and are not discouraged to share ideas22). Given the growing appreciation for the impact of team and workplace climate on employee mental health, companies need to understand if and how existing mental health resources (e.g., mindfulness meditation apps) can be used in the workplace to promote healthy team environments that foster team mindfulness and psychological safety. Furthermore, mindfulness meditation apps may be especially helpful for remote workers, who may feel more disconnected from their teammates due to a lack of in-person social interactions23). Exploring how remote workers use mindfulness meditation apps at work with their team can help illuminate the potential for future app-based team mindfulness interventions that address the mental well-being of remote workers.
The purposes of this study were to (1) describe types of workplace app engagement with an employer-provided mindfulness meditation app in remote workers and (2) examine the relationship between types of workplace app engagement and employees’ perceptions of team mindfulness and psychological safety within remote work teams.
This study was approved by the IRB at Buckinghamshire New University. All participants provided electronic consent prior to participation in the study.
Study design and participantsThis study was a cross-sectional survey of employees working for companies who offer the Calm mindfulness meditation app as an employee health benefit. Recruitment emails were sent to employees within the United States who had received a 1-year subscription to Calm Premium as part of their health benefits in the past year and consented to Calm’s Terms and Conditions, agreeing to be contacted for research purposes. Approximately 60,000 employees across 850 companies were contacted between June 29 and July 9, 2021. Employees were eligible if they were at least 18 years old. Questionnaires were completed anonymously and voluntarily, and participants could skip questions they did not feel comfortable answering. Participants had the option to provide their email address to be offered a free 1-year subscription to Calm for a friend and to be included in a drawing for one ＄250 United States dollar Visa gift card.
The Calm appThe Calm app is a mobile and web-based app that offers guided meditations, breathing exercises, relaxation music with nature soundscapes, mindful sleep content, light stretching, and mindful movement exercises. Calm is one of the only research-based consumer apps demonstrating efficacy in improving mental health outcomes (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression) in various of populations (e.g., cancer, pregnant women, college students, sleep-disturbed adults) when prescribed 10 minutes of daily meditation25,26,27).
MeasuresThe survey included five validated measures and seven investigator-developed questions about employees’ self-reported usage and perceived impact of the Calm app (i.e., questions were developed specifically for this survey), and seven questions related to demographics, company role, and work setting. The full survey took approximately 8 minutes to complete (median of 7.7 minutes). The present paper focuses on questions related to types of workplace app engagement and measures of team mindfulness and psychological safety.
Types of workplace app engagementThree investigator-developed questions were used to assess three types of engagement with the Calm app in the context of the workplace. Specifically, we assessed (1) the extent to which employees felt that their workplace provided opportunities for them to use the app together during the workday (rated on a 5-point Likert scale, Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree), (2) whether they had used the app with other team members (Yes or No), and (3) whether they had discussed content from Calm with their team (Yes or No).
Team mindfulnessRespondents’ perceptions of team mindfulness were measured using the Team Mindfulness Scale20). Participants were asked to rate their agreement with 10 statements about their team on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Example items include: “The team experiences moments of peace and ease, even when things get hectic and stressful” and “Within the team, we listen to each other with one ear while doing something else at the same time” (reverse scored). Items are summed to calculate a total score, with higher scores reflecting perceptions of greater team mindfulness. The Team Mindfulness Scale was initially validated in three multi-wave field studies, in which it demonstrated positive correlations with team functioning and negative correlations with team relationship conflict and social undermining20). Further studies report that team mindfulness is positively associated with work engagement and moderates the relationship between work engagement and individual mindfulness27).
Psychological safetyPsychological safety was measured using the Psychological Safety Scale22). Participants were asked to rate their agreement with seven statements about their team on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Example items include: “If I make a mistake in this team, it is held against me” (reverse scored), and “Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.” Items are summed to calculate a total score, such that higher scores indicate greater psychological safety. The Psychological Safety Scale is the primary measure of psychological safety employed in the extant literature. It was developed based on rigorous scale construction protocols incorporating qualitative data, behavioral observation, and iterative testing of psychometric properties, demonstrating acceptable internal consistency reliability and construct validity in previous research22). Scores on the Psychological Safety Scale have been shown to correlate with measures of perceived peer and organizational support, trust in leadership, positive leader relations in a range of workplace populations, and is positively predictive of work engagement, task performance, workplace citizenship behaviors, job commitment and job satisfaction28).
Statistical analysesAnalyses were conducted in SPSS version 27 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and included only full-time remote workers. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample and describe workplace engagement with Calm (i.e., feeling their workplace provided opportunities to use Calm with others at work, use of app with team members, and discussion of app content with teams). Opportunities to use Calm with others at work was dichotomized and included as an indicator variable, such that 1 is the agreement that they have opportunities to use Calm with others at work (“Strongly agree” or “Agree”), and 0 is the absence of agreement that they have opportunities to use Calm with others in the workplace (“Strongly disagree,” “Disagree,” or “Neither agree nor disagree”). Use of the app with team members and discussion of the app with teams were coded such that 1 is Yes and 0 is No.
To account for possible similarities between remote workers employed by the same companies, fixed-effects regression models were used to assess associations between types of workplace app engagement on psychological safety. All models included gender, race, and age as covariates.
Of the approximately 60,000 employees who were contacted, 801 employees completed the survey (1.3% response rate). Of those, 55% (n=437) were full-time remote workers, 27% (n=213) worked both remotely and on-site, and 19% (n=151) worked on-site full time. Although 437 full-time remote workers completed the survey, only 400 provided sufficient data for analysis (92%; 0.7% of the target population). Remote workers were excluded from the final sample if they had missing data for any of the outcome measures and/or main predictors in the analyses.
Within the final sample of 400 full-time remote workers, 80% (n=319) were between the ages of 25 and 54, 72% (n=289) identified their gender as female, and 67% (n=266) identified their race as White. Remote employees in our sample represented a total of 180 companies. Of the 400 remote workers included in our final sample, 74 did not disclose company size (81.5% response rate). Of the 326 remote workers who did report company size, most reported working for a company that had over 5,000 employees (54%, n=177). Approximately two thirds of remote workers were individual contributors (i.e., did not manage a team; 68%, n=272). Approximately half belonged to teams with fewer than 10 people (54%, n=214) and almost 80% (n=347) to teams with fewer than 20.
Types of workplace app engagementNearly half of remote workers “Disagreed” or “Strongly disagreed” that their workplace provided opportunities for them to use Calm together at work (46%, n=180) and only 20% (n=79) “Agreed” or “Strongly agreed” that they had opportunities to use Calm together at work. Only 7% (n=29) of remote workers reported that they had used Calm with other members of their team, but 43% (n=172) had discussed Calm content with their team. Remote employees who “Agreed” or “Strongly agreed” that they did have opportunities to use Calm together at work were significantly more likely to report that they had used Calm with members of their team (20.3% vs. 3.8%; χ2=25.5, p<0.001) and had discussed Calm content with their team (62.0% vs. 37.8%; χ2=15.1, p<0.001).
Associations between team mindfulness and psychological safetyRemote workers’ average scores were 36.1 (standard deviation [SD], 7.6) for the Team Mindfulness Scale and 28.4 (SD, 5.1) for the Psychological Safety Scale. Perceptions of team mindfulness and psychological safety were significantly correlated (r=0.48, p<0.001), where remote workers who perceived their teams to be more mindful reported greater psychological safety.
Team mindfulnessRemote employees who had opportunities to use Calm with others at work perceived their teams to be significantly more mindful than employees who did not feel they had these opportunities. Similarly, remote workers who had used Calm with other team members perceived their team to be more mindful than those who had not used Calm with other team members. However, discussing Calm content with teams was not related to perceptions of team mindfulness. Gender, race, and age were not related to perceptions of team mindfulness.
Psychological safetyRemote employees who had opportunities to use Calm with others at work also had a significantly greater sense of psychological safety than employees who did not feel they had these opportunities. Remote employees who discussed Calm content with their teams also reported a greater sense of psychological safety compared to those who had not discussed Calm content with their teams. Using Calm with other team members was not significantly associated with psychological safety. Gender, race, and age were not related to psychological safety.
| Have opportunities to use Calm with others at work (N=79) | Have used Calm with other team members (N=29) | Have discussed Calm content with their team (N=172) | Overall sample (N=400) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measure | n | ％ | n | ％ | n | ％ | n | ％ |
| Age | ||||||||
| 18–24 years | 9 | 11.4 | 6 | 20.7 | 12 | 7.0 | 30 | 7.5 |
| 25–34 years | 20 | 25.3 | 6 | 20.7 | 55 | 32.0 | 120 | 30.0 |
| 35–44 years | 25 | 31.6 | 10 | 64.5 | 45 | 26.2 | 112 | 28.0 |
| 45–54 years | 15 | 19.0 | 3 | 10.3 | 38 | 22.1 | 87 | 21.8 |
| 55–59 years | 8 | 10.1 | 3 | 10.3 | 15 | 8.7 | 31 | 7.8 |
| 60–64 years | 1 | 1.3 | 1 | 3.4 | 5 | 2.9 | 13 | 3.3 |
| ≥65 years | 1 | 1.3 | 0 | 0.0 | 2 | 1.2 | 7 | 1.8 |
| Gender | ||||||||
| Female | 63 | 79.7 | 23 | 79.3 | 143 | 83.1 | 289 | 72.3 |
| Male | 16 | 20.3 | 6 | 20.7 | 29 | 16.9 | 111 | 27.8 |
| Other | ||||||||
| Race/Ethnicity | ||||||||
| Asian | 17 | 21.5 | 1 | 3.4 | 16 | 9.3 | 46 | 11.5 |
| Black | 5 | 6.3 | 2 | 6.9 | 10 | 5.8 | 23 | 5.8 |
| Hispanic | 8 | 10.1 | 3 | 10.3 | 18 | 10.5 | 37 | 9.3 |
| White | 44 | 55.7 | 22 | 75.9 | 112 | 65.1 | 266 | 66.5 |
| Biracial/Multiracial | 5 | 6.3 | 0 | 0.0 | 13 | 7.6 | 19 | 4.8 |
| Other | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 3.4 | 2 | 1.2 | 9 | 2.3 |
| Have opportunities to use Calm with others at work (N=79) | Have used Calm with other team members (N=29) | Have discussed Calm content with their team (N=172) | Overall sample (N=400) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measure | n | ％ | n | ％ | n | ％ | n | ％ |
| Company size | ||||||||
| 5–100 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2 | 0.6 |
| 101–1,000 | 18 | 26.5 | 7 | 26.9 | 47 | 32.9 | 83 | 25.5 |
| 1,001–5,000 | 9 | 13.2 | 4 | 15.4 | 22 | 15.4 | 64 | 19.6 |
| 5,001–50,000 | 9 | 13.2 | 2 | 7.7 | 14 | 9.8 | 35 | 10.7 |
| More than 50,000 | 32 | 47.1 | 13 | 50.0 | 60 | 42.0 | 142 | 43.6 |
| Manager or supervisor | ||||||||
| Yes | 28 | 35.4 | 16 | 55.2 | 64 | 37.2 | 128 | 32.0 |
| No | 51 | 64.6 | 13 | 44.8 | 108 | 62.8 | 272 | 68.0 |
| Team size | ||||||||
| 1–5 | 30 | 38.0 | 4 | 13.8 | 54 | 31.4 | 129 | 32.3 |
| 6–9 | 14 | 17.7 | 6 | 20.7 | 34 | 19.8 | 85 | 21.3 |
| 10–15 | 13 | 16.5 | 7 | 24.1 | 33 | 19.2 | 78 | 19.5 |
| 16–19 | 4 | 5.1 | 1 | 3.4 | 8 | 4.7 | 24 | 6.0 |
| 20–35 | 8 | 10.1 | 7 | 24.1 | 23 | 13.4 | 43 | 10.8 |
| 36–49 | 2 | 2.5 | 0 | 0.0 | 4 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.5 |
| ≥50 | 8 | 10.1 | 4 | 13.8 | 16 | 9.3 | 35 | 8.8 |
Note. 74 employees in the overall sample did not disclose company size (i.e., N is 326), which included 11 in the sample that had opportunities to use Calm with others at work (i.e., N is 68), 3 in the sample of that had used Calm with other team members (i.e., N is 26), and 29 in the sample that had discussed Calm content with their team (i.e., N is 143); percentages reported for company size reflect proportions among those with valid data.
| Measure | n | ％ |
|---|---|---|
| My workplace provides opportunities for us to use Calm together (N=391) | ||
| Strongly Agree | 23 | 5.8 |
| Agree | 56 | 14.3 |
| Neither Agree nor Disagree | 132 | 33.8 |
| Disagree | 62 | 15.9 |
| Strongly Disagree | 118 | 30.2 |
| Have you ever used Calm with members of your team? (N=400) | ||
| Yes | 29 | 7.2 |
| No | 371 | 92.8 |
| Have you ever discussed content from Calm your team? (N=400) | ||
| Yes | 172 | 43.0 |
| No | 228 | 57.0 |
| Parameters | β | SE | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opportunities to use with others at work (N=391) | |||
| Opportunities at work | 2.39 | 0.84 | 0.005 |
| Gender (female) | 0.98 | 0.75 | 0.195 |
| Race (minority) | −0.76 | 0.73 | 0.299 |
| Age (34–54 years) | 0.81 | 1.11 | 0.467 |
| Age (≥55 years) | −0.06 | 0.76 | 0.940 |
| Use with team members (N=400) | |||
| Team use | 2.99 | 1.49 | 0.046 |
| Gender (female) | 0.96 | 0.87 | 0.270 |
| Race (minority) | −0.48 | 0.84 | 0.572 |
| Age (34–54 years) | 2.13 | 1.29 | 0.099 |
| Age (≥55 years) | 0.76 | 0.87 | 0.386 |
| Discuss content with team (N=400) | |||
| Team discussion | 0.18 | 0.80 | 0.862 |
| Gender (female) | 0.91 | 0.90 | 0.310 |
| Race (minority) | −0.38 | 0.85 | 0.656 |
| Age (34–54 years) | 2.12 | 1.29 | 0.102 |
| Age (≥55 years) | 0.77 | 0.88 | 0.382 |
Notes. SE, standard error; Opportunities at work, agreement with statement ‘My workplace provides opportunities for us to use the Calm app together’; Use with team members, response of ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever used the Calm app with other members of your team?’; Discuss content with team, response of ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever discussed content found within the Calm app with other members of your team?’; Gender (female), reported gender to be ‘female’; Race (minority), the endorsement at least one other race other than ‘White’. Age predictors are dummy coded and the 18–33 years age range was used as a reference group. All p-values are one-sided.
| Parameters | β | SE | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opportunities to use with others at work (N=391) | |||
| Opportunities at work | 1.85 | 0.66 | 0.005 |
| Gender (female) | −0.60 | 0.59 | 0.315 |
| Race (minority) | −0.43 | 0.58 | 0.459 |
| Age (34–54 years) | 1.05 | 0.87 | 0.229 |
| Age (≥55 years) | 0.73 | 0.60 | 0.220 |
| Use with team members (N=400) | |||
| Team use | 0.05 | 1.01 | 0.958 |
| Gender (female) | −0.40 | 0.59 | 0.492 |
| Race (minority) | −0.27 | 0.57 | 0.632 |
| Age (34–54 years) | 1.14 | 0.87 | 0.191 |
| Age (≥55 years) | 0.80 | 0.59 | 0.176 |
| Discuss content with team (N=400) | |||
| Team discussion | 1.17 | 0.53 | 0.029 |
| Gender (female) | −0.69 | 0.60 | 0.247 |
| Race (minority) | −0.28 | 0.56 | 0.616 |
| Age (34–54 years) | 1.15 | 0.86 | 0.183 |
| Age (≥55 years) | 0.83 | 0.59 | 0.155 |
Notes. SE, standard error; Opportunities at work, agreement with statement ‘My workplace provides opportunities for us to use the Calm app together’; Use with team members, response of ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever used the Calm app with other members of your team?’; Discuss content with team, response of ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever discussed content found within the Calm app with other members of your team?’; Gender (female), reported gender to be ‘female’; Race (minority), the endorsement at least one other race other than ‘White’. Age predictors are dummy coded and the 18–33 years age range was used as a reference group. All p-values are one-sided.
The purposes of this study were to (1) describe types of workplace app engagement with an employer-provided mindfulness meditation app in remote workers and (2) examine the relationship between types of workplace app engagement and employees’ perceptions of team mindfulness and psychological safety within remote work teams. We found that 20% (n=79/391) of remote workers felt that their workplace provided opportunities to use Calm together at work, and only 7% (n=29/400) had used Calm with their team members; however, almost half (43%; n=172/400) reported that they had discussed Calm content with their team, regardless of actually using Calm with their team members. Remote employees who felt that their workplace provided opportunities to use Calm with others at work had perceptions of greater team mindfulness and greater psychological safety. Those who had opportunities to use Calm with others at work were more likely to use Calm with team members and discuss Calm content with their teams. Using Calm with team members was associated with perceptions of greater team mindfulness and discussing Calm content with teams was associated with perceptions of greater psychological safety.
Although companies are increasingly investing in resources to support employee mental well-being, especially through mindfulness-based approaches9), our data show that only a small proportion of remote workers feel that their employers provide opportunities to use the Calm app with others at work. Given these findings, it is not surprising that few remote workers have used Calm with other team members. To our knowledge, no studies have tested group-based mindfulness mobile app interventions on employee well-being or team mindfulness and psychological safety outcomes. However, studies that have tested group-based mindfulness interventions (not app-based) in the workplace show these interventions may be effective for employees given the opportunity to participate29). It is possible that many employers would allow or be comfortable with remote work teams using Calm together at work but are not actively communicating this or providing explicit opportunities for them to do so (e.g., allotted time during work). Considering the common narrative that mental health is a personal problem11), it seems unlikely that remote workers will come together to use Calm as teams during the workday without top-down encouragement30). Additionally, research shows that perceived organizational support for employee wellness increases employees’ engagement in workplace wellness programs31), and that organizations’ lack of active support in implementing and maintaining a positive workplace climate interventions is a known cause of intervention failure32). Therefore, more top-down encouragement is needed to implement successful team-level interventions. As a social determinant of health, the workplace environment affects the health and well-being of its employees33), including remote workers who do not share a physical environment with their team members, but are nonetheless affected by the social climate of their workplace and workplace teams23). Given this, interventions that aim to improve team-level workplace conditions may be an important complement to wellness initiatives that target the individual worker33). However, future research in this area is warranted, as this phenomenon has yet to be explored in the workplace, particularly as it relates to mindfulness apps, team mindfulness, and psychological safety outcomes.
The strongest predictor of both team mindfulness and psychological safety in our data was remote workers’ belief that their employers provided opportunities for them to use Calm together at work. By providing opportunities for remote workers to use Calm together at work, organizations can demonstrate how they value their employees’ mental well-being and acknowledge how the workplace contributes to employee mental wellness in a meaningful way4,33). This further emphasizes the importance of employers making efforts to create and support these opportunities, especially for fostering a positive work climate. Moreover, organizations demonstrating support for employee well-being may also increase employee retention. According to Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index, data from 30,000 employees from 31 countries indicated that 41% of the global workforce and 54% of Gen-Z workers are considering leaving their employer within the next year34). Other large-scale surveys show that when considering new positions, 91% of employees believe that prospective companies must have healthy work environments and cultures that support employee mental health5), and that corporate wellness initiatives were the top consideration when evaluating a new job offer — ahead of financial advising, gym memberships, free meals, fun office amenities, and sponsored social events35). Our findings demonstrate that when companies invest in employee mental well-being and provide opportunities for them to engage with these initiatives, employees may feel safer in sharing opinions or speaking up (i.e., psychological safety) and perceive their team interactions to be more mindful. As such, companies offering mindfulness meditation apps to remote workers should encourage workplace teams to allocate specific times during the workday to use and discuss the content of these apps together to enhance perceptions of team mindfulness and psychological safety. Future research should also evaluate the effects of mindfulness meditation apps on remote workers’ mental well-being, as well as the potential mechanisms behind these effects (e.g., team mindfulness, psychological safety).
Remote workers who used Calm with their team members perceived their teams to be more mindful than those who had not used Calm with their team members. We are unaware of other studies that have specifically tested or evaluated the use of a mindfulness meditation app among remote workers to improve team mindfulness. However, several studies have found associations between formal in-person mindfulness-training interventions for workplace teams and improvements in team mindfulness, team climate, perceptions of social support, and team relationship conflict21). Research also suggests that remote workers may experience unique challenges with regard to communication and interpersonal interaction that affect their perceptions of team mindfulness36). For example, during virtual meetings, remote workers may experience more distractions as they can toggle between various screens, turn off webcams, and engage in side conversations through texts or chats, all of which impact mindful interactions among team members37,38). Practicing meditation or other mindfulness exercises with team members may help remote workers perceive their team as being in the “here-and-now” and not distracted during team interactions39).
Group-level interventions that target the workplace (or teams) rather than the individual employee (i.e., practicing mindfulness meditation together in the workplace rather than independently) may be an important means of changing work conditions or the workplace environment33). Rather than trying to change the skills or practices of individual employees (often as reactive responses to stressful workplaces), group- and team-level interventions reflect a proactive approach to address emerging interpersonal workplace stressors that may have a detrimental effect on employee mental well-being33). This can serve to protect employees from future sources of stress, even among those who do not currently seek or utilize resources to support their mental well-being33). Although individual-level interventions are effective, there is a need for studies testing group-level approaches in remote workers to evaluate the feasibility and effects of mindfulness meditation apps (used together during the workday) on mental well-being outcomes.
Despite relatively few remote workers reporting that they had opportunities to use Calm with others at work (20%) or that they had used Calm with other members of their team (7%), slightly under half of remote workers reported that they had discussed content from Calm with their teams (43%). Remote workers who discussed content from the Calm app with their teams also reported a greater sense of psychological safety. Although there are no studies that have specifically addressed how discussing content from a mindfulness meditation app relates to psychological safety, research on teaching mindfulness in groups demonstrates that teaching mindfulness in this way can help facilitate belongingness and accountability39,40), allowing participants to learn from and share insights and vulnerabilities with each other. There is a need for more studies that evaluate the impact of not only practicing app-based mindfulness meditation as a team, but how discussions about these interactions can further benefit mental well-being in the workplace.
LimitationsAlthough this study was the first to report on types of workplace app engagement with a mindfulness meditation app, there are important limitations that should be addressed. First, given the inherent limitations of cross-sectional surveys that rely on retrospective self-report, responses are subject to possible bias, misinterpretation, or misremembering. Because the survey could be anonymous, it is also possible that individual employees could have submitted multiple responses. The cross-sectional nature of this survey also precludes the understanding of directionality of associations (e.g., whether team mindfulness or psychological safety facilitated discussion of workplace engagement, or the extent to which this relationship was reciprocal rather than unidirectional). Future research should employ more intensive study designs (e.g., longitudinal, randomized controlled trials) to describe temporality and demonstrate causal effects.
Second, data on types of workplace app engagement was limited to three questions that did not address the frequency or context of using or discussing the Calm app. Associations between use of mindfulness meditation apps in the context of the remote workplace and team mindfulness and psychological safety may depend on how remote workers are using meditation apps with their team members (e.g., in a group with the entire team, in pairs), how often or how recently they have used it, or why they choose to use it (e.g., to cope with a stressful situation vs. to be more mindful). Future studies should collect more detailed information on types of workplace engagement (e.g., days/week, minutes/week of app usage) and incorporate qualitative information to provide more contextual data.
Third, there are many additional variables that may impact how remote workers view their teams and workplaces, which may also account for or modify the relationships between Calm usage in workplace teams and perceptions of psychological safety and team mindfulness (e.g., unmeasured demographic characteristics, income, specific position/job title, health literacy, mental health, beliefs about and experience with mindfulness or meditation, and work team or workplace characteristics). Future studies should consider incorporating additional measures to collect further data to better understand the generalizability of these findings.
Fourth, the low number of employees who reported that they had used Calm with their team members, may have decreased the power to detect associations between the different types of workplace app engagement and perceptions of team mindfulness and psychological safety, particularly if these associations are moderated by other unmeasured variables. Additionally, low response rates and selection bias may limit the generalizability of the findings. Similarly, the offering of chance to receive a ＄250 gift card as compensation for their time may have also introduced selection bias.
Finally, these questions were asked of individual employees, outside of the context of their specific work team. Future studies would benefit from addressing these questions more directly at the team level (e.g., including all workers within work teams, assessing differences within and between different teams, and addressing team-level variables that may underlie those differences).
ConclusionsThis study is one of the first to describe how an employer-provided mindfulness app (i.e., Calm) is used in remote workplace settings. It is also the first study to investigate the associations between types of workplace app engagement and perceptions of team mindfulness and psychological safety within remote workplace teams. Our findings highlight how providing opportunities for teams to engage with a mindfulness app at work may help foster team mindfulness and psychological safety among remote workers, but that currently these opportunities may be scarce. We recommend that, to promote employee engagement, employers should communicate their support for remote workers using a mindfulness app with their teams and provide clear opportunities for them to do so during the workday.
None.
C.C. conceived of the presented idea and planned and carried out the study in discussions with M.E.P. and J.H. J.H. supervised the project. M.E.P. derived the models and analyzed the data. M.E.P. took the lead in writing the manuscript with input, feedback, and edits from J.G., S.C., and J.H. All authors provided critical feedback and contributed to the final version of the manuscript.
Dr. Jennifer Huberty and Claire Clarke disclose that they receive an annual salary from Calm and hold stock within the company. However, their salary and equity are not dependent upon the results of their research. Megan Puzia discloses that she is a paid contractor (i.e., Research Coordinator) of Calm. Dr. Jeni Green and Sara Cloonan declare no Conflict of Interests for this article.
No sources of funding to report.
