Topic: Anxiety, Emotional Competency, Life Stress, Sleep, Depression
Target Population: Adults, Employers
Sector: Work Site
This program is for employers and their employees.
Calm Business app, a mindfulness-meditation mobile app, is designed to improve workplace productivity and employee engagement and well-being. The Calm Business app includes content from the Calm app* and incorporates additional features for employers and their employees.
*A separate fact sheet is available for this product.
There have been no peer-reviewed publications that specifically evaluate the effectiveness of the Calm Business app. However, one randomized trial using the Calm app was conducted among employees of a large, multisite employer in the United States. Participants were assigned to the intervention group or a wait-list control group and were assessed every 2 weeks for 8 weeks. Participants in the intervention group were instructed to use the Calm app for 10 minutes per day for 8 weeks. At posttest, results indicated significant improvements in the intervention group for depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, sleepiness, resilience, presenteeism, overall work impairment, and nonwork impairment and decreases in medical care visit frequency and productivity impairment costs relative to the wait-list control group. It is unclear if implementation of the app in this evaluation included additional features of the Calm Business app.
Calm engages participants in mindfulness-meditation sessions, in which participants practice moment-to-moment awareness and focus on the present without judgmental thoughts. Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques are incorporated into some sessions. Participants may choose the “daily Calm” set of guided meditations or choose from other options for specific goals such as happiness or self-esteem. The Calm app includes the following:
The Calm Business app includes individual, self-guided experiences and wellness tools for employees. In addition, group-based interactive workshops on current mental health and wellness topics are available.
Calm Business provides a Team Plan and an Enterprise Plan for employers and employees. Both of these options provide the same content as the Calm app with some additional features: a Partner Portal, which is a self-serve management and analytics platform to help employers manage team members and assess app usage; employee engagement resources; and exclusive, topical webinars and events.
Calm Business is being implemented in over 3,000 organizations with more than 20 million employees around the world and is offered in seven languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Training is not required or available for implementation of this app as this app is self-administered.
Considerations for implementing this program include acquiring buy-in from employers and their employees, ensuring employees have a mobile device that can run the Calm Business app and internet access, finding time to engage in the app, and realizing that results are dependent upon how much time employees choose to engage with the app.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing the Calm Business app, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you! Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email clearinghouse@psu.edu
Modules vary in length. The frequency, dose, and timing of engagement with the app and its content and use of various features are self-selected by each user and are self-paced.
Employers can select a plan for small teams of 5 to 100 people or choose a plan for larger organizations of more than 100 people. Please visit https://business.calm.com/plans/, or use details in the Contact section to request pricing and learn more about implementation costs.
To move the Calm Business app to the Promising category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one evaluation should be performed lasting at least one year from the beginning of the program or at least six months from program completion.
The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program. Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact the Calm Help Center by visiting https://support.calm.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Huberty, J. L., Espel-Huynh, H. M., Neher, T. L., & Puzia, M. E. (2022). Testing the pragmatic effectiveness of a consumer-based mindfulness mobile app in the workplace: Randomized controlled trial. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 10(9), e38903-e38903. https://doi.org/10.2196/38903
