Companies know that their employees’ performance and health can deteriorate when they feel stressed. Stress is the leading cause of underperformance and work absences which can affect your business negatively. Taking steps to prevent burn-out and stress-related illnesses is an excellent idea, but are there any free apps to measure your employees’ stress levels?
Here are fifteen free apps that allow you to check your employee’s stress levels:
- StressScan
- Samsung Health
- Measure Workplace Stress
- Welltory
- Stress At Work AI – Pulse Rate
- ReachOut Breathe
- Garmin
- StressCoach
- Happify
- SuperBetter
- Elite HRV: Wellness & Fitness
- Heart Rate & Stress Monitor
- Fitbit
- Serenita
- Self-Help for Anxiety Management (SAM)
Despite productivity, you owe it to your employees to provide a stress-controlled work environment. After all, their success is your success in the long run. Read further to discover some excellent stress management apps to help monitor your employee’s workplace tension.
1. StressScan
The StressScan app is surprisingly good for a free stress management app! It has an innovative way of working as you place your finger over your smartphone’s camera. It will measure your heart rate’s waveform, compare it with previous readings, and give you a mental and physical stress level score between one and 100.
The StressScan developers used automatic nervous system research when creating this app, and if you have your employees use it daily, you can get a pretty clear picture of your office’s stress levels.
If you analyze data from this app over a month, you could also see if your employees become more stressed at certain times of the month (when you need to wrap up your sales figures, for example) or if employees in specific job roles have higher stress levels.
All you need for this app to work is a reliable internet connection, and you can download it for free in the Apple or Android app store.
2. Samsung Health
If you and your employees all use company-issued Samsung smartwatches, you might consider using the Samsung Health app to monitor stress levels in your workplace.
Samsung Health is a multi-functional app because it allows users to monitor physical activity levels, set weight loss and health goals, and manage their mental health more effectively.
It measures stress levels by measuring your heart rate on your wrist, and it will publish the statistics in the easy-to-navigate app on your smartphone.
When you feel stressed, you can consult the “Mindfulness” tab, which provides excellent meditation and breathing exercises. These only take a few minutes, and you can easily fit them seamlessly into your working day.
The Samsung Health app also has a “Together” tab where employees can compare their health information (including stress levels), create challenges, and encourage each other to reach their stress management goals.
3. Measure Workplace Stress
Available in the Apple and Android app stores, the Measure Workplace Stress app is a Canadian stress measurement application.
This app’s developers worked closely with the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) to produce a high-quality product to help employees to understand their stress triggers better.
This app is the ideal digital product for helping employers determine which workplace factors they can improve upon to make it a less stressful working environment. For example, when the employee first uses the app, they are asked various questions about the following:
- Stress symptoms
- Concerning workplace behaviors
- Workplace organizational structure
- Company values
- Workload
- Workplace relationships.
The Measure Workplace Stress app then calculates a workplace stress level score and offers helpful suggestions about dealing with problem areas. These include mindfulness exercises, role-play games, and better nutritional choices.
This app may also be helpful for your HR department as your employees can fill out a Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, and the app will automatically calculate the score.
4. Welltory
Welltory is a popular health and well-being app available in the Android and Apple app stores. The basic package is free, but you can pay the subscription fee if you want to unlock its premium features.
Your employees can track their fitness levels, lifestyle habits, and, most importantly, their stress levels in the Welltory app. The app will provide an intelligent stress level reading after analyzing the employee’s blood pressure readings and heart rate measurements.
However, you can’t measure your blood pressure through the app, your smartphone, or watch. You’ll need a separate blood pressure machine, but entering a daily reading in the Welltory app is straightforward.
After opening the Welltory app and placing your finger over your smartphone’s camera, it will measure your heart rate.
Based on Welltory’s findings, it will make lifestyle improvement recommendations to your employees to take steps to manage their stress levels effectively.
5. Stress At Work AI – Pulse Rate
Stress At Work AI – Pulse Rate is a lesser-known app for measuring your heart rate. Although it’s only available in the Apple store, if your employees all use iPhones, it could be worth having them use this app as it’s free to download and use.
Like many other stress management apps, Stress At Work AI – Pulse Rate measures your heart rate with your finger when placing it over your smartphone’s camera.
Some positive benefits of using this app include:
- Ability to set reminders to measure your heart rate.
- App-generated comments and suggestions after each reading.
- A place for employees to add notes and comments about their feelings during each heart rate measurement.
After using this app for a few weeks, you may be able to detect patterns and stress triggers and take steps to mitigate these for a healthier workplace.
6. ReachOut Breathe
ReachOut Breathe is an excellent stress management app that The American Institute of Stress has recommended. It’s free to use, but it’s unfortunately only available in the Apple app store.
Its goal is to help and train users to slow their breathing down and become more mindful of themselves and their surroundings to control their stress levels.
This app can help you check your employees’ stress levels as it measures their heart rate through a smartphone camera and gives a reading.
ReachOut Breathe encourages users to measure their heart rate before and after a controlled breathing session to see the difference in writing and be encouraged to continue.
It can be challenging to get all your employees on board to use this app, as some might not believe in the power of controlled breathing. However, when they observe their colleagues’ reduced stress levels, they may be tempted to join the trend.
7. Garmin
Garmin makes excellent GPS devices, and their GPS-enabled smartwatches are no exception. If any of your employees own a Garmin smartwatch, they can use the free, in-built stress tracker.
Garmin uses Firstbeat Analytics to measure the wearer’s stress levels throughout the day and does this with the device’s optical heart rate sensor.
If you want your employee to take advantage of this feature, it’s best to wear the Garmin device as much as possible. Consistent monitoring of the device ensures the data will be more accurate and show them when they tend to feel more stressed.
The Garmin device will produce a stress score each time it measures the wearer’s heart rate. Scores 25 or higher indicate a state of high stress.
When the Garmin device detects that your employee is feeling stressed and has a score of 25 or higher, it will alert them and suggest some breathing exercises.
8. StressCoach
StressCoach is a fantastic app to help reduce workplace stress because it aims to help you take action before your stress levels become problematic and you suffer from burn-out.
You can download it for free in the Android and Apple stores, and it has a simple and intuitive interface.
It only takes two minutes to measure your stress levels in the StressCoach app. This process involves placing your finger over your phone’s camera so that the app can obtain a heart rate measurement. You then answer a few short questions about your current state of mind.
After you have used StressCoach to measure your stress levels eight or more times, you’ll have an idea of your baseline stress level, and the data will show you when you feel the most stressed.
By using the app regularly, you’ll also notice which stress management interventions are working and which ones aren’t.
9. Happify
Happify is a free stress management app available in the Apple app store, and it’s worth mentioning because it has been designed by doctors and scientists and mentioned in publications like The New York Times and Forbes.
According to Happify, 86% of their regular app users report feeling more optimistic and generally happier after using it for two months.
The Happify app doesn’t measure your employees’ stress levels. Still, it offers a fun way of managing stress through psychology-based games and quizzes to help you deal with negative thoughts, anxiety, stress, and other challenging emotions.
Each game or quiz only takes a few minutes, and if your employees love using the app, you could upgrade to Happify Plus, which offers the following:
- Access to more relaxation tracks
- Access to comprehensive data on your game and quiz results
- Access to even more games, quizzes, and meditation exercises.
If you decide to fork out for Happify Plus, consider a yearly subscription that works out much cheaper.
10. SuperBetter
The SuperBetter app designers understand that stress is a normal part of life, and they don’t aim to eliminate it from your life. Instead, they help you build resilience, become more positive, and develop stress management skills so that it doesn’t affect you as much.
SuperBetter is an excellent app if you want to address the underlying causes of stress in your work environment and not just measure them.
You can use the SuperBetter app for free after downloading it from the Apple or Android app store. After completing your profile and answering questions about your stress levels, the app will issue you daily challenges. You get one point for each challenge you complete, making it fun and game-like.
Examples of the challenges in this app include:
- Drinking a glass of water
- Taking a short and brisk stroll
- Affirming yourself
- Chatting to someone you care about
- Do something you find challenging.
These challenges help promote improved mental health, and if you make them a habit, you might not feel as stressed at work.
11. Elite HRV: Wellness & Fitness
The Elite HRV app uses heart rate variability (HRV), the time variance between your heartbeats. The app measures your Heart rate variability in milliseconds, and a healthy score has a wide range of between 20 and 200 milliseconds.
After using the Elite HRV app for a week, you will understand your baseline HRV score and when it’s at its highest. You’ll also understand how stressed you are, and the app will tell you if you’re constantly in fight or flight mode, a red flag.
Your health rate variability score depends on various factors:
- Age
- Fitness level
- Gender
- Stress level
- Circadian rhythm
- Illness
- Alcohol and drug consumption.
Based on the information you enter in the Elite HRV app, it will make helpful suggestions about how to improve your physical and mental health and reduce your stress levels.
You can download the Elite HRV app for free, and it’s available in the Google Play and Apple app stores. For the app’s HRV feature to work correctly, you’ll need a smartphone or wearable that supports it. However, most smartphones and smartwatches manufactured after 2016 support HRV.
12. Heart Rate & Stress Monitor
Heart Rate & Stress Monitor is a popular stress management tool, and the app describes itself as a powerful personal health assistant.
Entering all the daily required information into this app can be time-consuming. Still, it’s worth it because it gives you an accurate picture of your current psychosocial health by consolidating various personal data.
Examples of information you’ll need to provide in the app daily include:
- Caffeine and water intake
- Blood pressure readings
- State of mind and feelings
- Exercise.
The app will measure your heart rate when you place your finger over the camera, but you’ll need a standalone blood pressure machine. Using the app on your smartwatch will automatically monitor your circadian rhythm and heart rate.
Once you’ve used the app for a while, you can view the generated graphs and see when you feel most stressed.
You can use the Heart Rate & Stress Monitor app for any Apple or Android device, and it’s free to use.
13. Fitbit
Fitbit has been around for ages and was one of the first companies to produce basic wearables that could measure a person’s daily steps and heartbeat. While Apple and Samsung currently dominate the wearable market, Fitbit is still going strong and continues to have many diehard fans.
If your employee has any of these Fitbit smart wearables, they can measure their stress levels in the Fitbit app:
- Fitbit Sense
- Fitbit Charge 4
- Fitbit Charge 5
- Fitbit Inspire 2
- Fitbit Versa 2
- Fitbit Versa 3
- Fitbit Luxe.
The Fitbit app gives you a stress management score based on your heart rate, activity level, and sleep quality. Higher stress management scores show that you aren’t exhibiting signs of stress, while a low score is a cause for concern. In such cases, the app may recommend that you have a meditation session, take a breather, or have a relaxing nap.
If you want to measure your employee’s stress levels over time, you can use the data in the app to see the trends, which may help you pinpoint stress triggers.
Since Fitbit measures stress levels so effectively and its wearables are reasonably-price, you might consider investing in one for each employee to improve their stress levels.
14. Serenita
If you’re looking for a stress management app based on cognitive-behavioral psychology and is available in the Android and Apple app stores, you should consider the Serenita app.
After your employee measures their heart rate with their smartphone’s camera, the Serenita app will suggest some stress-reduction exercises and show them how long to breathe in, hold their breath, and exhale.
This app is an excellent choice if you have employees who also struggle with focusing, as it offers exercises that help improve focus. These are also breathing exercises but use a different pattern from the stress reduction ones.
Serenita is a fun and interactive app because it awards points to users if they follow the exercise’s instructions correctly. If you’re encouraging your employees to manage their stress levels more effectively, you could run an informal competition in the office. The winner would be the person who’s racked up the most points for the exercises.
The app also allows you to set reminders so that you never forget a breathing exercise.
15. Self-Help for Anxiety Management (SAM)
SAM is a free app that you can download from the Google or Apple app store.
Since anxiety and stress have many symptoms in common, this might be a useful app to help you check your employees’ stress levels.
This app’s most popular feature is its easy-to-use symptom tracker. After logging your symptoms regularly for at least a week, you’ll be able to get a clear picture of what’s making you the most stressed out at work.
Once you understand why you’re feeling stressed out, you can use the SAM app to find educational articles and interesting links related to your symptoms. The SAM app also has a closed interaction platform where you can safely chat, share symptoms, and get support from others who also feel stressed.
Sources
- CCOHS: Homepage
- COPSOQ: Homepage
- Apple App Store: StressScan
- Google Play Store: Samsung Health
- OHCOW: Measure Workplace Stress App
- Welltory: Homepage
- Apple App Store: Stress At Work AI – Pulse Rate
- Emerging Minds: ReachOut Breathe app
- The American Institute of Stress: Homepage
- Garmin: Homepage
- StressCoach: Homepage
- Happify: Homepage
- SuperBetter: Homepage
- Elite HRV: Homepage
- Apple App Store: Heart Rate & Stress
- Fitbit: Homepage
- Apple App Store: Serenita – Stress & Anxiety
- Google Play Store: Self-help App for the Mind SAM
