Stress impacts practically every person and every organisation at some point in time. And the impacts of stress and can be very costly in both human terms and on the bottom line. Medibank Private in March 2009 reported that work related stress costs the Australian economy $14.8 billion annually through general absenteeism, sick leave and staff turnover. Stress related health problems account for up to 60% of workplace absenteeism.

IAB Services is a NSW government trading enterprise specialising in providing a wide range of assurance and consulting services to State, Local and Commonwealth Government bodies operating within NSW and the ACT.

As a government body established to assist othe Government bodies, they exclusively focus on public sector improvement. The public sector is constantly changing as new needs emerge, IAB responds so government bodies can always draw upon informed assistance.

And the current economic climate with its attendant pressures on all organisations is exacerbating these already telling statistics. In late 2008, IAB services felt it should be offering government more help in addressing the challenges of stress in the workplace and asked HeartMath to develop a program that could be made available to government organisations.

In order to verify the value of the HeartMath program, the IAB executive team themselves particpated in two days of workshops in the Transforming Stress for Peak Performance program. Pre and Post assessments (8 weeks) were conducted using the HeartMath POQA Instrument (Personal and Organisational Quality Assessment).

Results

"We know the HeartMath program works because the mangement team at IAB has taken the Transforming Stress for Peak Performance Workshops with outstanding results."

Stephen Horne, Managing Director

Significant improvements were recorded across a wide range of performance attributes including reductions in fatigue (-27%), anxiety (-29%), depression (-34%), anger management (-31%), resentfulness (-31%) and the stress symptoms (-37%). Equally significant were improvements in measurements that more directly impact the bottom line including productivity (+20%), motivation (+7%) and intention to quit (-31%).

The assesssment measured 38 additional personal and organisational measures.

"Attracting and retaining staff is a key stratgeic issue for every organisation. As part of that. and to address productivity, we believe that improving workplace health needs to be the major focus. To prove the value of HeartMath, we have taken the program ourselves and are happy to recommend it."

Stephen Horne
Managing Director, IAB Services