HeartMath successfully targets and reverses this financial drain.

It’s common to hear the expression, "I perform better under stress." But with lingering economic sluggishness and ongoing terrorist fears, how much stress can we actually handle? 75% of Americans now describe their jobs as stressful and considerable evidence is linking stress to high health care costs. HeartMath LLC, a training and technology organisation near Silicon Valley in California, has created revolutionary human performance technology which is considered the only scientifically validated system of performance enhancing, stress reduction techniques that quantifiably and dramatically boost health and performance in organisations and its people. The impact of HeartMath’s work has been impressive.

For over a decade HeartMath has researched the relationship between stress, emotions, health and performance. Results from HeartMath studies have been published in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Innovative Management, and Stress Medicine. Their data demonstrates that emotional stress has an immediate effect on workplace performance and contributes to health problems which employers absorb as rising health care costs.

There’s no doubt that stress is a driving force behind high health care costs. In a recent 6-year study of over 46,000 workers from 22 major organisations, depression and unmanaged stress emerged as the top two most costly risk factors in terms of medical expenditures. According to Workforce magazine, health care spending by employers averaged $5,266 per employee in 2001. That figure is expected to rise at least 13-16% in 2002. Seven of the top ten selling drugs worldwide are either anti-depressants or anti-ulcer medications, with stress a prime factor in the need for both. Add to this the American Institute of Stress’s estimate that now 75-90% of all doctor visits are stress-related and it is clear that chronic stress is a costly way of life for many people.

Bruce Cryer, an expert in personal and organisational performance, is CEO of HeartMath. Cryer says, "We have seen our client organisations reduce stress on overworked executives and staff, while simultaneously improving productivity and morale." In six months of HeartMath training at a Motorola manufacturing facility, 93% of employees demonstrated increased productivity, 90% experienced better teamwork, and 93% reported higher levels of health, including more energy, less tension, fewer physical problems and less need for medication. Defects on a manufacturing line also decreased by 22%. At a Chicago area hospital, staff turnover decreased from 28% to 21% in one year, saving the hospital $800,000.

HeartMath has repeatedly shown the effectiveness of its human performance technology in health outcomes. For example, blood pressure studies conducted at Motorola, Shell, BP and other companies demonstrated that employees with hypertension were able to restore their blood pressure to normal values within three months after HeartMath training. The improvements in blood pressure seen in these studies are equivalent to a 40-pound weight loss and twice the effect of a sodium-restricted diet or exercise program. A review of more than 1,400 participants in HeartMath programs at numerous large organisations in the US revealed a 65% reduction in the number of people reporting high stress after the HeartMath program.

Results have not been limited to the U.S. Dr. Graham Bridgewood, former Chief Medical Officer of Shell, introduced HeartMath to Shell executives, "The background physiology and the science underpinning HeartMath are absolutely sound, which is why we went ahead with pilot studies at Shell. Seeing the self-induced changes impressed the company’s otherwise skeptical engineers." Over the past five years, thousands of Shell employees on five continents have been through HeartMath’s peak performance programs, with improvements in health and performance still sustaining twelve months after the program.

Cryer is also the co-author of the widely popular book, "From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance." In the book he advises, "Corporate management today is becoming aware of both the physiological and financial consequences of unmanaged emotional stress. Sometimes these effects can be severe, even life threatening at the highest levels of some of the most successful organisations. Company leaders cannot afford to perceive stress management as merely a soft skill. It has become a critical business issue if companies are to remain viable in a time of unprecedented change and transformation. The good news is stress can be reduced while performance is enhanced. Targeting this source of soaring health care and human costs is an intelligent strategy."

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