As workplace stress levels continue to rise, organizations are increasingly turning to innovative solutions to support their employees' mental health and emotional wellbeing. The findings from a new randomized controlled trial from researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), published in JAMA on January 14, underscore the promise of mindfulness – particularly digital mindfulness programs like Headspace – as an innovative solution for supporting employee mental health, wellbeing, and workplace outcomes such as burnout and engagement.

The findings are clear: employees using digital mindfulness tools like Headspace report lower stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression while increasing engagement at work. For HR leaders and benefits decision-makers, these results provide compelling evidence that integrating mindfulness programs into workplace wellness initiatives can yield long-term benefits for both employees and the organization as a whole.

The UCSF study – which evaluated the impact of Headspace use on 1,400+ employees with no history of meditating or practicing mindfulness – explored whether Headspace’s digital meditation and mindfulness exercises could improve general and work-related stress and wellbeing among UCSF employees. After engaging with Headspace’s mindfulness and meditation content for eight weeks (compared with those in the control group, who were instructed to continue with normal activities and not add any meditation during the study period), participants reported significant improvements around perceived stress, job strain, burnout, work engagement, mindfulness, depression, and anxiety. Improvements sustained – or got better – at a four-month follow up. 

• Reduced stress: Employees experienced a 27% reduction in perceived stress. This is particularly important in today’s high-pressure work environments, where chronic stress is linked to burnout, absenteeism, and decreased productivity.
• Reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression: Employees experienced a notable 37% decrease in anxiety symptoms, and 32% decrease in depression symptoms. 
• Improved workplace wellness: Those who engaged with Headspace reported decreased job strain and burnout, as well as increased work engagement. 

Further, the findings highlight the value of consistency: participants who meditated an average of five or more minutes per day showed significantly greater reductions in perceived stress compared to those who meditated on average less than 5 minutes per day. 

The UCSF study provides strong evidence that when tools like Headspace are provided to employees, they can be a game-changer for improving mental health and productivity in the workplace. With minimal costs and low rates of attrition, this study shows strong potential to scale access, allowing employees to reap the benefits whenever and wherever they need them – whether in the office, at home, or on the go.

"Mindfulness is more than just a buzzword – it’s a proven method for reducing perceptions of stress and improving cognitive performance,” said the study’s first author Rachel Radin, PhD, a psychologist and UCSF Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. “Our research shows that digital mindfulness tools, like Headspace, can help employees manage the demands of modern work life and perform at their best. Further, given the established link between chronic work stress and metabolic dysregulation – and that our group’s pilot study found decreases in waist circumference with this same intervention – we are excited about the potential downstream health benefits and employer health savings.”

“This study validates what we’ve seen in our own data: Headspace can have a transformative impact on individual wellbeing and even a few minutes of consistent practice can make a difference,” said Sarah Kunkle, Senior Director, Research at Headspace. “We’re encouraged by the growing body of evidence demonstrating that Headspace’s offerings – from mindfulness and meditation content to human-delivered care – can improve employee health. Headspace not only helps organizations foster healthier and more productive workforces, but can also impact total cost of care.” 

Integrating mindfulness into employee benefits packages is no longer a “nice-to-have” – it’s a necessity for fostering a healthy, high-performing workforce. Headspace’s research-backed programs are designed to meet the unique challenges of the modern workplace, providing employees with the tools they need to improve overall mental health, wellbeing, and work performance.

Headspace’s External Research Collaborator Program enables academic researchers, government agencies, healthcare institutions, and other organizations to conduct scientific studies using the Headspace app, complementing the real world studies the Headspace Research team conducts internally. This program has contributed to Headspace’s 65+ peer-reviewed publications already, and 50+ studies currently underway that are examining the impact that mindfulness and the Headspace app can have on health outcomes. Researchers can submit proposals here. The Headspace Research team is encouraging research proposals that advance mental health equity in underserved or vulnerable populations.