The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has wide-ranging effect, even on those who have not contracted the virus. People seeking as much normalcy as possible have turned to online fitness classes to keep up their physical exercise and Zoom meetings and other methods of communication to keep in touch with their friends and coworkers.
Wellness Coach, a wellness startup that offers mental and physical wellness tools to 200+ companies globally, recently released findings on its internal analysis of how its members are utilizing its live mediation, sleep music and fitness classes since the pandemic began. By its methodology, Wellness Coach analyzed a sample 100+ companies and thousands of anonymous employee wellness class usage data to show overall trends, reviewing 10+ companies in the vertical to draw vertical conclusions.
Some of the key findings include:
- After seeing a normal drop-off in emotional intelligence, focus, stress and relaxation class attendance over the November 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 timeframe as employees spent more time with family over the holidays, the company saw an 86% increase in fitness class attendance due to New Year’s resolutions
- As the COVID-19 pandemic became more pronounced in March, class attendance related to stress increased 52% month-over-month, with emotional intelligence classes dropping by 32% and relaxation classes increasing by 17% month-over-month
- As it relates to the heavily hit Advertising and Travel sectors,
- Fitness classes increased by 250% (yoga, fitness and home fitness) month-over-month
- Relaxation Increased by 70% (working from home, listing to music while working)
- Stress-related classes increased 60% (more breathing exercises, anxiety exercise)
- Emotional intelligence classes dropped by 48%,
- Sleep (bedtime stories, sleep meditations and music) dropped by 25%,
“The Employee Wellness Index gives companies a real-time look at the needs of their employees, based on the classes employees are attending,” said D. Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Wellness Coach. “The impact on COVID-19 related, employee stress is significant. We are seeing a shift from more work-related classes (emotional intelligence) to stress management tools. Work from home and the harder-hit travel and advertising sector saw a much higher increase in stress, as they are coping with taking care of their body and mind by working out, relaxing and using tools to alleviate stress.”
