The following stories are from health-care providers, corporate executives and human-resource professionals who have referred their patients and employees to the online Behavioral Wellness Program (BWP) for help in controlling stress. The BWP enabled them to confidentially evaluate the impact of stress on their patients, personnel and organizations, and to devise effective action plans to improve their health and well-being. The stories also come from CEOs who have reduced the substantial corporate liability of stress, including money spent on health benefits, lost-time accidents, employee turnover, and stress damage claims. The Corporate Stress Report (CSR) led to targeted interventions and systemic stress action plans resulting in annual savings of millions of dollars.

Individual Case Studies

• Executive balances work/life stress, reduces panic/"heart" attack symptoms
• Stock jumps after company president addresses personal stress

Corporate Case Studies

• Federal agency cuts turnover rate from 40 percent to 15 percent in three years
• Fortune 50 company installs BWP on corporate intranet as in-house stress-control program
• Global personal products company struggles to retain market share
• Fortune 50 company saves $13M in health benefits and stress-related claims costs in one year

A 35-year-old marketing executive was surprised when her cardiologist suggested stress management to treat her "heart attack" symptoms. Marketing director for an aggressive high-tech firm, she was in line for promotion to vice president. She drove a new sports car, traveled extensively, and had an active social life. She felt stressed occasionally, but believed she was in control of her life and doing quite nicely.

However, inside, she felt like, "the wheels on my tricycle are about to fall off. I'm a mess." For several months, she had had attacks of shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pains, dizziness, and tingling sensations in her fingers and toes. She had become prone to a sense of doom that made her anxious to the point of panic. She dreaded the panic attacks, which struck without reason or warning.

She sought the advice of a cardiologist, who ran a battery of tests at considerable cost but with no physical findings. He noted her stress, though, and recommended the BWP.

The BWP showed the executive how susceptible she was to stress, what was causing it, and how her stress expressed itself in her "heart attack" and other symptoms. It also provided resources for constructing an effective stress action plan that put her back in control of her life. Her utilization of medical benefits dropped off sharply and her company was able to keep a valuable employee functioning at full capacity.

Ben's company wasn't doing well. Productivity was down, profits were off, and stock prices were sliding. As is often the case, the trouble had begun in the executive suite with Ben and his board of directors. Ben's temper was known throughout the company. His tantrums filtered down to the lowest levels of management and could set the company tone for several days following. Morale was low. Key employees were leaving, and those left behind were looking for a way out.

Ben's temper was costing in other areas, too. His home life was troubled and his blood pressure was dangerously high. His physician thought Ben needed to control his stress and recommended the BWP. Ben refused.

Horrendous traffic to and from work made Ben impatient, and most mornings he arrived at work in a foul mood that he took out on his employees. He got home at the end of the day in the same mood. One night his dog bounced out to meet him when he pulled into the driveway. Ben, short-tempered as usual, "nudged" him out of the way with the side of his foot. The dog, taking a cue from his master, nipped Ben and tore his pant leg. Ben's wife and children further infuriated Ben by cheering the dog for having saved the household from "Godzilla."

Ben finally got the message and followed his doctor's advice. The BWP helped Ben identify the areas of stress in his life and gave him suggestions on how to deal with them effectively. He was able to get on top of the lion's share of his stress simply by changing his schedule by coming in to work and going home an hour later, thus avoiding rush-hour traffic. The results were measurable within a year: His company got back on track, its stock leapt, and Ben's blood pressure had dropped to a healthier level. Eventually, he was able to discontinue his antihypertensive medication and reverse his company's downward slide.

Federal agency cuts turnover and improves productivity

The Situation: This 47-person government agency had a 40 percent turnover rate and was experiencing deep problems with employee morale and poor productivity. A manufacturing section within the agency was particularly hard hit, and had fallen far behind schedule. Management was quickly reaching a dead end in their search for solutions, and job security was on the line for management. The agency head thought high stress in the manufacturing section was the likely cause of its problems.

The Corporate Stress Report (CSR): All agency employees were administered the Personal Stress Navigator to determine whether the high turnover was indeed related to job stress. Grouped results did show the manufacturing group to be higher in susceptibility to stress, sources of stress, and symptoms of stress. But the group also differed demographically from the others peers in many significant respects. For example, their average employee was five to ten years younger than workers in the other two sections of the agency, and the entry-level jobs typically represented their first foray into the labor market.

Further analysis revealed that the manufacturing workers had several likely causes for higher stress and job dissatisfaction. Compared to co-workers in the regulation and communication sections, they had less seniority, earned less money, were more vulnerable to seasonal layoffs, were restricted to their work stations, and had no access to phones. In addition, they were isolated from the other sections by a wall with a single door that remained open so they were constantly aware of the contrast between their working conditions and the others'.

Manufacturing scored highest in all stress categories, but not for the anticipated reasons. In-depth analysis made it evident much of the workplace stress stemmed from the employees' youth and financial insecurity. The turnover had as much to do with conditions outside the agency - career level, maturity and financial security - as those within the workplace.

Resolution: Using the information from the Company Stress Report, the agency corrected many of the internal conditions cited above, implemented stress-management training for supervisors, and changed its hiring patterns to select stable, more mature workers who would not see the job as a career opportunity. Productivity increased 23 percent and turnover rates were cut from 40 percent to 15 percent in just under three years.

Fortune 50 company installs Behavioral Wellness Program on corporate intranet as in-house stress control program; on program rollout, site attracts 7,000 employees

The Situation: This Fortune 50 company realized that stress was a significant problem, a major burden in both economic and human terms for company and employees alike. It had tried stress-management programs before, but with little success - employees did not utilize the programs. When they first saw the BWP, executives realized this program was different. When used as a portal to the human resources website, it could directly link employees to appropriate corporate benefits and programs. It would get the right person to the right place at the right time.

The BWP: The company put the BWP on their corporate intranet as part of a pilot program for executives. The executives had such a positive experience with it that they mentioned it to their co-workers and others. Word of mouth spread, and quickly more than 10 percent of the 70,000 employees with access to the corporate intranet had taken the BWP online, all before the official rollout. The BWP answered a need the company knew it had, but didn't know how to resolve. Employees recognized the opportunity immediately and got the help they needed.

The Resolution: Since making the BWP available to their workforce, overall stress cost parameters showed significant declines over a 4-year period.

Personal products company struggles to maintain global market share.

The Situation: Development of a key new product had fallen six months behind schedule and was significantly over budget. Health-care costs had increased dramatically and the development team had seen three suicides in 13 months. In the rush to stay competitive, what had been a five-year development cycle was cut to three years. Because of the push to get the new product on the market, design and engineering specs were less firm than they should have been, and decision-makers continued to tinker with basic design after manufacturing machinery was under construction. The machinery had to be redesigned and rebuilt several times. Machinists were assigned back-breaking amounts of overtime to stay on schedule. The ripple effects of the overtime made the situation stressful for families as well as employees. With no time to rest, machinists made mistakes that had to be corrected, which called for more overtime.

The CSR: The 850-member development team took the Behavioral Wellness Program online in a corporate effort to address wellness and retain a competitive market position. In workshops, employees cited overwork as their number one stress concern. To resolve this, the division head implemented mandatory stress-management programs and put a cap on overtime. The incidence of errors dropped significantly and employees were able to accomplish more work of higher quality in fewer hours. Health-care costs decreased, there were no more suicides, and a brilliant new product rolled out on time and on budget

Fortune 50 company saves $13M in behavioral health benefits and worker's compensation claims costs in one year

The Situation: The news first came down from human resources, but the legal department provided the hard numbers. Health benefits costs and stress-related worker's compensation claims were cutting into profits. Worker's compensation claims alone had risen 80 percent in three years, and projections showed that stress claims could bankrupt this self-insured company if the problem wasn't addressed systematically and effectively.

Not only did this company insure more than 100,000 employees, it insured their families as well. A look at utilization rates showed that 20 percent of employees were responsible for 80 percent of health benefits utilization and 90 percent of the stress-related worker's compensation claims. Roughly 22,000 of their 110,000 employees were identified as high utilizers.

The Company Stress Report: The BWP was made available to high utilizers online. Employees received personalized stress reports; management got the Company Stress Report identifying company-wide trends and common sources of stress among their high utilizers. CSR data showed that 85 percent of parents found disciplining their children to be a highly stressful issue. This was significant in that a major health benefit cost was adolescent in-patient psychiatric treatment. The company implemented parenting workshops, which employees attended on their own time, and began monitoring the psychiatric facilities most used by employee families for abuses.

Resolution: The result was a measurable drop in adolescent hospitalizations, accounting for a significant portion of behavioral health costs. Thanks in large part to the targeted stress-reduction programs initiated as a result of CSR results, the company was able to cut $13 million in health benefits and stress-related worker's compensation claims costs in one year.

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