Building resilient teams: How Unmind reduced stress and anxiety at John Lewis Partnership

The background

The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is one the UK’s most beloved retailers. It’s also a global leader in wellbeing strategy. With a headcount of 79,000 across the UK, JLP is a trusted brand for consumer goods and customer service. As part of their wellbeing support for partners, JLP launched Unmind in 2018.

Taking their commitment to quality further, JLP teamed up with us to investigate Unmind’s impact on employee wellbeing. JLP is at the forefront of our client research programme, and partnered with us to show the real-world effects of our platform on employee health.

The challenge

Across JLP, employees are exposed to various stressors. Industry pressures, including changing economic conditions, and seasonal peaks in demand are all risk factors for poor employee mental health and wellbeing. Our goal was to understand the impact of completing an Unmind course on employee stress and anxiety.

The study

We successfully recruited a sample of partners for the trial. The sample was mostly made up of shop floor assistants (72%) and team managers (19%).

The majority of the sample (total number = 599) had levels of anxiety above the population norm, and were at risk of developing more severe issues. This means this section of workforce are more likely to have difficulties with productivity and higher absence rates compared to their colleagues.

Each user completed one of four Courses to help manage feelings of stress and anxiety and completed measures of their health at baseline, post-trial and four weeks later.

The results

Levels of anxiety and stress decreased, and wellbeing improved – demonstrating that Unmind made a positive impact on partner health.

01: Significant reduction in anxiety

Significant reduction in proportion of employees classified as experiencing clinical levels of anxiety (e.g. likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder) using GAD-7, a widely-used clinical tool.

02: Increase in levels of overall wellbeing

Overall increase in employees experiencing positive wellbeing using the Unmind Wellbeing Tracker measuring components including sleep, happiness and general health. Groupings based on population averages.

The solution

Our findings show that short, easily accessible digital content based on psychological therapies can engage partners and have a positive impact.

01: Personalised care

Using four different, expert-backed approaches to stress and anxiety, the Unmind platform empowers people to find what’s right for them.

02: Right care, right time

Working at your own pace, opening your phone or logging into a laptop. Even when work isn’t desk based, this study shows Unmind can support employee health across environments.

03: Proven impact

In a world where employers are evaluating the impact of their investments, it's never been more important to demonstrate the impact. These results support the positive impact of Unmind on employees, even in harder to reach populations.

Want to see how Unmind can work for your business? Book a call.