How To Incorporate Neuroscience Into Your Workplace Wellness Program

Founder and CEO of EMOTIV , a bioinformatics company advancing understanding of the human brain using electroencephalography (EEG).

Leaders talk a lot about mental health in the workplace: why it matters, how to maintain it, how to improve it, what it looks like and what it doesn't. Thousands of articles have been written on this topic in the past year alone.

As CEO, it gives me hope that the business world is dealing with the chronic stress and overproductivity inherent in work cultures: It signals a more responsible social contract between employer and employee.

But as a neurologist, I find the science behind brain health often gets lost. Corporate mental health programs that are not aligned with neuroscience will not always achieve the desired results. They can also work at the expense of employees.

Here are three of the most common ways a workplace wellness program can affect brain health, and science-backed techniques to consider instead.

It aims to increase productivity by eliminating stress.

Pseudoscience-based workplace health programs that focus on reducing stress for better productivity can actually eliminate our natural incentives to work better.

Psychological research shows that at work we need a certain type and intensity of stress to achieve a heightened state of focus. We owe our ability to enter the "zone" to the Retinal Activation System (RAS). When our stress level rises, it releases cortisol (the main stress hormone) to speed up the firing of ARS neurons.

Excessive levels of cortisol are responsible for anxiety, or “bad stress,” which makes us feel paralyzed, panicked, and distracted. Brief bouts of moderate cortisol levels are linked to stress, or "good stress," which keeps us focused under stress. This level of stress represents the peak of our performance: we are focused, motivated and full of energy to achieve the desired result.

This stress response occurs in the brain as alpha waves decrease and beta waves increase. If alpha and beta are in the perfect ratio, we are in a brain state that improves focus and performance. However, when we see too much beta in relation to alpha, our brain goes into a state of panic and hyperactivity, which leads to dysfunction.

Jobs with little or no stress do not provide enough mental stimulation to keep us busy. If we completely get rid of the stress of work, we will no longer feel anxious or tired. But without the moderate and regular release of stress hormones, we would feel bored and our performance would suffer.

Offers responsive support for mental health issues, but no preventive measures.

Many health-focused companies have internal work teams, programs, or service calls to support employees with specific mental health needs. They identify employees who may need resources by observing identifiable mental health symptoms such as absenteeism, sudden declines in performance, or unusual responses during individual check-ins. But mental illness can develop long before an employee shows any obvious symptoms. And at this time the disease can become chronic, and treatment can take longer.

For this reason, workplace health programs need to shift to providing preventive mental health support as well as resources for known issues. Just as a company can provide pedometers to encourage employees to take 10,000 steps, companies can encourage employees to take proactive steps to take care of their brain.

It is very common.

Likewise, a workplace wellness program based on pseudoscience is likely to provide broad support for everyday issues that an estimated 80% of your workforce may face. They try to cover up the most common mental health problems with the most common treatments because they can't explain cognitive variance.

Our brains are complex machines that have evolved to constantly learn, adapt and respond to our environment. Therefore, our brains are as unique as our fingerprints. For this reason, attending a peer support group for severe anxiety can calm down one staff member and create anxiety in others. Companies must consider the different life experiences that affect the cognitive landscape of employees.

Integrating neuroscience into workplace well-being.

Instead of responsive leadership programs aimed at reducing overall stress, workplace health programs should enable employees to understand their own brain health.

Technology has come a long way since the 1980s when workplace health programs began to address mental health. A key component of modern workplace health programs based on neuroinformatics is that they put measurable improvements in brain health into the hands of employees. Employees can use this tool to proactively measure and manage stress, arousal, focus and relaxation levels. These types of preventive and personality management tools are needed because people tend to misjudge their stress levels. We often push ourselves when we need to rest and recharge our batteries.

Imagine an employee who regularly experiences high levels of stress after morning meetings. They get distracted and overstimulated when they finish their last phone call at 12:30, then they may take a break, but they often last until their usual 1:30 lunch break and don't get much done in that time.

Just like the Apple Watch prompts you to get up if you've been sitting for too long, machine learning-powered neural technology apps recognize objective cues when employees are feeling too distracted or stressed, and encourage them to take a break. This can help prevent the long-term effects of chronic stress and fatigue.

Neurotechnology can detect excess cortisol, signal stress and alert employees so they can avoid cognitive overload before it happens. Going back an hour each day is a huge productivity boost, but your employees' ability to identify personal stressors and implement preventive behavior changes will have the biggest impact.

You cannot improve what you cannot measure. By empowering workers to objectively track, measure, and manage their cognitive needs, they gain an understanding of brain health unmatched by pseudoscience. This, in turn, allows organizations to implement mental health programs that produce more robust, proactive, and personalized results.

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