Senast uppdaterad: 12 december 2022

Today, Zebrain, the platform for employee development through coaching, releases a new study that shows that employees in the financial industry sleep less, have more difficulty concentrating and show more signs of stress symptoms compared to other industries.

The study, produced by Zebrain Labs, is based on aggregated and anonymized data where employees in the financial industry rated questions from 0-100 relating to the work environment, health and personal development. Employees' starting position has then been compared after 9 weeks of coaching via the platform.

The self-assessment shows that those who work in the industry generally find it more difficult to concentrate on their tasks compared to others. On average, employees estimate that they can focus at 46%. After coaching, the ability increases to 52.8%, but it is still roughly 26% lower than the average, which after coaching is 66.7%.

When asked about sleep, employees state that they agree on average to 57% with the statement 'I sleep well and feel rested'. This is 18% lower than the average of 67.5% after coaching.

- What stands out is that the financial industry's answers are lower on questions that are directly linked to stress symptoms, such as sleep quality and the ability to concentrate. Employers in the industry should pay attention to signals and consider preventive measures to counteract harmful stress, comments Martin Bellander, Leg. Psychologist and head of Zebrain Labs

When it comes to their own development, employees in finance end up high. On the question 'I feel that I develop at work', the industry is at 81%, which is almost 18% higher than the average, which estimates the question at 68.8%.

- Employees in finance feel to a greater extent than others that they develop through work, which is a key factor in retaining and attracting talent. It is interesting to note that employees in the industry also rank highly on matters relating to cooperation with the manager. Here, employees agree to 82.6 percent that the collaboration is good, which is significantly higher than the average, Martin Bellander continues.

Zebrain works for more people to have the opportunity for coaching by providing digital, flexible, qualitative, cost-effective and measurable coaching methodology. Via the platform, employees are matched via algorithms with a tailored coaching program and personal coach.

- It is increasingly crucial for competitiveness to review employee development, social sustainability, strategies for a healthy corporate culture and good mental health in the workplace. It is important to continuously measure how the organization is doing and give employees effective tools to develop and prevent costly sick leave, says Anna Bloth Karling, CEO and co-founder at Zebrain.

The Swedish payment provider Westpay gives all employees the opportunity for coaching via Zebrain's coaching platform.

- Healthy companies start with well-being employees and we have as stated mission that everyone should have the opportunity to develop and feel good at work as well as in their private life. Since we started offering coaching through Zebrain a few months ago, we can see that several important aspects of well-being have improved. The strength of a digitized service is that we can measure and follow the development at group level. Estimates of sleep, the ability to concentrate and cooperation with colleagues have all noticeably increased. Even the ability to set realistic demands, i.e. the balance between well-being and performance, has improved between measurements, says Sten Karlsson, CEO at Westpay.

The full report is available for download here.