BioDot Survey to Measure Stress On Site

Stress can lead to or be caused by mental health problems. Monitoring of stress and taking action to reduce stress can vastly improve someone’s mental health.

See the examples below for how one site addressed this:

• The site conducted a BioDot survey of the workforce as part of Stress Awareness Week.
• BioDots are a small adhesive dot placed on a person’s wrist or between their thumb and finger. They change colour depending on how ‘stressed’ the person is, with purple being the most relaxed and black the most stressed.
• The site conducted two mass surveys of BioDot readings, measuring workers’ stress levels at different times of day. The first survey took 800 readings and the second took 1600.
• The results from the first survey were collated into graphs and the data analysed by time of day, trade etc. The average stress reading was 4.8 (nearest category is Yellow – Unsettled).
• The data was then used to determine the reason for varying stress levels and adjustments were made e.g. operatives were stressed waiting for lists to move between workplaces in the tower and break areas, so the site added an additional lift and more break areas at higher levels.
• A few months later, the site conducted a repeat BioDot survey of the workforce and discovered that stress levels had dropped to an average of 4.3 (nearest BioDot category is Green – Involved).

This site demonstrated that they value their workforce by making practical changes as a result of the stress survey, which had a noticeable impact on the mental wellbeing of the workforce.