How Wellness Apps Can Help Financial Professionals Improve Focus and Reduce Burnout

The increasing suicidal tendencies and deaths across the globe have lately been raising concerns over the mental well-being of professionals in any field. However, the most evident cases seem to have been reported from the finance sector, thereby indicating mental health emergencies for finance professionals working around.

Whether it is AdvanceTrack’s report depicting nine out of 10 accounting professionals reporting stress or harm to their mental health or it is the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) reporting how 48% of the insurance industry professionals find their mental health deteriorating over the years, causing anxiety, the report significantly emphasizes the hampered state of mind of finance professionals.

When the revelations are that alarming, it becomes important to consider ways to resolve the root cause of the stress and anxiety in these professionals. That’s where the wellness apps for finance professionals enter the scene. These applications are designed to provide personal attention to the finance executives who sign up to get rid of the restlessness they suffer due to the work pressure or the work culture.

While individuals can personally connect with mental healthcare experts through these apps, many companies do the same to ensure their employees’ mental well-being is not compromised. When companies sign up for employee well-being services, they make their employees more focused and stable, increasing productivity and simultaneously saving on employee healthcare expenses.

Well, before we dive deeper into how these wellness apps for financial professionals work, let us understand the stress patterns, causes, and physical symptoms that, when observed, require immediate attention:

#1 - Financial Industry Stress Patterns:

Stress can be identified by noticing the changes that suddenly appear in one’s behaviors or habits. Early detection of stress patterns ensures better and more effective handling of the situation. Based on the changes observed in a finance professional, stress patterns can also be behavioral, emotional, and/or physical symptoms. 

• Behavioral stress patterns include changing sleeping or eating habits and nervous instability, which causes professionals to bite their nails or tap their feet. 
• Emotional stress patterns include sadness, depression, anxiety, lack of focus, etc.
• Physical stress patterns would include headache, chest pain, fatigue, etc.

#2 - Common stress triggers in finance:

Intense work pressure and increasing insecurities because of frequent layoffs are the two leading causes of stress in finance employees. In 2021, an internal survey was conducted in which junior bankers at Goldman Sachs indicated how being unemployed seemed a better option in such a high-pressure environment. In the finance sector, peer pressure and a sense of competition, task overloading, longer work hours, fear of layoffs, and lack of senior support are major reasons behind the increasing level of stress and burnout.

#3 - Physical symptoms of prolonged stress exposure:

Stress exposure is driven by continuous involvement in a stressful environment, be it a toxic work culture or intense work pressure. In that case, finance professionals may see themselves suffering from severe physical pain in different body parts, in addition to observing behavioral and emotional patterns. Physical symptoms, like chest pain, shoulder pain, stomach ache, sleep issues, headaches, etc., can also be dealt with using wellness apps for financial professionals.

There are thousands of wellness apps for finance professionals that can be smoothly integrated into the workflows, improving employee productivity and minimizing the company’s healthcare insurance expenditures. 

Let us check some of the ways in which companies can use these wellness apps to strengthen their employees’ mental well-being without having to compromise their work schedules:

#1 - Quick Meditations Between Trades:

The wellness apps for finance professionals include guided meditation sessions, which you can incorporate in between the trades. The quick meditation programs by HeyZen and other providers will help you relax, rejuvenate, and take the next set of trades afresh. This is one of the best ways to reduce burnout in finance.

#2 - Stress Management During Market Volatility:

The continuous fluctuation in the market leads to frequent rises and falls in stock prices, thereby making the situation stressful for traders. In such a scenario, implementing ways to manage stress by engaging in some activities, talking to friends or family, and taking breaks for refreshments can help reduce stress in finance.

#3 - Focus Enhancement Techniques:

The wellness apps for financial professionals include activities and sessions for them to enhance their focus and concentration. App developers do a lot of research before they launch these applications, and hence, they know what professionals want to have when they observe a lack of focus. These activities, including meditation for finance professionals, listed in the app are designed to help individuals stay calm and stable to improve concentration and focus on finance tasks.

#4 - Micro-Meditations During Peak Hours:

Most professionals know they won’t have time to meditate, and wellness apps are developed to help them with this as well. Yes, the finance professional wellness tools have micro-meditation activities included to ensure traders, investors, insurance professionals, or finance professionals from any financial sector manage to make time for them.

Whether it is a finance professional or an employee from other sectors, meditation and stress management at work are a must. Today. When work stress is even costing the lives of employees, it becomes important to incorporate techniques to improve their mental health, including different types of meditation. The mindfulness apps for financial professionals prove highly beneficial in stress management in various fields, including finance. Let us see how:

#1- Meditation for Better Decision-Making:

Meditation helps one achieve a stable mental state. Hence, one is more clear in identifying their exact objectives. As a result, they plan their steps efficiently and make decisions more wisely. When the objective is clear, and the mind is calm, the decisions made are better.

#2 - Emotional Regulation in High-Risk Situations:

Through meditation and stress management measures, one can learn to regulate emotions. Emotional regulation determines how well a professional can tackle the situation. If not expressed well, overflowing emotions can negatively affect any approach or affair. Hence, identifying emotions and knowing how to express them in a positive manner can significantly influence situation handling. Finance professionals can connect with experts through wellness apps, discuss their overwhelming mental status, and thereby ask for assistance at the same time. 

#3 - Cognitive Clarity Maintenance:

When you practice meditation on a daily basis, you gradually achieve better clarity on your goals and objectives. When you have clarity on different aspects, with time, your behavioral, emotional, and physical stress patterns come under control. You will find your eating and sleeping habits improved, no physical pain as before, no nervousness leading to negative body gestures, etc.

#4 - Impact on Risk Assessment:

With stress comes depression and increased suicidal tendencies in finance professionals. Through meditation and stress management practices, individuals get opportunities to discover their own selves, thereby identifying the negativities within them, including the risks of attempting suicide or taking some other negative step. Hence, the risks arising from anxiety, depression, and hampered mental health are well-identified by individuals, and they take control of their emotions.

If you are a team lead in the finance sector and you want your team members to be productive enough, it is your responsibility to implement strategies to keep them calm and be more productive. Some of the ways in which you can ensure keeping your team cool and calm even in the worst high work-pressure situations:

#1- Group Meditations:

You can conduct group meditations for your team members. When they perform or practice in a group, they influence each other, and you will be able to see the transformation in each of them. After all, a calmer team means better productivity.

#2 - Department-Wide Wellness Initiatives:

Destressing activities, like breaks at regular intervals, some music, healthy competition, fun games, etc., are some of the initiatives that you can take as a lead to ensure having a healthy and happy team.

#3 - Creating Meditation Spaces in the Office:

Practicing meditation is good, but having a dedicated space for the same is even better. As a team lead, you can have a fixed space for individual or group meditation, open for the team members to practice it or relax when they feel stressed and under pressure. A dedicated space to relax will help them vent out and start afresh as and when required.

The wellness apps for financial professionals are a savior when there is intense work pressure and not very healthy work culture to deal with. From meditation to habit tracking social support networks to stress management methods, these applications include it all and ensure proper care and guidance to all finance professionals, thereby helping control mental health emergencies, if any. With financial stress management apps, you can introduce your employees, team members, and even yourself to activities that can help you calm down even in the worst scenarios.

So, for a productive team, have a wellness app for finance professionals integrated into your workspace, and you will start witnessing the transformation of your employees as well as your business very soon.