Trivago Flowlab - a Case Study on how to Improve Employees' Well-Being in a Corporate Environment

This study outlines a company-run well-being program and an experiment to evaluate its effects. In a young, middle-sized company we ran a randomized controlled experiment with 253 employees (130 experimental group, 123 control group) participating in a six-week program ("flowlab"). Both groups were surveyed through an app at four points in time about their subjective perception of metrics related to the program's potential outcomes and related factors. Additionally, some participants in both groups provided hair samples to measure their stress based on their cortisol levels. The "flowlab" aims at improving participants' sleep quality, mindfulness and ability to focus through the introduction of a series of synergistic habits, which in turn are expected to lead to increased chances of experiencing flow states and ultimately higher well-being. It is delivered through a combination of workshops, digital content and daily "nudges" which facilitate habit formation. The experimental group showed significant positive differences to the control group for subjective levels of sleep quality, mindfulness, flow, well-being at work, happiness, life satisfaction, work commitment, corporate appreciation and inter-department cooperation.