JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Anonymous, 24/7 digital peer support (DPS) offers a scalable solution to support employees’ emotional well-being. Understanding sociobehavioral factors such as timing of engagement and the impact of shared resources can help employers and employee assistance programs (EAPs) integrate digital tools to better support workforce well-being.

Objective:

This study examined: 1) Outcomes via overall sentiment changes of DPS users; 2) Sociobehavioral differences between employees who accessed real-time, anonymous DPS during versus outside business hours; 3) Differences in sentiment outcomes based on time of use; and 4) The impact of in-session resource sharing on sentiment improvement.

Methods:

Using OpenAI’s LLM model GPT-4o-mini with a few-shot learning approach, 24,818 anonymous chat conversations from 13,879 employees of five large employers were evaluated for sub-clinical sentiment variables including loneliness, sadness, stress, anxiety, depression, despair, helplessness and optimism.

Results:

Distinct activity patterns were observed between employees during and outside business hours, with a median user age of 36. During business hours, employees reported higher baseline stress (Δ1.6%), whereas outside business hours, baseline depression (Δ1.7%) and loneliness (Δ1.2%) were higher. After DPS use, all users reported lower negative emotions (loneliness 46% reduced, sadness 45%, stress 46%, anxiety ~39%, depression ~40%, despair ~40%, and helplessness ~38%) and increased optimism (~77%). Outside business hours, users engaged more (~68% of all sessions), remained in sessions 19% longer, discussed 13% more topics, whereas users during business hours reported greater improvements in depression (Δ2.3%), helplessness (Δ1.9%), and loneliness (Δ0.5%). Resource sharing was associated with greater improvements in loneliness (Δ2.9%), stress (Δ1.3%), anxiety (Δ1.9%), depression (Δ7.3%), despair (Δ3.0%), helplessness (Δ2.8%) and optimism (Δ8.8%), but not sadness.

Conclusions:

DPS complements employers’ EAPs by addressing employee engagement gaps, reducing barriers to mental health care, promoting emotional well-being among the workforce.