Heart Rate Variability Measurements in Mobile Work

There are new complexity and workload factors related to mobile working mode. One main thing to be considered is the work-life balance, especially from the adequate recovery point of view. Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Thus stress and recovery of the ANS can be evaluated with HRV analyses. The objective of this study was to find out how the HRV measurement serves the aims of occupational health care. Ten globally mobile employees were measured by a HRV recording procedure. The experiences of the measurement execution were collected by semi-structured interviews. Through HRV measurement occupational health care professionals gain valid information on mobile employees’ ANS stress and recovery reactions. When connecting the diary information entered by the employees to this, knowledge of working conditions could also be reached. However, the measurement procedure is time consuming and expensive to execute. Therefore the HRV measurement should target those mobile employees, who have difficulties on controlling their work–life balance.