Every Score Is Explainable
HeartMetrics is grounded in the U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being — the most comprehensive, evidence-based standard for what workers actually need to thrive. We translate its five essentials into real-time, measurable signals from the tools your team already uses. No surveys required. No black boxes.
Read the Surgeon General's FrameworkBased on the U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being (2022)
Five Research-Backed Dimensions. One Score.
The Work Wellbeing Index (WWI) is a composite 0–100 score built from five dimensions, each mapped directly to one of the Surgeon General's five essentials for workplace well-being. Higher = healthier.
Protection from Harm
What the Surgeon General says: Workers need physical and psychological safety, with normalized mental health support and adequate rest.
What HeartMetrics Measures
Data Sources
Task volume vs. capacity from Jira/Asana, after-hours commit/message timestamps, calendar events outside business hours, pulse survey responses on workload manageability.
How the Dimensions Combine into the WWI
WWI = w1(Protection) + w2(Harmony) + w3(Connection) + w4(Mattering) + w5(Growth)Each essential produces a sub-score of 0–100. These are combined via weighted aggregation into the final WWI (0–100).
Important: Weights are calibrated based on our primary research with tech workers at companies of 50–500 employees, validated against retention outcomes. We continuously refine weights as we collect more data.
WWI Thresholds
| WWI Range | Status | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 70–100 | Healthy | Employee is balanced and thriving |
| 50–69 | Monitor | Some signals need attention |
| 0–49 | At Risk | Immediate manager action recommended |
Interactive Example: Riya S.
See how each essential's sub-score feeds into her overall WWI
Manager Fairness Score
A 0–100 score measuring how equitably a manager distributes workload, recognition, and growth opportunities. Addresses the insight that 50% of employees leave their manager, not the company (Gallup, 2015).
Workload Equity
Is work distributed fairly across team members?
Recognition Equity
Does the manager recognize all team members, not just favorites?
Opportunity Equity
Are stretch assignments and growth opportunities shared?
Two Signal Layers. One Complete Picture.
HeartMetrics combines passive work-system signals with lightweight pulse surveys — so managers get both objective data and the employee's own voice.
Layer 1: Passive Work-System Signals
Always On — No employee action required
Layer 2: Pulse Surveys
Periodic, Lightweight — 1-5 Likert Scale
What We Read vs. What We Never Read
HeartMetrics reads work-system signals. Never surveillance data.
What We Read
- Task/ticket status, assignments, story points (Jira, Asana)
- Calendar event metadata: duration, count, time-of-day (Google Calendar, Outlook)
- Public recognition events in designated channels (Slack, Teams)
- Role and assignment metadata from HRIS (BambooHR, Workday)
- Aggregated pulse survey responses
What We Never Read
- Private messages, Slack DMs, or email content
- Keystrokes, mouse movement, or screen activity
- Browsing history or app usage
- Camera, microphone, or location data
- Performance review text or 1:1 notes (unless explicitly opted in)
- Individual survey responses are never shown to managers — only aggregated scores
Grounded in the Surgeon General's Framework
Every dimension we measure maps to a specific essential from the U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being, validated by our primary research with tech workers.
Our Validation Research
- Primary research: Empathy mapping and discovery interviews with employees at tech companies (ICs, middle managers, and senior leadership)
- Survey validation: Likert-scale questions mapped to each essential, tested with tech workers across micro, small, medium, and large enterprises
- Persona research: Think/Say/Do/Feel empathy maps for individual contributors, middle managers, and senior leadership
Supporting Industry Data
AI Coaching That Tells Managers What to Do Next
HeartMetrics doesn't just show numbers — it generates specific, actionable nudges grounded in each employee's real signals across all five essentials.
"Riya's workload is 1.8x the team average and she has 3 items blocked for 4+ days. Redistribute 2 blocked items to Diego & Mason who have capacity."
"Priya hasn't received recognition in 34 days. Consider acknowledging her Q1 client migration work in your next standup."
"Sam is averaging 5.5 hours of meetings per day — more than double the team average. Consider protecting 2 hours of deep work time on his calendar this week."
"Your fairness score dropped 3 points this week. Stretch assignments are concentrated on 2 of 8 team members. Consider rotating the next high-visibility task to Priya or Mason."
"Mason's stretch work percentage is 4% vs. team average of 24%. He hasn't had a new-skill assignment in 60 days. Consider assigning him to the API redesign project."
See It In Action
Try the demo dashboard and click "why this score?" on any metric to see the five essentials in action.