It’s that time again—when people resolve to do things differently to live happier, healthier lives. For employees, those New Year’s resolutions often overlap with work-related stress, performance goals, and overall workplace well-being. But as past New Year’s Resolution failure rates (~80%) show, it’s not enough to simply resolve to change behavior. A change in behavior often requires a change in thoughts and emotions, too, which is no easy feat.
The good news is employers can help employees make those changes and achieve their goals this year by connecting resolutions to practical goal-setting skills and easy-to-access employee support tools.
A new year, the same New Year’s resolutions for employees
We may have turned the page to a new year but the resolutions look familiar. Surveys show that saving more money is the top priority among those making New Year’s resolutions in 2025, followed by exercising more, eating healthier, and losing weight. These are some of the most common employee New Year’s resolutions and reflect the personal goals that can affect focus, energy, and performance at work.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who set New Year’s resolutions fail to meet their goals. According to a Forbes Health survey, the average resolution lasts 3.74 months. Only 1% of resolution makers say they tend to stick with their resolutions for a year.
And just like every year, there’s no shortage of online advice about how to avoid failure this time around. Experts recommend:
- Focusing on things you can become good at and that you can take pride in
- Setting specific goals about behavior rather than outcomes
- Aligning resolutions to one’s personal values
- Making S-M-A-R-T resolutions: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound
- Avoiding goals that are too ambitious and instead keeping targets small, like exercising for at least 10 minutes a day
- Leveraging available support, such as coaching, digital mental health tools, and workplace employee support programs, can reinforce day-to-day goal setting.
Quick fixes aren’t the answer for complex New Year’s resolution challenges
Yet these strategies alone are not enough, because quick fixes are rarely the answer for complex, long-term challenges. Many of the issues people are aiming to address through resolutions are associated with habitual patterns of thought and emotions ranging from stress, shame and guilt to immediate gratification and relief. For example:
- The cost of living and financial instability are major sources of stress negatively affecting mental health. Many adults who are intent on saving more money this year are not just trying to navigate finances. They’re trying to navigate the negative thoughts and emotions—including embarrassment, jealousy, and shame—that often go hand-in-hand with financial pressure and stigma.
- People struggling with weight management often turn to food to quickly satisfy their desire for pleasure or to relieve stress. What’s more, weight-related stigma could be one of their sources of stress, as well as anxiety, sadness, or depression. In fact, 42% of US adults report experiencing teasing, taunting, microaggressions and other forms of weight-related stigma. (And 72% of US workers who’ve experienced weight-related stigma say it made them want to quit their jobs.)
- Long-held thoughts and emotions about exercise can undermine a resolution to exercise more and improve physical health.
Achieving New Year’s resolutions related to money, health, and weight requires much more than a decision to behave differently. It demands becoming aware of how thoughts and emotions are influencing one’s behavior and taking steps to change those patterns over time. That process includes learning practical goal-setting techniques, building new habits, and accessing support tools that make it easier to follow through.
Employers can help—not through traditional mental health support but with a new approach that integrates mental health, behavior change, and goal-setting support for employees.
A new approach can help employees get on the right path with New Year’s resolutions this year
Amid a worsening mental health crisis and spiraling health care costs, employers already offer a variety of mental health programs. Virtually all large employers (97%) offer mental health support such as teletherapy and access to employee assistance programs (EAPs), for example. Nearly 75% of large organizations offer health and lifestyle coaching.
But utilization of these programs remains low. According to a One Medical survey, less than 20% of people use their mental health benefits.
For HR and benefits leaders asking how to help employees keep New Year’s resolutions at work, the most effective strategies pair evidence-based mental health resources with engaging, digital employee support tools.
The beginning of the new year, when people are especially focused on self-care and improvement, is an ideal time to reengage employees in their mental health. In addition to reintroducing them to the benefits they already have access to, employers can offer new digital programs specifically designed to address the emotional and mental side of weight management, financial stress, and other common challenges that show up in employee New Year’s resolutions and ongoing goal setting.
Calm Health programs can help employees achieve New Year’s resolutions and goals in the new year
Programs in the Calm Health and Calm apps can help people understand how their thoughts and emotions are holding them back from realizing their goals and give them the tools to make positive changes and progress.
Evidence-based support for weight management
Create Lasting Weight Loss Using Psychology is a 10-session program in Calm Health designed to help people think and feel differently about weight loss. Developed by Dr. Chris Mosunic, a licensed psychologist and registered dietitian, the program uses vital know-how from clinical psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy to support people with their weight management goals.
Listeners will learn about the relationship between food and feelings, how thinking differently can help them lose weight, and the role of pleasure and joy in the journey. They’ll walk away with tools to make positive choices every day and help make weight-loss motivation stick. Listeners will also be able to reframe how they think about exercise so that it becomes something to embrace rather than dread. For employees whose New Year’s resolutions focus on healthier habits or weight loss, this type of evidence-based program becomes a powerful employee support tool.
Building stress resilience
Authored by Dr. Mosunic, Build Stress Resilience uses techniques based in Cognitive Behavioral Stress Reduction (CBSR). It’s a program in the Calm Health app that helps listeners understand the causes and symptoms of stress in their lives and gives them practical tools to help reduce it.
Throughout the 10-session program, listeners focus on the future outcomes they’d like to achieve and how to get there. CBSR based techniques help them do this by giving them the tools to set goals, reduce stress, increase their motivation and keep their “eye on the prize.” This focus on goal setting and stress management can directly support employees who want to sustain New Year’s resolutions beyond the first few months of the year.
Navigating the emotions surrounding money
Navigating Financial Stress is a series on Calm developed in consultation with independent Certified Financial Planner Kelley C. Long, CPA/PFS, CFP®. Long has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and is an independent financial coach and workplace financial wellness consultant.
The program uses mindfulness tools to address the challenging thoughts and emotions that arise around finances. The goal is to help listeners alleviate their anxiety related to money, reframe uncertainty, and gain clarity and confidence, ultimately helping them improve their relationships with money and themselves. Given that saving more money is a top New Year’s resolution, this kind of financial well-being support can help employees stay aligned with their goals.
Building healthy habits
In Build Habits that Actually Stick, a 9-session program available on Calm, Dr. Julie Smith uses simple tools rooted in clinical psychology to help listeners make lasting changes. Listeners will learn about the process behind habit changes, including the formation of new neural pathways in the brain, so that they can move through the roadblocks and make real headway toward achieving their goals.
All Calm programs are narrated by familiar and trusted voices who have the ability to engage audiences and keep them coming back. This ongoing engagement is critical for employees who need gentle reminders, education, and support tools to keep New Year’s resolutions and evolve their goals over time.
Help employees achieve their resolutions in 2025 with goal-setting and employee support tools from Calm Health
With support to adopt more positive thoughts and emotions, employees can also make positive behavioral changes to live happier and healthier lives. Employers can support them by offering compelling, evidence-based mental health programs that target the specific challenges people are aiming to resolve this year—and by positioning Calm Health as a core part of their New Year’s resolutions and goal-setting support strategy.
