The Top 10 Reasons Why Companies Should Have Mindfulness Programs
Within the last decade, many corporations have implemented mindfulness meditation in the workplace. However, there are still many corporations that have not implemented this therapeutic practice. Implementing mindfulness programs for companies is now viewed as a legitimate tool to address the well-being of companies. Research shows that mindfulness in the workplace goes far beyond uplifting employees’ moods. It gives businesses an opportunity to consistently grow their return on investment.
By introducing a mindfulness program to your workforce, you’ll not just be investing in your employees’ mental well-being. You will be investing in the growth of your company as well. You’ll be offering your employees the chance to increase their productivity, motivation levels, and focus. Let’s take a deep dive into why companies should invest in mindfulness programs for companies.
1. Mindfulness Helps Minimize Employee Stress and Reduces the Chances of Burnout
Stress is nothing new in the workplace. Still, it appears that stress levels in the workplace are at an all-time high. Has stress actually increased in the workplace? Or has employees’ ability to deal with stress decreased? There are arguments that can be made on both ends. Still, the one undeniable fact is that most people state that they are stressed out, and their jobs are their number one source of stress.
Mindfulness meditation can function as a powerful counterbalance to provide relief to this ongoing state of stress and anxiety. There are well-documented studies and research that have proven that mindfulness techniques provide tremendous advantages to employees, including helping them to overcome stress and instilling resiliency.
One study from the Journal of Applied Psychology indicates that the advantages associated with meditation in the workplace transcends the advantages of individuals practicing mindfulness meditation alone. It shows that even managers and team leaders who practice meditation have experienced a tremendous decline in emotional stress and exhaustion.
2. Mindfulness Meditation Helps Reduce Turnover
There’s no doubt that the modern workforce has become exponentially impermanent, which costs companies millions of dollars per year. Increasing turnover rates have become a dangerous threat to a lot of companies. Some date indicates that the higher rates of turnover costs companies around 200% of an employee’s yearly pay. So, is there a way for companies to instill an overwhelming sense of loyalty in top-performing employees? Yes there is. According to research, it was found that there is a powerful correlation between employee loyalty and a company’s rate of retention. Moreover, researchers identified a compelling interrelation between mindfulness meditation and increasing levels of employee commitment to their employers.
3. Meditation Boosts Employee Engagement and Productivity
One of the best benefits of mindfulness meditation in corporations is that it helps enhance an employee’s productivity levels, encouraging them to become more engaged with their team. Researchers studying the advantages of mindfulness meditation in the workplace determined that professional and consistent mindfulness training quickly led to employees feeling more motivated, and experiencing greater focus and clarity in their minds.
4. Mindfulness Can Be Leveraged as a Tool to Hire Exceptional Talent
In a highly competitive labor market, where it’s getting increasingly difficult for companies to onboard talented and experienced individuals, mindfulness meditation programs provide businesses with a competitive edge. That’s why it’s no surprise to see some of the world’s leading corporations including Nike and Google providing their employees with professionally led mindfulness meditation programs. These companies have actively invested in mindfulness programs, proving that they truly care about the mental well-being of their employees. Potential employees with a lot to offer to corporations may lend more credence to working for a company that invests in their employees’ mental health.
5. Mindfulness Enhances Employee Creativity
We live in an era of constant digital innovation and technological advancements. With the introduction and adoption of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence changing the very nature of modern industries, two of the most important assets employees can have are creativity and innovative thinking. According to one study, researchers found that employees who practiced mindfulness at the workplace experienced exponential growth in their ability for divergent thinking.
6. Meditation is Great for Conflict Resolution
Conflicts of any nature, whether work-related or personal, can have an increasingly adverse impact on an employee’s ability to form new relationships. This added layer of stress can quickly transform into a negative attitude leading to various complications when it comes to team-building, attending meetings, and more. In addition, it can also cause employees to feel more demotivated, which means they will not willingly go the extra mile to complete tasks. On the other hand, employees will also start to harbor personal grudges against other workers or act more passive-aggressively.
Mindfulness can be used as a powerful tool to help your workforce think more openly by helping them control their negative emotions more productively. Consistent meditation sessions at the workplace can enable your workforce to achieve a sense of contentment and calm, filling them with positivity. They will be more in control of their emotions and will work together in harmony.
7. Mindfulness Mediation Allows Employees to Create Strong Bonds
The ability to meditate and become more mindful can have a profound impact on an employee’s capability to function as a positive force with those around them. Becoming increasingly self-aware and in control of your emotions can help you garner strong bonds with your team and can be great for developing even stronger personal relationships. How? Mindfulness helps make individuals more open to communicating their feelings and empathizing with others. In the workplace, emotional intelligence can help employees become more accepting of one another.
8. Mindfulness Helps Employees Embrace Change
Mindfulness meditation is excellent for helping employees embrace organizational change with a more open mind and positive attitude. Today, change is a very important aspect and feature of modern corporate culture. One of the primary reasons why businesses often fail at integrating change in the workplace is employee defiance. Consistent meditation practices can help your employees deal with change by lowering their stress levels associated with the feeling that they may lose control of their job environment, which is often a major facet of organizational change.
Moreover, mindfulness is also linked with minimizing an employee’s reaction to change, lowering their stress, and enabling them to be more objective and accepting of the circumstances before them. It allows employees to take workplace changes as a challenge, boosting their motivation to perform well and rise up to the challenge.
9. Mindfulness Can be Instrumental in Helping Improve a Company’s Overall Culture
Encouraging your workforce to practice meditation and become more mindful through consistent or daily training will gradually transform the entire organization into a more conscious and positive company. Mindful businesses tend to instill feelings of positive reinforcement through what is known as “collective mindfulness”. This is an aspect of mindfulness meditation that is still undergoing research, but so far the results are encouraging.
A mindful company is an entity that involves mindfulness practices throughout all aspects of its culture. This doesn’t just involve individual or group meditation sessions, but rather, it helps employees practically embrace mindfulness teachings and practices in every important aspect of their lives, both professionally and personally.
It helps make individuals more focused, self-aware, and empathetic. In addition, companies with a mindful workforce operate more proactively because the employees are more intrinsically self-aware and aware of their surroundings. They’re in control of their environment and think more positively rather than operating with a monotonous habit.
10. Mindfulness Meditation Helps Employees Enhance Their Decision-Making Abilities
Introducing mindfulness to your employees can also help build a more objective workforce. Meditation can help improve an employee’s ability for good decision-making. How? Mindfulness practices allow individuals to discover their inner-self; they become calmer and more focused. This allows them to look at their tasks more objectively.
Meditation helps individuals become more focused on the task at hand, allowing them to enjoy the work they do rather than feeling that “they have” to do it. Mindfulness adds more value and worth in accomplishing objectives with a calm and objective mind.
