Employee Wellness From the Inside Out

Does your company have a comprehensive wellness program?  Does it inspire and encourage folks to choose less stress and better health?  Or does it simply reward them for hitting externally mandated health goals?  External incentives, like cash bonuses, work temporarily.  Internal changes sustain.  You can pay a person to lose weight, or you can INSPIRE them to choose wellbeing.

Mindfulness training and meditation instruction are gaining popularity in the workplace nationwide.  These practices serve as conduits to stress reduction and inner change.  They empower people to make more conscious choices.  Some of the pioneers in this movement are Google, General Mills, and Apple. 

Google has a seven-week mindfulness program called, Search Inside Yourself.  General Mills has a meditation room in every building on their campus, and Steve Jobs was such a believer in meditation, he allowed Apple employees to take 30 minutes each day to meditate at work. 

This type of paradigm shift is inevitable.  The status quo incentivized weight-loss and exercise programs are simply not working.  New, leading edge, innovative wellness programs must take their place.  I say, inspire and motivate people to want to change, and give them tools to change themselves!  Now that’s a wellness program!

If stress, high health care costs, and low employee engagement are problems for your company, consider meditation and mindfulness training as ways to encourage employees to go within and begin choosing less stress and better health.  Consider it employee wellness, from the inside out. 

Low Employee Engagement? Make Time for Nothing!

    Make time for nothing?  At work?  Counterintuitive at first glance, I know.  But consider this: in a recent “State of the American Workplace” Gallup report, a dismal 30% of employees reported being engaged and inspired at work. 50% categorized themselves as not engaged, and 20% admitted being actively disengaged.

If you think employee engagement is insignificant, think again.  Disengaged employees cost companies big money, in the form of low productivity, absenteeism, and healthcare costs.

How can you accelerate employee engagement?  Gallup reports, “Enhance Employees Wellbeing,” as one of the top three ways to engage employees, because engaged workers live healthier lives and have lower healthcare costs.  Additionally, engaged employees far outshine disengaged employees in crucial performance outcomes.  So, it seems logical that wellness programs would be every company’s top priority.  But, what type of wellness?  It’s abroad topic.

At the core of employee disengagement is stress.  The APA says 70% of stress is work-related, and according to the World Health Organization, stress costs American businesses an estimated 300 billion a year.

Meditation – a stress reduction tool that’s sweeping the nation – might be the answer for turning this problem around.  Teaching employees empowering skills that help them reduce their own stress, improve their health, and engage at work, is a concept that is transforming corporate cultures nationwide.  Google, Apple, General Mills and many other companies have implemented meditation and other processes, to help their employees thrive – personally and professionally.

While it’s not technically “doing nothing,” meditation does require a few minutes of uninterrupted silence and inward awareness.  Its scientifically proven benefits are vast, and include: a measurable reduction in stress, lower blood pressure, decreased stress hormones, and more.  Employees who are allowed to meditate at work are reporting less stress, more mental clarity, and better focus. 

Is it time for your company to make time for nothing?