People around the world report that they feel stressed up to 80% of their time, with the number one cause being attributed to job-related reasons. Stress doesn’t only affect efficiency and concentration. In the long-term, it can impact a person’s physical and mental health, and that’s not to mention the damage absenteeism can do to business productivity.
So, it’s of little wonder that companies like Sage are offering guided mindfulness courses to help employees take some time to meditate at work. As companies realise the dangers stress can pose to business and employees, it’s worth implementing ways to reduce it and make work a more relaxing place to be.
Meditation
Mindfulness is a specific type of meditation where you become aware of your thoughts and how the environment and people around you are affecting you. It can be hard to see what’s really bothering us in the heat of the moment, but finding a quiet place (or plugging in your noise-cancelling headphones) and taking some time to control your breathing and focus your mind can give you a perspective unlike any other.
Meditation has been proven to not only improve your problem-solving, multi-tasking, and creativity, but has even been shown to boost your immune system.
A Space to Relax
Even if meditation isn’t your thing, having a space to escape the work mentality and to think about other things can be a great for employees needing to take a breather. Just 15 minutes can be enough to drastically reduce the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed with stress.
Yoga
Nike and HBO are just two of the bigger companies that now offer their employees free, on-site yoga classes. Yoga doesn’t just provide an opportunity to meditate in a more controlled environment, but it has the added benefits of helping you to improve your physical fitness, awareness of your body (as well as your mind), and makes for a great bonding exercise with your colleagues.
Mental Health Schemes
Businesses lose anything from $80 to $100 billion a year to employees taking days off to deal with mental health issues. So, companies like Barclays and Bupa UK are providing their employees with mental health schemes: free lines of advice to ensure employees can be helped sooner, so problems are dealt with earlier, and they can get back to work faster.
Team-building
High-pressure jobs mean colleagues often making demands of each other which can occasionally lead to disagreements. An effective way of reducing this cause of stress is to host social and team-building exercises. As employees get more familiar with each other, they will feel more at ease at work.
Stress is a major cause of employee health problems and lost earnings, so do your business a favour and start implementing policies which allow employees to open up more, get to know each other better, and take the time to focus on themselves, so they can come back to work more productive than ever.
About Insightlink: Insightlink Communications is a leader in full service employee surveys and offers a range of employee survey products and services to fit their client's needs. With over 18 years of experience, Insightlink's reputation has been built on giving organizations the knowledge they need to create effective change using their acclaimed employee research, analytics, benchmarking and survey methodologies. Insightlink's expertise in data collection reporting and analytics takes the pressure off organizations that find data overwhelming and daunting creating reports that are digestible and understandable, simple and easy to understand for organizations of any size and experience level.
For more information please contact us at 866-802-8095 ext 705 or visit our website here.
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