Corporate Mindfulness and Wellness

1. Mindfulness reduces employee stress and mitigates the risk of burnout

The world of work has fundamentally changed over the past 20 years. We now go through our days with supercomputers in our pockets. We’re able to communicate around the globe in seconds. Despite the obvious advantages of our faster, more connected world, our current age also comes with a powerful challenge: We now live in an “always on” state of perpetual stress and technological distraction.

Mindfulness works as a powerful counterbalance to this ordinary state. Numerous studies suggest that mindfulness practice helps employees reduce stress and build what just might be the most valuable capacity in the digital age: resilience. One recent study, for instance, showed that the benefits of mindfulness training extend beyond the individuals doing the practice. Researchers found that even the direct reports of managers who practice mindfulness experience lower rates of emotional exhaustion.

2. Mindfulness reduces unwanted turnover

The workforce has become increasingly transitory, and unwanted turnover poses a threat to most businesses. Experts estimate that unwanted turnover can cost up to 200 percent of an employee’s annual salary. So how can we keep high-value employees from leaving? In one recent study, researchers examined the relationship between company mindfulness programs and retention. They found a significant relationship between mindfulness and higher levels of commitment among employees to their current employer.

3. Mindfulness increases productivity and engagement

Mindfulness training also has powerful effects on productivity. Researchers studying the effects of workplace mindfulness programs found that this training led to greater vitality, enhanced focus, and higher levels of engagement in the task at hand.  

4. Mindfulness works as a powerful tool for recruiting top talent

In a tight labor market, where many companies struggle to attract top talent, mindfulness programs give companies a competitive edge. This is perhaps why leading companies like Google, Nike, Apple, and Goldman Sachs are all heavily invested in mindfulness training. And it makes sense. If given the choice between a firm that invests in the well-being and resilience of its employees and one that doesn’t, most savvy applicants will choose the company that is more invested in its employees’ success.

5. Mindfulness boosts creativity and innovation

With the nature of industry and work continuously changing and with new disruptive technologies like A.I. looming, creativity and innovation are essential business assets. Researchers at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, wanted to understand the impact of mindfulness training on creativity. They found that just a few minutes of mindfulness practice led to statistically significant increases in “divergent thinking” and also increased the range of ideas subjects were able to generate.

The key upshot of this emerging research is that mindfulness is a sound investment — one that pays out on a variety of different levels. At the level of social responsibility and doing good, investing in the well-being and resilience of employees is simply the right thing to do.