Why You Should Bring Mindfulness to Your Organization

Let’s face it, we can all relate to feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and running on fumes. Our work-life boundaries have become more blurred than ever before as a result of the pandemic and the new normal of hybrid or virtual offices.As an organization, what does this mean for you? When your staff is stressed and burnt out, productivity goes down as does decision-making, thoughtfulness, focus, and overall mental agility. This is why mindfulness programs have become an increasingly popular option for organizations looking to focus on employee engagement and retention. Companies such as Google, Target and General Mills are investing in ongoing mindfulness programs for their staff. Here’s why:

Mindfulness Improves Productivity

Today’s work environment demands a certain level of urgency for even the smallest tasks. That’s why leadership strategies are now looking to mindfulness practices to help staff shift their focus to the most pressing task rather than trying to juggle multiple things at once. Mindfulness has shown that when we deprogram ourselves from multitasking, we open ourselves up to intentionally focus, with full attention, on a given task resulting in higher-quality decisions, completed projects and work relationships.While many conversations discuss how recharging can boost productivity and are willing to offer more personal days for staff – this can also be as simply done as enabling thoughtful moments each day where professionals can sit and be thoughtful for a few moments without having to be glued to email or zoom. Encouraging even just 30 minutes a day to recharge can have a positive impact on employees’ well being.

Mindfulness Builds Resilience to Stress

Stress can take a toll on the mind and body. Stress has been linked to a myriad of physical ailments including increased inflammation in the body and chronic diseases that affect the brain and/or the heart. This stress can manifest itself in the workplace as well and cause strained relationships both internally with colleagues and externally with clients. One negatively written email to a client can wreak havoc on a business. Companies like Google an Aetna offer a variety of mindfulness programs to its employees to help teach emotional intelligence and help them better understand the motivations of others. Participants of Google’s program reported being calmer, more patient, and were better able to handle stress and diffuse difficult emotions.At MKM, we offer a number of programs that can help bring mindfulness to your organization. Our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is well-suited to help employees learn how to handle stress in the workplace. This course helps you learn how to use your innate resources and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and illness. Contact our team today if you are ready to bring mindfulness to your organization.