The Role of Mindfulness at Work

How Mindfulness Improves Employee Wellness in the Workplace

Just like a wellbeing program in general, a personalized mindfulness program can also carry a host of benefits for both employees and organizations looking to conquer stress and thrive at work.

Benefits for Employees

It can be hard for employees to switch into work mode when personal issues are at the forefront—and it can be just as challenging to leave work issues behind when they finish for the day. 

For employees who aren’t accustomed to working remotely, this compartmentalization is particularly difficult. So, when stress is at a maximum and time seems to be at a minimum, practicing mindfulness techniques can help employees shut off the outside noise and focus on the present tasks at hand. 

Alternatively, when employees clock out for the day, they can still use these same mindfulness exercises to leave workplace stress behind and achieve a better work-life balance. 

The versatility of mindfulness is a huge plus—it’s an anytime-anywhere tool that can be used to cope with both personal and professional challenges, letting employees process and handle their emotions in a healthy way. When practiced regularly, employees find their stress lowered and their overall sense of wellbeing heightened. 

Apart from being an effective short-term solution for immediate stressors, workplace mindfulness can also improve long-term health by reducing chronically elevated stress. As a bonus, it’s also been proven to improve sleep quality, increase concentration and creativity, and simply enhance overall health.

Benefits for Organizations

Stress can have dramatic effects on an organization. According to the American Psychological Association, financial pressures are the leading source of stress for working adults—a problem that has steadily increased over the past few decades. 

High levels of stress can have a domino effect within an organization and cause increased healthcare costs, absenteeism, and turnover. Until recently, however, stress and burnout have rarely been addressed in the workplace, despite approximately 80 percent of workers reporting feeling stressed on the job.

Luckily, these numbers are starting to change—but only for organizations that are prioritizing mindfulness at work. In a review of 28 different empirical studies, researchers found that using mindfulness training in the workplace leads to direct improvements in wellbeing, mental health, and even performance.

In other words, mindfulness and meditation are proven gateways to help employees “get in the zone,” resulting in increased creativity, focus, and engagement. And with regular mindfulness exercises, employees not only become better at getting their jobs done, but they also enjoy their work more in the process.

Organizations are also reaping significant savings resulting from employees’ improved health risk assessments. After Aetna partnered with the American Viniyoga Institute and eMindful to implement a mindfulness initiative, employees who participated in at least one mindfulness class reported not only a reduction in their stress levels, but also gaining an average of 62 minutes per week of productivity each, which Aetna estimates is worth $3,000 per employee per year.