Mindfulness techniques are no longer just practiced by yogis, tree-huggers, and existentialists. Google, General Mills, Intel, Target and many other companies are incorporating time for meditation, retreats, immersion, and other mindfulness exercises into the everyday work schedule.
While some may believe mindfulness techniques to be a time-waster and even an additional expense for businesses, there are some significant benefits that make it all worth it. The perks of mindfulness strategies are plentiful. Research indicates that businesses that invest in this approach can help re-focus their employees, increase productivity, discover untapped leadership potential, lower healthcare costs, and cultivate a culture that brings out the best in their employees.
Untapped Leadership
Many companies are finding that by encouraging transparency, reflection, and immersion (the practice of fully embracing the present moment) company executives are demonstrating stronger leadership skills. The evidence for this boost in management proficiency is not only observed in the workplace but is also empirically acknowledged in the neuroplastic changes in one’s brain.
A study published in PLOS ONE analyzed MRI scans from participants who completed an eight-week mindfulness course. The images revealed that dispositional mindfulness co-varies with a smaller amygdala and caudate volumes in community adults. Translation: the reactionary “fight or flight” part of the brain (the amygdala) shrinks. Because of this, the knee-jerk reactions to stressors were replaced by more cognizant actions.
What’s more, as the amygdala shrinks, our pre-frontal cortex becomes denser. This area of the brain is associated with more complex brain behaviors and functions such as awareness, concentration, decision-making, planning, personality development, and appropriate social behavior.
Less Stress, More Money Saved
Dozens of studies have indicated workload as a major source of stress for Americans. However, The American Institute of Stress (AIS) determined just how prevalent, dangerous, and costly these high levels of pressure and anxiety really are.
According to their research, 46% of a person’s stress is derived from the perceptions of having little control but overwhelming amount of demands at work. This chronic mental strain increases rates of heart attack, hypertension, and many other disorders and health problems. According to AIS:
“In New York, Los Angeles and other municipalities, the relationship between job stress and heart attacks is so well acknowledged, that any police officer who suffers a coronary event on or off the job is assumed to have a work related injury and is compensated accordingly (including heart attack sustained while fishing on vacation or gambling in Las Vegas).”
This job stress is not only damaging to the employees but to companies as well. Some experts, like Dr. Paul Rosch, the Chairman of the Board of AIS, estimate that job stress costs American industries a staggering $300 billion a year.
While that calculation has received some criticism from online publications like Workplace Psychology, this number may not be too far off the mark. In fact, a study conducted by James E. Stahl and team of researchers from Harvard Medical School found that an eight-week mind-body program that involved meditation, yoga, mindfulness, cognitive behavioral skills, and positive psychology amounted to massive healthcare savings.
As compared to the control group who didn’t receive the mind-body techniques, the cost savings from a reduction in emergency room visits alone was on the order of $2360 per patient per year. Results from the study also showed that utilization for healthcare for the intervention group decreased by an astonishing 43%. So although Dr. Rosch’s prediction received some heat about its accuracy, he may have been right on the nose.
In addition to losses, it’s important to investigate and compare potential savings from mindfulness programs being implemented in the U.S. workforce. While it’s not apples to apples, and there are many variables that are not addressed, if we consider for a moment that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recognizes over 160 million people in the American workforce—and that mindfulness programs can save an average of $2,360/patient/year—then it’s possible that U.S. industries could collectively save nearly 400 billion dollars a year in emergency room costs alone.
A Boost in Productivity
It’s time for companies to roll out the yoga mat. Not only are there massive potential healthcare savings, there are financial benefits to be gained from increasing employee productivity. In a landmark study completed by Gallup titled How Millennials Want to Work and Live, the analytics company revealed that only 29% of millennials are engaged at work, with the remaining 71% either not engaged or are actively disengaged.
However, Gallup also found that businesses in their top quartile of employee engagement rank had staff who were 17% more productive, suffered 70% fewer safety incidents, experienced 41% less absenteeism, had 10% better customer ratings, and were a staggering 21% more profitable compared with business units in the bottom quartile.
So how do you increase your employee engagement? According to a 2015 Global Trends in Employee Engagement, “Awareness and mindfulness in employees appear to be prerequisites for enabling them to fully engage and unleash their energy. Thus, individual feedback and reflection at the individual level are needed.”
Essentially:
- Mindfulness = Engagement
- Engagement = Productivity
- Productivity = Higher profits
Keep Your Talent
In a time where workers are chronically stressed, over-saturated with screen time, and longing for richer experiences, mindfulness can facilitate a culture where the daily grind doesn’t feel like the daily grind at all. Without cultivating that ethos for your company, you’re bound to lose talent and deter new highly-qualified workers from joining the team.
In fact, in Gallup’s research, 60% of millennials said they were open to different job opportunities, and only 50% planned to be with their company one year longer. To drive this point home, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that it costs an average of $4,129 just to hire an employee.
In an example from SHRM, where an employee’s work equates to a $1,000 in daily revenue, the cost of lost productivity from searching for a new hire equates to $29,250. In conjunction, the total cost for losing an employee could cost this hypothetical company $41,000.
Mindfulness Strategies
If you’re interested in elevating the leadership in your company, saving money on healthcare costs, boosting productivity, and keeping and attracting new talent, it’s time for you to implement a mindfulness program. To learn more about what Mindfulness Strategies can do for your company, click here or the button below to contact us today.