Mindfulness is defined as being ‘the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something’. Many businesses are embracing it for the benefits it offers employees with managing complex tasks, reducing injury, increasing resilience and dealing with stress. Mindfulness can be extremely helpful with increasing employee engagement, according to Alan Kohll, author of ‘The Top Corporate Wellness Trends To Watch For In 2017’ by Forbes.com. With an increased focus on attracting and retaining high performing employees, businesses are seeing the benefits of implementing programs such as mindfulness to increase employee engagement.

Smiling Mind, states that 1 in 5 Australian employees have taken time off work in the last 12 months due to being mentally unwell. Focusing on mindfulness in your workplace can have long-term benefits in increasing the health and happiness of your staff.

So how do you promote mindfulness in your workplace?

From a work culture perspective, it’s important for management to ‘walk the talk’ and demonstrate mindfulness principles. Businesses should also incorporate mindfulness practices into their HR processes and encourage employees taking time out of their day-to-day tasks to embrace mindfulness principles. Examples of this might be: encouraging employees to take short breaks and clear their minds with breathing exercises, meditation or yoga.

We recently invited Sally Cummings from Engage Health into our Laverton and Campbellfield offices as part of WorkSafe Victoria’s Health and Safety month, to work with staff to increase their understanding of mindfulness principles and learn strategies to assist us to incorporate mindfulness techniques into our working lives. Sally says that the benefits from practising mindfulness techniques in a work environment include:

• Improved self- awareness, self-management and self-regulation
• Improved cognitive function- including greater focus, concentration, memory, learning ability and creativity
• Less habitual reactivity and heightened emotional intelligence
• Lower stress
• Heightened psychological resilience
• Enhanced sense of well-being and life satisfaction
• Improved leadership skills and more effective communication
• Ability to listen more attentively and be present.

Promoting mindfulness techniques and strategies can improve employee health, resilience and engagement. If your business requires support implementing mindfulness strategies, speak to the HR Consulting team at Flexi Personnel.