In order to calm the busy, metropolitan mind, recent years have seen a spike in mindfulness, meditation and yoga. With allegedly 60% of the UK workforce feeling overworked, it’s evident that employee welfare needs to be reprioritised at work. Consequently, there’s been a flurry of literature over introducing these wellness measures into the workplace.
A recent article by The Guardian has advocated workplace activities such as group yoga, or meetings that take place whilst walking around the office: a sort of millennial take on office culture. It is interesting to note that the Guardian article particularly addresses SMEs in its efforts to promote workplace wellbeing, as these businesses form the majority of the UK’s workforce. Team welfare activities are also the perfect opportunity for smaller teams to bond.
Apart from your own home, the workplace is where professionals spend most of their time, thus it is easy to see why wellness activities are being advocated: it’s crucial that these spaces allow us to look after our health. We’ve developed a culture of coffee-downing, lunch at your desk, skipping breakfast to run for the tube in order to keep up with the demands of the working week, and we don’t need a medical professional to tell us why this is unhealthy.
The introduction of these welfare measures could also bolster productivity. It has long been established that exercise can help boost morale and work output. So for CEOs and executives reluctant to carve out time from the working day for exercise, a focus on wellbeing could provide a welcome improvement in employee output.
Creative Review recently published an extensive report on wellbeing in the creative workplace, suggesting a whole host of measures to increase happiness at work. Exercise, open workspace and having plant life in the office were all suggested as ways of boosting worker mentality and productivity.
It can be hard for companies to begin to think about group yoga or meditation sessions, especially considering demanding schedules and multiple deadlines. However, if this valuable time can improve wellbeing and productivity in staff, then it is surely worth the investment. Whilst we’re not sure we’ll be introducing ‘walking meetings’ just yet, we’ll certainly invest time from our working day into group activities to make our team happy, so we can keep making yours happy.