HR/Wellness Coordinators, YOU NEED to Read This

A dire message to all in charge of company wellness

March 28th, 2018

An important message to all HR/Wellness Coordinators:

Workplace wellness is shifting, wildly, and if you don’t adjust you may find yourself left behind in wellness initiatives that truly make an impact.

The wellness of every individual at your company is in your hands. The foundation of your department is rooted in doing good. You are the SOLE driver of happiness in the workplace. And you’d like to believe the programs you put into place are doing just that. However, new studies are showing traditional health and wellness (H&W) programs are failing and it is your duty as HR/Wellness Coordinators to adjust accordingly. These studies are not only exposing inadequacies of traditional H&W programs, but inspiring a revolution in programming that actually works.

Current Initiatives are Ineffective

Traditional H&W programs are a multi-billion dollar industry. Diet programs, exercise equipment, gyms, sleep pods, medical screening, fitbits, healthy food options in cafeterias, even contests and bonus initiatives…all marketed with the promise to get employees to simply live healthier lives.

Unfortunately, none of these initiatives have any tangible impact on the H&W of the employees you are trying to help. Think about it. Have any of the initiatives you’ve recently implemented had a true effect on internal happiness and success? Have people been participating? Diet programs such as weight watchers have a 98% failure rate. Bonuses, contests, and even cash-for-participation programs fail, and are even counterproductive to motivation. And as I’m sure you know, lunch and learns and events discussing healthy topics typically go unattended.

The Biggest Barrier? The Human Condition.

One big problem is lack of participation, something you already know. Employees aren’t willing to give up personal time or exert themselves consistently enough in H&W programs to have an effect. It’s nearly impossible to engage those that need H&W the most, while the healthy ones are usually the only ones who show up, and studies show they would take care of themselves anyway on their own. So what ends up happening is the majority of employees who need the programs are not in the programs.

An Outdated Focus

The disturbing but realistic truth is that for decades we have been implementing programs that promise to improve H&W with no results. Yet we keep on paying for them. Why? Apathy? Helplessness? The need to do “something”? The lack of anything that works? Yes, yes, yes and yes. Fortunately, there is something that does work.

Until very recently, we have been ignoring the root of almost every disease we now suffer from, and also the root of almost all problems we have been trying to solve in the workplace; unmanaged chronic stress. Endless distraction, prescription drug abuse, electronic addiction, the breakdown of healthy work-life integration, a severe drought of human connection and escalating mental illness, all of which traditional programs do not address. This new discovery of the underlying issue has not only inspired a shift in focus, but a new awareness of a solution you probably wouldn’t suspect.

A Viable, Accessible, Simple, Affordable, One-Size-Fits-All Stress Management Tool

Since 2011, science has proven the benefits of brief, consistent meditation practice at work. I know, meditation, that thing hippies do…well, I’m here to tell you CEOs are doing it. The best companies in the world like Google and Aetna are doing it. Business leaders are doing it. EVERYONE is jumping on the meditation train. Why? This simple breathing exercise, rooted more than 3,000 in our history, is the single most effective tool for reducing stress and sharpening focus. Meditation improves sleep patterns better than, well, anything else. It strengthens willpower, resulting in more weight loss than diet and exercise programs. It has a dramatic effect on depression, anger, frustration and anxiety. It promotes work-life integration by allowing the brain to stay on task, prioritize, and respond to stress with relaxation. It improves the brain’s ability to prioritize tasks and separate work from life. It strengthens all communication skills: listening, expressing and even interpreting language. Meditation even improves many common physical diseases: diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal disturbances, migraines, and more.

It’s time to do the right thing for your company and implement meditation into your H&W initiatives. The benefits will not only help with your mental health programs, but will enhance all the other H&W programs you put into place. It’s simple. A healthier brain is more likely to make healthier choices.

The Catch

Meditation is simple. Learning to do it on your own is not.

It seems easy enough: sit, close your eyes, breathe, focus on the breath, let thoughts and distractions come and go, refocus attention on the breath. But by ourselves, it’s hard to sit still. It’s hard to give ourselves the time. It’s hard understand the racing mind. It’s hard to do it consistently enough to have an effect. And it’s really hard to overcome the overwhelming stress triggers of home and work: cell phones, computers, dirty dishes, piles of bills, unfinished projects.

The Solution

So what do you do as HR/Wellness Coordinators? You call us, MeditationWork. We make meditation accessible to your company. We bring our mobile meditation studio to the doorstep of your office, where people are, and we deliver QUICK, modern, 10 minute meditation sessions on a WEEKLY basis that fit into even the busiest of schedules. We bring GROUPS of people to practice TOGETHER, forming bonds and providing support and encouragement. We bring them into a DISTRACTION FREE DEDICATED SPACE, where they quickly engage. We greet them with a smiling HUMAN BEING who answers questions and validates their presence. We offer them a well-deserved and much-needed BREAK from busyness and distraction. And we do this all WEEKLY. Which is the only way to do it EFFECTIVELY.

Please, please, please take a stand against work stress. It is plaguing the workplace but it can be managed, and managed in a very simple, engaging and completely attainable way! It just takes incredible individuals like yourself to do something about it. Contact MeditationWork.