Corporate yoga: the mantra to a driven workforce

Owing to an upward curve of stress in today’s day and age and a poor work-life balance, keeping oneself sane and healthy has become a daunting task. Nevertheless, every organisation seeks healthy and happy employees and in order to ensure employee wellness, corporate wellness programs are introduced by the organisations. Interestingly, the outlook on corporate wellness programs has transformed over the years. While earlier such programs were looked upon by corporates as good value-addition, now they are considered as strategic imperative. 

Stress could be the root cause of several health issues, impacting both body and mind. Among all kinds of stress, job stress is reported more often these days. Here are a few enlightening statistics:

• According to The American Institute for Stress, job stress costs companies in the US about $300 billion annually through absenteeism, declined productivity, medical and insurance fees. 
• Quoted by People Matters, in a survey of 1,908 workers in India, 70 percent of them said they were experiencing stress at least once during the working week on a regular basis.
• As per the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health data, workers who report they are stressed incur almost 50% higher healthcare costs than other employees.

Besides being amazing stress relievers, corporate wellness programs come with a plethora of benefits. Before we highlight the benefits, let’s first understand what corporate wellness programs are. A set of initiatives undertaken by an organization to improve the mental and physical health of employees is known as a corporate wellness program. It comprises yoga and meditation sessions, gym memberships, health risk assessments, on-premise healthy food options, wellness outings, expert talks, vaccination, ergonomic sitting and many more.

Yoga forms the bigger chunk of all corporate wellness programs and in terms of benefits that Yoga has to offer, it’s a two-way street for both organisations as well as employees. No wonder why corporate yoga has become increasingly popular worldwide. Yoga is a proven way to alleviate stress and improve the health of body and mind in countless ways. Stress management being one of the crucial objectives every organization aspiring to master, more and more companies globally, both big and small are incorporating yoga in the workplace. 

The main benefits of corporate yoga on the company side include the following:

• Reduction on healthcare costs related to stress and other ailments
• Less absenteeism
• Increased productivity
• Better and quality services offered to customers
• Highly motivated employees
• Less attrition rate
• Fulfilling and harmonious work environment

The employee benefits are highlighted as under:

• Improved concentration 
• Better decision-making skills
• Better ability to deal with workload
• Less work-related stress
• Less posture-induced ailments
• Improved heart health
• Better delivery of performance
• A better sense of recognition of the company they work for

Way forward for corporate yoga

With the countless benefits that corporate yoga has to offer, the future looks bright and promising. While implementing yoga in the corporate wellness program is one of the most cost-effective investments for an organization, most people think highly of organizations who value employee health and have wellness initiatives to uphold that. In fact, studies suggest that individuals of all skill levels look up to joining companies that have a healthy and harmonious work environment. For any organization, hiring the right talent is crucial, however, more crucial is retaining those talents and that seems highly likely with corporate wellness programs in place.