Analyzing Stress Reduction & Workplace Wellness Program

Stress Reduction & Workplace Wellness Program

Online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

This is a 100% free online MBSR training course, developed by a fully licensed MBSR tutor, and modelled based on the Jon Kabat-Zinn program founded at the Medical school of Massachusetts University. The people the program targets are those that cannot take live MBSR courses for either logistical or financial reasons. Each of the several materials utilized during the live course, which include videos and articles on meditation, are available online for free (MBSR, N.D). The Workplace Wellness and Stress Reduction Program has the ability to inculcate a change in business and professional culture. When both workers and employers learn effective ways to deal with stress, the long-term benefits in terms of cost reduction and increased productivity are quite numerous. Apart from minimizing stress, awareness and mindfulness training can also cultivate mental alertness, flexibility, resiliency, initiative, creativity and intuition, among members of work teams, within individuals, and with the entire organization. In clinical studies, mindfulness has proven to be a very effective remedy for the adverse effects of stress (Walker, n.d).

Almost all conscientious human resource managers in the business world today understand the relevance of these wellness programs designed for worker's stress management. Reducing stress in the workplace play a very vital role in enhancing long-term workers' happiness, worker productivity and retention, which leads to more comprehensive new initiatives on mind and body wellness. Making stress reduction a part of wellness programs can be quite helpful. The level of damage done in the workplace by high stress levels cannot be overemphasized. From low productivity and increased cost of healthcare, to costly workers' turnover, there are several reasons for human resource managers and leaders to act. Stress results in increased costs of healthcare for business, lower employee productivity, and reduce morale among employees, leading to reduced retention abilities and other related hiring costs.

In a nutshell, stress is a big deal in the workplace, and paying attention to it is of great importance. Furthermore, stress can lead to every type of ill in the workplace, such as reduced team outlook, reduced desire to provide the needed help for others to find solutions to problems they are facing at work, reduced motivation and workers' disengagement. According to a study by King's College London, stress does not stop at reducing morale among the employees and inhibiting the maximization of their potentials, but they are likely to participate in bringing about behaviours that are counterproductive, making the low morale look like an infectious virus. Stress is one major factor that reduces the morale of employee happiness in the workplace. According to studies, when employees get burdened with very high stress levels, it affects their work engagement drastically. This will result in increased business costs, since low-morale or disengaged employees perform below average, and by the time they leave, finding new employees to fill the vacancy they created is always expensive and difficult. The great news is that the recent comprehensive trend in initiatives for the mind and body wellness has shown that a lot more options now exist than what was obtainable some years ago. Today, human resources managers can choose from a wide range of options with regards to the best stress reduction programs to give their workers. Investing in the wellness programs for workplace harmony and employee happiness, produces employees with higher level of commitment, reduced turnover, and a lot of dollars saved (Malatesta, 2015).