A healthier, happier workforce is essential for sustained productivity and increased output. The adverse effects of stress, long hours, and sedentary lifestyles are common occurrences that lead to ill health and lifestyle diseases. These diseases may include PCOS, diabetes, hypertension, and thyroid malfunctions. With growing occurrences of such health issues, organisations have started recognising the holistic benefits of yoga.
Incorporating yoga into a holistic corporate wellness program can lead to long-term health benefits. A well-designed program includes classical asanas, pranayamas, and practices like deep breathing, savasana, and kriyas. Yoga increases the mobility of all the joints in the body and reduces pain and stiffness. The classical asanas and correct postures enable chest opening, hip stretches, and simple methods to release tension from the neck and shoulders.
Long commutes to work, conflicts at work, insecurities about jobs, stress related to personal and professional lives, wrong food and sleep habits, hereditary conditions, and pollution are several factors that affect well-being. Asanas can heal the body, tone muscles, reduce stress and anxiety, increase the secretion of feel-good hormones, and increase overall energy levels of individuals and, finally, productivity.
This blog explains why an organisation must integrate yoga into corporate wellness programs.
Corporate Yoga: An Overview
Happiness at work is not elusive and is attainable. It is a two-way street wherein an employee feels valued and cared for. In the process, the employee is at their peak performance level. The effectiveness is measurable when any intervention, like corporate yoga, is part of the strategy. However, one must understand that no intervention provides results in an instant.
Practising yoga regularly for 3-6 months will start showing changes in the body in terms of reduced body aches and pain, weight management, better sleep quality, increased concentration, and less lethargy. The mental aspects of yoga take longer to establish. Please note that any intervention to be effective requires the management’s long-term commitment to the approach and participation of the employees. The biggest challenge of the wellness team is to design a program that suits the employees and keeps them interested.
What is Corporate Yoga Becoming So Popular in the Workplace?
Stress and challenging deadlines often lead to burnout and reduced efficiency. Companies – big or small, are realising the positive impact of yoga on employee health and productivity. As stress-induced physical health costs rise and lifestyle diseases and metabolic disorders become more common, corporate yoga becomes integral to wellness programs for all businesses. It is also a cost-effective solution with proven benefits like increased productivity, better mental health, and improved morale.
Health Benefits of Corporate Yoga for Employee Wellness
Below are some of the health benefits of the corporate yoga program for employee wellness, including:
1. Improving Physical and Mental Health
It is no secret that flexibility, muscular strength, and cardiovascular health are crucial for overall wellness. One of the primary benefits of corporate yoga is that it enhances physical fitness. Better physical health results from yoga’s ability to reduce carpal tunnel syndrome, headache, neck and back strain, insomnia, and work-related injuries. It also helps enhance mental health by lowering the stress level, anxiety, and mood swings.
2. Help in Better Decision-Making and Improves Productivity
Regular yoga enhances cognitive functioning by enhancing memory, focus, and concentration. Hence, it increases productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Yoga fosters self-awareness, aiding individuals in making conscious decisions about work commitments and personal life. In addition, it helps avoid burnout.
Employees experience improved physical health, which leads to better focus and attentiveness. It also leads to an improved ability to handle emotional turmoil better.
3. Cut Down on Medical Expenses and Absenteeism
Practising yoga reduces chronic diseases and lifestyle-related health issues. This results in decreased absenteeism and lower healthcare costs for the company. For example, controlled breathing techniques in yoga, such as pranayama, improve lung capacity and help manage stress through conscious breathing exercises.
4. Promoting a Healthy Work-Life Balance
A work-life balance is essential for long-term professional success, and being in harmony significantly supports it. Yoga teaches people to prioritise self-care and discipline, improve time management, and contribute to a healthier work-life balance.
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Implementing Effective Corporate Yoga Programs: Points to Remember
Here are some points that organisations must consider while implementing a corporate yoga program:
1. Cost Effective Intervention
Every individual and organisation should embrace an effective wellness program. The program should also have the versatility to be replicated across all levels.
Yoga for beginners consists of gentle yoga stretches that all or most of the employees can perform. Inclusions like chair yoga make it easy to practice even while someone is working and being desk-bound. Also, yoga programs are cost-effective. A room and some props, like mats, bricks, bolsters, and bands, are good enough to start a program.
An organisation committed to a sustained wellness program can allocate a moderate budget at the beginning to see how it is working. Scaling it up can happen at a small incremental cost involving all levels, using facilities rotationally and bringing in more qualified teachers, or introducing app-based learning.
2. Customisable Programs
The foundation of a customised yoga plan includes breathing exercises, mild stretches, and asanas. For example, in a BPO or IT setup, where employees work the night shift, the work schedule can imbalance their circadian rhythm. Mild stretches and pranayama can help them get into a restive state once the shift gets over, fall asleep faster, and reduce burnout.
3. Easy to Perform
Yoga is a non-competitive activity. A qualified teacher focuses on the merit of the pose and not the perfect pose at the very outset. In a corporate environment, where competition is everywhere, yoga helps attain balance. It helps one to accept their limitations without the goal of winning or the fear of losing. The idea is to enable the employees with a routine that can be practised not only at work but also as a way of life.
4. Integration with Wellness Goals
Alignment with broader company wellness goals like less stress, a happier workforce, more breaks at work, and less absenteeism are at the core of a successful wellness program. Yoga works as a brilliant starting point.
Visualise a typical work day; one is driving through traffic and noise to reach the office and gets into a review that goes well past the lunch hour. The employee can add 5 minutes of gentle breathing prior to the delayed lunch. The short intervention of mindfulness can go a long way. For example, it can reduce bingeing and make the process of eating less rushed. So the employee can relax and come back to the desk feeling energised. Extrapolate that to a wellness goal, and it adds up.
5. Consistency and Frequency
Yoga requires regular practice. Short and frequent sessions can create a healthy habit. Starting health improvement programs with unduly ambitious and difficult-to-maintain goals is a common mistake. The focus of your road map should be steady, long-term growth.
What Makes a Yoga Corporate Wellness Program Effective
One of the best methods to improve someone’s mental and physical balance is yoga. Around 3 to 4 weeks of consistent practice makes it a habit. An organisation may opt for yoga holidays, weekly classes, or daily reminders with new challenges pushed by an intranet or an app, to begin with.
For every employee to derive its benefits, classes should be rotational. Online resources, guided meditation programs, one-on-one conversations with the teacher, and a supplementary meal plan can extract maximum benefits from such an intervention.
In Corporate Yoga Wellness Programs, tailored offerings cater to diverse employee bases, delivering remarkable results across industries.
As the lines between work and personal life blur, employers must prioritise employee well-being as a core organisational value. HealthifyMe offers versatile choices for wellness plans for businesses and employees. With AI-powered DIY models, meal combos, real-time data, expert coaching, and a vast network of coaches, HealthifyMe ensures that a corporate wellness program works toward achieving company goals.
The Final Word
With the various benefits that corporate yoga brings, organisations investing in employee well-being are making wise financial decisions. They are also earning the respect of a workforce increasingly valuing health and wellness initiatives. Retaining talents becomes more likely with the implementation of corporate wellness programs. That makes it clear that prioritising employee health is not just a choice but a well-structured step for businesses in the modern corporate sector.
