It doesn’t matter what industry you fall into, health and wellness is being recognized as a top priority for employees, and management is beginning to address it. Workplace Stress Management has been Body Techniques’ “special recipe” for over 20 years, and we applaud the food industry for dipping into Wellness.
“Many employees are getting yoga, counseling and other benefits, as the industry tries to change an often unhealthy culture.”
– well.blogs.nytimes.com
How is your company keeping employees fit? Finding time to exercise can be difficult. One of the ways you can help employees find more time for exercise is by allowing employees to exercise “on the clock” for at least 30 minutes each day.
The main benefits of establishing a culture of fitness in your company? Lower healthcare costs, less absenteeism, less employee stress, better work performance and better teamwork. What’s not to love? Social support is a big component, because when colleagues take part in a fitness program and get to interact with each other in a setting apart from the stress of work, they have conversations they may not have had otherwise in the work environment. They boost each others efforts and help hold each other accountable.
When time is of the essence, the easiest strategy is to break down daily exercise into short, frequent stints throughout the day. Even 10 minutes, 2 to 3 times a day, can be enough to achieve the significant health benefits from physical activity.
Research suggests that exercising during working hours can also pump up work performance. A Leeds Metropolitan University study found that workers who engaged in onsite fitness classes or gym during working hours were more productive, managed their time better, and felt more work satisfaction.
While not every organization can afford to build in-house gyms for their employees, onsite fitness programs are springing up all over the country focusing on corporate fitness. Companies can now employ personal trainers who are experienced in running fitness classes for large or small groups of staff – whether that’s an intensive cardio workout, Zumba dance class, or onsite yoga session. Some companies also offer meditation classes and a gentle introduction to exercise such as an “I don’t really want to sweat” class.
One way to get your company started on the road to fitness is by contacting Body Techniques, a national leader of on-site chair massage therapy, yoga, and a full range of onsite fitness programs that provides employees with onsite access to fitness professionals and a diverse library of workouts for all ages and abilities, including boot camps, Zumba, U-Jam Fitness, Yoga and Pilates. Separate groups from different parts of your organization can work out together, and they can even stage a friendly competition against each other for points and prizes.
Forward-thinking companies are demonstrating what science has proven several times: exercising at work, even without sweat, has huge benefits for productivity and employees’ health and is simple to implement. The benefits you will receive from your employees’ improved health and work performance will more than outweigh the cost of providing onsite corporate fitness programs.
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Recently, Body Techniques Founder and CEO Austin Lund was profiled by Saint Mary’s College of California to highlight his nontradiational path to earning his EMBA with honors. As part of this campaign, Saint Mary’s interviewed Austin and featured him in a promotional video as well as on regional billboards, signage, and on their website. Read his interview here and watch the video below:
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Stress is an unavoidable consequence of every employee’s life on the job. Whatever your corporate environment, there are steps managers can take to protect employees from the damaging effects of stress, improve job satisfaction, and bolster well-being in and out of the workplace.
While occasional stress, or the pressure to perform, is what keeps us on our toes during presentations, provides the energy to pull off an all-nighter, and sparks quick reactions when needed to prevent accidents or costly mistakes — long-term exposure to constant stress at work, not only causes a faster heart rate and tense muscles in the moment, it brings on chronic anxiety, exhaustion, and eventually burnout. In fact, the negative consequences from long-term stress are so strong that it has been declared a World Wide Epidemic by the World Health Organization.
An article from The American Institute of Stress states that 80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress. A 2016 Health IT Stress Report found that 55% of tech professionals are frequently or constantly stressed – with 38% rating their stress intensity as high or extremely high. These statistics are important, especially for companies in fast-paced industries with highly competitive marketplaces for talent, because stress plays a critical role in retention and recruitment.
Recent research shows that being appreciated is one of the most important factors that increase motivation and satisfaction as well as health and well-being. According to the World Health Organization, employees are less likely to experience work-related stress when demands and pressures of work are matched to their knowledge and abilities – control can be exercised over their work and the way they do it – support is received from supervisors and colleagues– and participation in decisions that concern their jobs is provided.
The Society for Human Resource Management offers other ways forward-thinking managers can help employees handle stress:
Innovative managers are championing on-site fitness classes, chair massage, and yoga and meditation as the key to employee satisfaction. Body Techniques specializes in designing programs to lower workplace stress, emphasize mindfulness, and improve employee gratification and engagement; we know first-hand that employees who feel their employers care about their health and well-being tend to be happier and when employees have a positive attitude about their job, it translates into less time missed from work and improved loyalty to their company.
In the years we’ve been working with corporations nationwide, we’ve helped many successfully implement mind-body stress management programs. Here’s what we know works:
At Body Techniques, we’ve found that companies that offer chair massage, fitness classes, yoga, or meditation sessions as employee benefits, and who provide these stress reduction programs free or at a low, subsidized rate to their employees have a much higher rate of participation.
There isn’t a manager alive today who doesn’t agree that modern workers feel stressed out and the stress is taking a toll on their sleep, health, relationships, productivity, and sense of well-being. The good news is that these innovative stress management options are actually simple, cost-effective strategies that support productivity and provide managers and employees with more sense of control and a welcomed break from the demands of the job.
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Do you care about improving employees’ morale? Are you interested in decreasing absenteeism? How do you help your team get through high-stress projects on time? An onsite massage program is a highly effective way to reward and retain talent, and it’s proving to be an investment that translates into a net benefit for companies.
An onsite massage program is not only easy to implement (no need to change clothes), it provides numerous proven employee benefits–including stress relief, better sleep, reduced muscle tension, and decreased migraines. These programs also benefits employers, as they are particularly effective in addressing “burn out” and depression, which have become top factors in lower productivity rates and employee absenteeism.
Offering onsite massage to employees is more than just a perk or a nice-to-have. Implementing a corporate massage program is a powerful way for leadership to show they understand that their people are truly their best asset. At Body Techniques, we’ve seen onsite massage become an essential aspect of many of our national clients’ corporate stress management programs that help employees perform at the top of their game.
It’s important to implement a number of engagement strategies to assure a robust corporate massage program with a high level of employee engagement. And if you don’t yet have a massage program, check out the tips below to help you find a corporate massage benefits package that best suits the needs of your organization.
When companies position massage as an employee benefit, the lowered cost to employees impacts participation greatly. If the cost of a 15-minute massage is $10 or less to an employee, your program will be a success. When there is a subsidy in place, we see a jump in utilization from 50-60% up to 85-95%.
Employees rate chair massage as one of the top indicators of a supportive environment. Stress relief is evident immediately and promotes a renewed focus on the projects at hand.
According to the Mayo Clinic, onsite massage is proven to be an effective treatment for reducing stress, pain, and muscle tension; what a great way to help employees decompress when they’re under important deadline pressure!
A certificate for free onsite massage sessions is a unique and cost-effective way to thank those who contribute to your organization’s success.
In a highly competitive market, use chair massage as a premium or incentive. It can be a motivational tool to encourage customers to engage with your organization at trade shows or special events.
Management meetings, training programs, and other corporate events can be exhausting. Providing a quiet area for chair massage can support a productive environment for participants.
In conjunction with an ongoing massage program or as a “one-time” program, offering chair massage at fundraising events, holiday parties, customer-appreciation days, a company health fair or wellness week is a creative way to make participants feel special.
Your massage program partner will ensure that everything runs smoothly. At Body Techniques, for example, we provide unlimited phone and email support from a designated team member throughout your program – and prior to, during and following your event. We staff nationally with our trained and vetted practitioners, employ measurable data systems that validate program effectiveness and support scalability, and we include post-massage surveys to gather feedback and gauge the success of our client programs and events.
Generally, an onsite chair massage program includes:
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Corporate fitness programs are an important part of any stress management program because these unique, customized experiences allow employees to relieve stress and refocus their energy. Corporate fitness programs also provide employers with these top three benefits: lower healthcare costs, reduced absenteeism, and improved retention and turnover rates.
According to a recent CNBC article, national insurance premiums have been increasing an average of 7% each year. An effective corporate fitness program can save on costs associated with these premiums for both employees and employers. When employees enroll in a company-sponsored fitness program, they become healthier through participation and end up spending less on healthcare-related expenses (hospital visits, prescription drugs, etc.). According to Bankrate, “an inactive person spends $1,500 extra on health costs per year.” As for employer savings, Los Alamos National Laboratory, for example, saved $21 million in three years after implementing a robust wellness program. They then passed the savings on to their employees with a “premium holiday” in which no premium payments were taken out of their paychecks for two pay periods!
The Wellness Council of America has found that more than 100 million workdays are lost each year due to lower back pain. Companies offering fitness programs can reduce instances of lower back pain and other injuries, resulting in healthier employees who will miss fewer days of work. Johnson and Johnson, for example, watched its absenteeism rate fall by 15% within two years of implementing a fitness program. Dupont Corporation was also able to reduce the number of disability days among its workforce by 14 days per year after implementing a fitness program.
Tenneco, a Fortune 500 company, found that employees who enrolled in a company-sponsored corporate fitness program were 13% less likely to leave the company. Additionally, Afflink notes that effective wellness programs that incorporate elements like fitness programs reduce turnover by demonstrating support from top leadership and increasing engagement among colleagues.
As companies continue to compete for top talent, employee benefits play a large part in attracting and keeping employees. In competitive industries especially, companies need to differentiate themselves with customized benefits packages. If your organization is looking for a customized experience for your employees and has a designated room with adequate space, Body Techniques can create a fitness program from a wide range of class styles, including Bootcamp, Zumba, and Pilates.
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Studies have found that receiving a 15-minute chair massage once a week can reduce cortisol levels (a stress hormone) and boost the immune system. Employers that offer massage as a part of their company stress management program find that their employees develop a greater sense of wellbeing, experience fewer missed workdays, and have improved overall job satisfaction.
Often called corporate massage, a chair massage is a shoulder, neck, and upper back massage that takes place in a massage chair and is the most convenient method of delivering onsite massage. It can be done “on the spot” without the need to change clothes and helps to reduce tension, promote better circulation, muscle stimulation, and stress relief. Your massage therapist will ask you how a certain pressure feels and your response will help them find the best way to relieve pain, relax and rejuvenate you.
According to the Mayo Clinic, massage therapy is proven to be an effective treatment for:
Massage also leads to increased circulation, which has a positive impact on the brain and entire body. From stress management to decreased muscle tension and fewer migraines, chair massage helps to improve general feelings of contentment and health. Massage therapy has also been shown to be effective at treating depression which is the single biggest factor in low productivity rates.
Chair massage is for anyone who does the following:
Anyone who hunches over a screen most of the day can face chronic neck and back pain, not to mention arm and wrist issues (carpal tunnel syndrome) from repetitive strain. Additionally, a study by the New York Spine Surgery & Rehabilitative Medicine on the issue of poor posture found that our constant downward-looking gaze at cell phones or smart devices puts a lot of strain on neck muscles; any compression, irritation, misalignment, or tension in this area can cause pain.
Regularly taking a break for a chair massage at the beginning, middle, or end of an intense workday not only helps relieve posture-induced stress, but it can also help reduce anxiety. A study conducted by Shulman and Jones of the Touch Research Institute in Miami, Florida indicated that 15 minutes of chair massage was more effective than a 15-minute break to reduce anxiety and help improve clear thinking.
At Body Techniques, we’ve seen chair massage become an essential aspect of corporate stress management programs. Many of our national clients provide chair massage along with other positive workplace stress reduction practices like fitness classes, yoga and mindfulness meditation, and acupuncture sessions to help recruit and retain employees by increasing their job satisfaction along with their health.
Whether it is ongoing massage programs or one-time massage events for company events, employee appreciation days, or health fairs, companies are embracing massage as a key employee benefit because it has proven to be much more than simply a feel-good luxury; it can be a powerful tool to help employees take charge of their health and well-being. Chair massage is a highly effective and efficient use of time and resources that offer employees easily accessed mental, physical, and emotional relief. That means more productivity and fewer resources spent on training new staff to replace those who leave.
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Keeping your employees engaged at work can be a challenge. Beyond birthday parties, holiday parties, and other special occasions, how far do you go to keep your employees involved daily?
Workforce engagement has many benefits. Not only does it reduce burnout and boost employee retention, but it also fosters a sense of community. The more present your team feels, the more they’ll have a stake in your organization’s—and each other’s—success.
We think about workplace culture a lot at Body Techniques, and we want to offer a few of our favorite employee engagement activities to help your workplace culture. If you’re willing to be bold and try something new, these activities can break the ice around active engagement. They’ll stimulate your team’s morale and well-being along the way!
Corporate yoga is a great way to incorporate physical movement and involve a large group of employees. Yoga offers employees the opportunity to shake off desktop rust and practice mindfulness, so they can recharge and return to their roles with greater efficiency and satisfaction. After class, your employees will walk away from their mats feeling more resilient, relaxed, and rejuvenated than ever before.
Incorporating multiple yoga disciplines can encourage a wide range of employees to participate. It can also keep the most active members of your team on their toes by giving them effective, dynamic workouts—while avoiding the sort of workday repetition that can drain their spirits.
For our corporate clients, Body Techniques offers programs that include styles from gentle Yoga Flow to warm Vinyasa, set to music. We emphasize breathing, physical poses, and guided meditation to help your team center themselves and melt away the stress. Our clients often provide a designated quiet space for yoga, to give employees a set space to develop that perfect balance of body and mind.
Fitness classes are another great way to get the blood pumping and body moving. As with yoga, they’re held in a communal setting, so your employees can engage with each other at the same time as they engage in physical activity.
When Body Techniques designs custom fitness programs for clients, we focus on meeting the needs of their specific employees. That can mean a wide range of fitness classes, offering support in generating awareness, or adjusting class hours for increased participation. Our goal is to get your employees engaged in the program.
Another possible perk? Lower insurance premiums. Start a verifiable fitness program through any insurance carrier for the potential to be rewarded for your attention to employee health.
Sometimes, you need to disengage in order to re-engage. Nothing feels better after slouching in front of the computer all day than a restorative chair, table, or reflexology massage. Massage therapy offers many benefits as well. From stress management to decreased muscle tension to fewer migraines, massage can work wonders for staff engagement. Massage therapy has also been shown to be effective at treating depression. This is significant, as depression is the single biggest factor in plummeting productivity rates.
Corporate massage is the centerpiece of our services at Body Techniques. We’ve specialized in massage therapy for more than two decades, and our skills and experience keep us on the leading edge
The best employee engagement activities aren’t cookie-cutter creations. Be sure to choose a service provider that can help you address the unique needs of your workforce and encourage participation. (Otherwise, your program won’t do much for your employees.) Our customized stress management programs give our clients a voice in developing successful programs, and our scheduling software makes implementation easy for internal stakeholders.
Body Techniques is about helping forward-looking and culture-oriented companies. We set our sights on those that recognize a willingness to give back to their employees as an investment in people and results.
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Why is corporate yoga a crucial addition to a companies’ workplace wellness program? Mainly for these six reasons: regular yoga practice is scientifically proven to reduce pain, stress, and anxiety while improving flexibility, strength, and overall fitness. The key to having your employees reap the enormous benefits of a corporate yoga practice is to help them understand that they don’t need special skills to enjoy yoga. Certified yoga teachers know how to start newcomers off slowly and adapt poses for all levels of practitioners. There are, in fact, a variety of corporate yoga classes that employees can feel comfortable doing in the workplace, including indoor mat sessions, outdoor yoga classes, and yoga classes that employees can do at their desks without having to take a long break or even change out of work clothes.
Part of creating a well-attended corporate yoga program is to stress how accessible yoga classes can be. It’s important to understand what employees know about yoga in order to break down any barriers they might have about giving it a try. For every person that embraces the idea of doing yoga poses and breathing exercises, there is another who thinks yoga is only for young, super-fit people who can stand on their head or twist like a pretzel while rattling off complicated Sanskrit terms for all the poses.
Focus on building a corporate yoga program that is fun, accessible, and provides a way for employees to walk away feeling great. Let them know that you don’t have to be a great athlete, a certain age, or a certain body type to take part. A good way to help employees become more comfortable with yoga in the workplace is to emphasize that athleticism, strength, flexibility, and meditation experience aren’t required —these benefits are the result of regular practice. Be sure to stress the advantages they’ll receive, such as achieving better posture while sitting at a desk, gaining better focus, or using breathing techniques to manage stress.
With so many styles of yoga out there, it’s also important to educate employees about the types of yoga classes that could work best in a company environment and then survey your employees to find out what yoga classes they would prefer. Body Techniques’ corporate yoga programs, for example, offer movement and meditation to help employees de-stress and experience calm awareness both on and off the mat. Employees leave refreshed, relaxed, and resilient. Beginner classes provide fundamentals of poses and breathing, correct alignment, and ways to adapt the pose to each person’s needs. Yoga Therapeutics address issues like injury recovery and chronic pain, and Vini Yoga is a therapeutic-style technique that is carefully sequenced to help employees learn how to transform the neuromuscular patterns in their body into a more relaxed state. The beauty of this approach is that participants can make the class as challenging or restorative as they like, since there are many ways to adapt each pose. More experienced employees might prefer a more vigorous class with flowing poses that build heat, strength, and stamina, or a Hatha yoga class that releases tension through long-held yoga poses and focused breathwork.
Perhaps the strongest reason for incorporating yoga into your corporate wellness program is the ease with which yoga classes can be implemented with a minimum of resources. All you need are floor mats and a group of willing participants with a strong desire for a healthier, more fulfilled life.
Yoga teaches us to move in ways that realign posture, help release tension, and promote more functional movement patterns. While modern technology offers countless benefits, the fact remains that many employees spend hours sitting in front of computers, and the repetitive movement patterns that digital devices demand can cause neck and shoulder strain, back problems, and a shallow breathing pattern that drains employees’ energy levels. Workplace yoga classes are booming because they are a low-cost, preventive healthcare measure, and when done right, yoga can be the key to a winning corporate wellness program.
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Every morning, your employees look forward to that first cup of coffee to get them ready for the day. However, as much as coffee helps get you going, it doesn’t do much to lessen stress. If your company offered a convenient way to reduce stress during your workday—namely corporate massage services— wouldn’t you take advantage of it?
In order to attract and retain top talent, companies need to offer perks that differentiate them from their competitors. These days, it’s rare for employees to be loyal to one particular company over the course of their career. New opportunities beckon, and workplace cultures can become stale.
Corporate America often pushes us to work like machines, but the truth is that humans are not machines; we need more to prevent burnout. Today’s modern human resource executives recognize that one’s state of mind and overall health and wellness have a direct effect on workplace productivity. In fact, according to a recent nationwide study, 95% of human resource leaders admit that high workplace stress leads to increased employee turnover.
Massage has been shown to improve sleep, relieve headaches, reduce muscle tension, and promote focus and concentration. It is especially effective in addressing depression and anxiety, which have become the leading factors in lower productivity rates. Corporate wellness programs that offer a massage benefit to employees have been shown to increase worker morale and productivity and decrease employee turnover over the long term.
Below are four tips to help you find a corporate massage package that best suits the needs of your organization.
Cost and convenience are key. Massages can be costly, so select a package that allows you to offer a company discount to employees. With a reasonable price, staff members will surely sign up.
Between work and family commitments, employees lead busy lives, so look for corporate massage services that will come to you. Offer staff a selection of dates and times to accommodate their schedules, along with the needs of your organization. For example, during tax season accounting firms have their hands full. Offering a massage program during the months of January through April would be a nice perk to help get through this stressful time of year.
At Body Techniques, we offer customized scheduling software and a dedicated front office, so staff members can conveniently book our services for the dates and times that work best.
Just as workplace cultures vary, massage techniques differ in the way they benefit the mind and body. Consider the needs of your company. Is your workplace dominated by women? If so, look for a corporate massage program that offers prenatal and postnatal massage. Is your staff sedentary most of the day, or do they perform hands-on labor? A deep tissue massage package may be what you’re looking for.
Look for corporate massage programs that can be tailored for your organization’s size and the number of office locations. Our dedicated staff will work directly with you to customize a program using our nationwide network of providers and flexible software.
Many massage therapists claim to be the best at what they do, but they all have different levels of education and experience. For a busy corporate environment, the satisfaction of your employees is paramount. Look for companies with therapists well-versed in various techniques with a proven track record of satisfied clients.
Our massage therapists are among the best in the nation, which is a testament to the companies that choose to utilize our services—including Google, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft.
Any added company program must have a beneficial impact on employees, productivity, and the culture for it to continue beyond a trial run. Make your corporate massage package more than just a pilot program by measuring the results it has on employee productivity, morale, and retention, and communicate this data to executive management.
Our user-friendly software even calculates massage services ROI, using utilization reports and employee feedback to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program to C-level decision-makers.
Join the increasing number of wellness directors who are recognizing the powerful long-term benefits of massage on employee wellness, which translates to increased productivity and company loyalty. Adding a corporate massage package to your organization will make for happier employees who are smiling more and calling out sick less.
Just about every workplace offers coffee to its staff; how many of them can offer the opportunity for a relaxing massage as a company perk? Look to a corporate massage package to give your organization that competitive edge.
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