Why Corporate India Should Manage Stress With Yoga?
Yoga is in vogue and opens up a pristine opportunity for corporate companies to rejuvenate their work culture investing in the wellbeing policies.
According to Forbes contributor Dan Schwabel, workplace wellness is listed among the top-10 workplace trends for 2017. In every industry, employees go through stress, anxiety, fear to miss deadlines and perform up to the boss’ expectations. The race against time cooks pressure in the head and according to various experts on the subject, the same results into loss of productivity consequently leading to economic losses.
Employers are trading return on investment (ROI) numbers for the prevalence of worker health and well-being when it comes to workplace wellness programs. Continued increase in productivity and decrease in absenteeism strengthen the case for workplace wellness programs, according to findings from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Workplace Wellness 2017 Survey Report.
On the International Yoga Day, 2016 AYUSH ministry had requested participation of the corporate world on Yoga Day. Along with the invitation, the government had also asked the business chambers and other corporate bodies to initiate a mandatory 30-minute yoga break for their employees.
Companies that offer yoga and other wellness programs benefit greatly by reducing their health insurance premiums. Large corporates such as Microsoft, IBM, HBO, Nike, PepsiCo and Google have incorporated yoga to fulfill health criterion of performance excellence.
In India too, corporate entities located in Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai have celebrated the International Yoga Day. However, the same enthusiasm for yoga does not continue in many corporate houses throughout the year. It is only during the Yoga Day that companies stage a big show for their employees.
Shailendra Pal Singh, founder of “Call Yoga”, studio that provides corporate yoga services said, “Every year, most companies put up a one day show on June 21. Only a few of them conduct regular sessions as there is no mandatory HR policy but extra expenditure.”
Many practitioners have customized yoga into chair yoga, flight yoga, office yoga, laughing yoga, yoga on the move, walking yoga and even 10-minute yoga for BPOs where there is paucity of space and time.
“Yoga can do wonders when performed consistently not in bits and pieces. There is a need to make it a policy so that an employee working in an IT and BPO company can at least breathe right,” he added.
Nayamat Bawa, Head of Psychology, ePsyclinic.com, an online platform for mental health queries, said, “70 per cent of my clients are facing physical and mental problems due to stress in working environment. Imbalanced work life balance is a major challenge.” She further added that yoga releases positive energy and such breaks at workplace reboot the employee. In addition to physical fitness, companies should levy focus on mental fitness.
While talking to BW BusinessWorld Acharya Balkrishna, Managing Director of Patanjali Ayurveda said, “For physical ailments, there are products in the market that give instant relief but for stress there is no medicine. We have done research and published papers that show that mental illness is very much prevalent in working population of our country. We are in talks with stakeholders to make the yoga practice mandatory in corporate lifestyle.”
He further added, “People are managing stocks, money, finance but they forget to manage their own life. Corporate yoga improves employee alertness, productivity, decision- making skills. Practicing yoga regularly stabilizes the mental health so that they can make better choices in life.”
