How a mindfulness group can help HR promote engagement and teamwork

Author: Christopher Bryant

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool to help HR promote engagement and develop team cohesiveness. XpertHR's in-house mindfulness teacher, Christopher Bryant, explains how to make mindfulness work for you.

What is mindfulness?

Put simply, mindfulness is a practice in which you focus your attention on the present moment and tune out all distractions. 

A mindfulness practice can help to calm the mind, to bring thoughts into focus and to help you see things for what they are, and not what you want or even fear them to be.

The mind is constantly at work, always loud, always busy. Mindfulness can help you control that noise. The result is that your attention span is improved and your ability to handle stress is magnified.

What are the benefits of setting up a mindfulness group?

There are three core benefits when you establish a mindfulness programme in the workplace. The first is personal: for the individual, a sustained mindfulness practice can improve concentration and enable a better sense of wellbeing. The second is social: in a group environment, employees can establish deep bonds through the shared experience of mindfulness practice.

While the mindfulness itself is very personal, an all-in-the-individual's-head experience, practising it in a group can lead to conversations that bridge the gap between the professional colleague and the real person. By talking about their thoughts and feelings after a session, members of the group will inevitably have a sense of shared experience. This can promote empathy, and allow us to see how we are similar as well as how we differ.

The third benefit is an improved sense of engagement. In setting up a programme and allowing people to take the time to attend, HR can demonstrate that the organisation is making an active investment in the wellbeing of the team. The benefits for team engagement are manifold, and this is where it can prove a powerful tool for HR.

How to set up a mindfulness group

There are a few ways in which HR can establish and run a mindfulness group.

The first option is what I think of as the quick and easy route. And that is to find a series of mindfulness recordings for the group to follow. This means that you do not have to have an in-house leader and that you can put the idea into action very quickly. If you choose to do this, I would suggest that you make time for conversation following the practice. This will help drive its success by making it both personal and relatable, which in turn will encourage people to come back for subsequent sessions.

The second route - the one I would recommend - is to find somebody in the team who is either interested in learning about mindfulness or currently practising it, and send them on a certified course. This might cost roughly between £800 and £1,000. That person can then shape sessions that address the needs of the team.

You need to find somebody who is prepared to put in the work and to be constantly learning. I would recommend that you make this part of their official workload and of their yearly objectives.

What other factors does HR need to take into account?

Once you have identified how you are going to deliver the mindfulness programme, ensure that you get management buy-in. This is fundamentally important. It makes people feel not only that it's okay to take time out of their schedule to attend the classes, but that management actively encourages them to do this. From my own experience, I have found that this has been a decisive factor in making the programme a success.

There are two other factors that HR needs to consider: timing and environment.

It's important to run sessions at a time and in a manner that is good for the whole team. In this era of increased remote working, you should find a balance between those in the office and those working from home. You may find that the sessions need to be hybrid to accommodate this. Ask people at home to have their cameras on before the mindfulness part of the session, and then again for any discussion afterwards.

For those who are in the office, it is crucial to hold the sessions in a place that is quiet, where the temperature is just right and where people can feel comfortable. There are some meditations that are best done while lying down - so that needs to be taken into account. Also, if people walking by the room can see in, that can be an unwelcome distraction. Try to find a space that isn't open to view. You need a certain amount of privacy to feel relaxed enough to close your eyes and meditate.

How to make the programme a success

There are a lot of misconceptions about the type of person who can do mindfulness: consider this when presenting the idea to the team initially. Emphasise that you do not need to be temperamentally predetermined for mindfulness to work for you. And you don't have to imagine that you're on the beach or sit cross-legged. And you can't fail at mindfulness, either.

There are, of course, some people who will not want to do it. Try opening their minds to the idea by making an introduction to the classes part of a team meeting, and even run a five-minute mindfulness session as part of that meeting. You could also get everyone to listen to our podcast on the topic, which includes two short mindfulness sessions. That way you can attempt to break down any barriers to involvement. The more who say yes, and the more cohesive an experience you can make it, the more successful it will be.

You could also think about what other incentives you could offer that are relevant to your needs. Are there challenges such as burnout that could be addressed by a mindfulness group? Is the company looking to implement or improve its wellbeing initiatives and what role could mindfulness play in this?

A mindfulness programme can be rewarding for the person teaching it, for those involved in it and for the business as a whole. It can nourish a team's sense of engagement, and can improve their physical and mental wellbeing. Yes, it does require a significant level of effort, but if engagement and wellbeing are issues that you need to address, then a mindfulness programme could be just what you're looking for.

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