Low productivity is a problem for most companies. For example, at least 70 percent of employees in the U.S. are disengaged at work. As a result, employers lose an average of $450-$550 billion annually to poor productivity.1
A lack of employee productivity can be tough to remedy, but mindfulness can help. Inc. called mindfulness “your greatest productivity tool” and said mindfulness promotes brainstorming and critical thinking and reduces stress and anxiety.2 Also, a contributor to Monday, a software company that helps organizations onboard employees more easily and streamlines workflows, said, “Research shows that mindfulness at work can improve your focus, attention, and ability to work under stress—all great assets in the workplace these days.”3
Employers don’t necessarily have to start offering yoga classes and meditation breaks to create a more mindful workplace. They can help employees become more mindful using online learning.
Online learning can be a powerful antidote to low productivity. Here are some ways any employer can use eLearning to create a mindful, productive workplace:
Offering your staff an online mindfulness training course can pay off in huge dividends. The insurance company Aetna saw an increase in productivity by $3,000 per person, per year after implementing mindfulness training. The Huffington Post wrote, “...the insurance giant Aetna measured the results of offering mindfulness-based training to team members and found that those team members who participated in the training added roughly 60 minutes of productivity per week, which they calculated was worth about $3,000 per year per team member.”4
You can either purchase a ready-made mindfulness training course for your LMS, have one created by an instructional designer, or let your L&D team put one together. The course should educate employees about what mindfulness is, but it should be more practical than theoretical, offering tips for practicing awareness, self-compassion, diaphragmatic breathing, and thought acceptance.
Entrepeneur.com reported that the average human attention span dropped from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to just 8 seconds in 2017.5 A low attention span is a deterrent to mindfulness during the course of the workday and during employee training. To promote mindfulness during training, ensure workers gain the skills they need to be fully productive and work with, rather than against, learners’ attention spans and break some of your large online courses down into a series of microlearning videos.
eLearning Industry wrote, “As (microlearning videos) are available in the learner’s workflow, they offer the required support exactly at the moment of their need.”6 This suggests that since employees can engage in microlearning during their regular flow of work, they may be able to stay more mindful of their task at hand. Also, microlearning is less stressful for some employees than a large learning load and helps them reserve mental energy for staying on task and remaining mindful of their actions, whether working or training.
Boredom during training is a roadblock to mindfulness in the workplace. It’s not easy to intently focus on training that you are disinterested in. Some types of training, such as compliance training, are mandatory and cannot be left out of an employee’s online learning path, regardless of whether or not a worker is interested in the course. However, by including as many interesting courses as possible in each employee’s learning path, administrators can help prevent boredom and encourage mindfulness.
To create a personalized training program that employees want to be mentally present for, survey learners, allowing them to rank the courses available to them. By sprinkling courses near the top of their list into their learning path, you can create a more compelling training experience, combat boredom, and potentially improve mindfulness. And when learners are more mindful during training, they retain more knowledge, which leads to a better skill set and increased productivity.
Another way to establish a mindful workplace using eLearning is by pacing online courses. Allowing employees to pace their own learning experiences can be beneficial in some cases, but it can also backfire when learners speed through eLearning courses. Promote mindful learning by letting your L&D team set the pace for online courses, ensuring employees focus on one module at a time without moving on to the next too quickly.
To learn more about how you can increase employee productivity, explore our blog, “How an LMS Can Help Your Company Improve Employee Productivity” or request a free personalized demo of TOPYX to learn how you can offer a modern learning experience.
References:
1. https://news.gallup.com/reports/178514/state-american-workplace.aspx
2. https://www.inc.com/larry-alton/why-mindfulness-is-your-greatest-productivity-tool.html
3. https://monday.com/blog/mindfulness-at-work-5-ways-to-improve-your-productivity/
4. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/4-ways-mindfulness-improv_b_9738720
5. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/297833
6. https://elearningindustry.com/microlearning-videos-training-amazing-examples-use