Want Happier, Healthier, More Engaged Employees? Add Chair Yoga to Your Benefits Package.

A staggering 20.4 million people in the United States do yoga. That's a lot of "Namaste." Why? Yoga provides tons of physical, mental, and emotional health benefits to its students; however, yogis aren’t the only ones seeing benefits. Companies that offer yoga classes to their employees, especially Chair Yoga, are seeing additional benefits such as improved company culture, less sick days, and some serious cost savings. Let's talk about Chair Yoga and why companies should incorporate this beneficial class into their wellness initiative. 

What is Chair Yoga? 

Chair Yoga is an activity all ages, activity levels, and all levels of physical health can do. Chair yoga is just what it sounds like – it takes traditional yoga poses and modifies them into poses employees do in a chair. This makes yoga accessible to everyone, including those that don't have the mobility or ability to participate in a more traditional yoga practice.  
Just because the poses are modified, it doesn't mean that they aren't just as beneficial. Participants can do twists, hip stretches, forward bends, and backbends that are the fundamentals of traditional yoga. They also reap the immediate benefits of yoga practice, as well as compounding benefits when they make it a part of their daily life. 

Chair Yoga Benefits Employees 

Chair Yoga is widely offered at companies all over the world as a wellness benefit for employees. While a 25-minute class once or twice each week doesn't seem like it would be that beneficial, it really is! Chair Yoga provides many of the same benefits a traditional yoga flow practice exhibit. Since it’s such an easy to incorporate practice, people can effortlessly do it between classes to experience and enjoy a wellspring of benefits.
Chair Yoga benefits include but are not limited to: 

•  Better concentration and focus
• Improved breathing ability
• More energy
• Sparks in creativity
• Less fatigue
• Decreased pain, especially in the spine, neck, and shoulders
• Strengthens and lengthens muscles which can also prevent against future injury
• Stress reduction
•  Better, higher quality sleep
• A happier demeanor and self-confidence

Employees also report higher job satisfaction when their company provides wellness benefits. A survey by Virgin Pulse found that 85 percent of companies report that wellness programs increase employee engagement. When employees are engaged, they feel positive about their jobs and are more likely to stay with the company. 

How Does Chair Yoga Translate Employee Benefits to Employer Benefit?

Major companies are offering Chair Yoga and Meditation services to their employees because they are not only taking care of their employees but have also found it's adding massive benefit to their bottom line. So, how do employee benefits translate to employer benefits? Let's take a look. 

Employers who create a wellness culture in their offices see an immediate return on investment. Here are just a few of the benefits employers have experienced:

•  Employees have greater job satisfaction which results in less turnover.
• Wellness programs can lower health care premiums.
• Employees are in better health and mental spaces, so they take fewer sick days.
• Employees get better sleep, resulting in a higher level of concentration, focus, and better judgment on the job. 
• When employees do yoga, there is a boost in creativity and collaboration, bringing better ideas and solutions to improve the company. 
• The reduction in stress means a decrease of burn-out, dread, anxiety, and hostility in the workplace. This makes for a happier, positive environment that translates into an upbeat, confident company culture where everyone is respectful and working toward the same company goals. 

Still skeptical that a Chair Yoga program could translate into profitability? Healthcare behemoth, Aetna, found that their workers in the most stress-prone roles cost the company an additional $2,000 in medical costs each year. The company responded by creating a yoga and meditation program for employees. They marked increases in productivity and improvement in heart rates, all while reducing its employee healthcare premiums by seven percent in its first year. 

Another way companies are finding real dollar savings with Chair Yoga is regarding employee turnover. On average, employee turnover costs an employer 33 percent of a worker's average salary to replace them. So, if an employee makes $60,000 each year, the estimated cost to replace them is $20,000. Now multiply that with last year's turnover to calculate your savings. Another interesting fact is 75 percent of the causes of employee turnover are preventable. Upon their exit interview, employees are very vocal about dissatisfaction with issues like work-life balance, compensation and benefits, and well-being as issues that spurred their resignation. 

After seeing all this evidence for Chair Yoga, it's difficult to understand why more companies aren't creating wellness initiatives that include yoga and meditation. Contact us today to talk about bringing Chair Yoga and other wellness classes to your business.