Mindfulness in the Workplace

Mindfulness in the workplace is a relatively new area of mindfulness application and research. Nevertheless, initial studies have documented beneficial effects of mindfulness training on conditions related to work stress. It has been shown that mindfulness training

  • Decreases perceived stress, improves sleep quality, and the heart rhythm coherence ratio of heart rate variability (index of emotion regulation) in employees (Wolever et al., 2012);
  • Reduces perceived stress and increases mindfulness in working adults (Klatt et al., 2009);
  • Improves multitasking-related problems – HR staff showed better memory for tasks, more concentration on a task and less switching between tasks (Levy et al., 2011).

Research Interests

There is a great potential for mindfulness-based techniques to impact on work-related factors such as work stress, motivation, absenteeism, presenteeism and unemployment. Our aim is to develop mindfulness-based programmes which can be readily implemented in the workplace environment and to provide research evidence to guide their implementation.

Current Research Projects

  • Outreach events to develop links between businesses, the public sector and the CMRP to engage collaboratively in projects evaluating effects of mindfulness in the workplace
  • A Ph.D. project run by Sharon Grace Hadley is exploring the cost benefit analysis and impact on wellbeing of mindfulness-based training in the workplace.

For further information please email sharon.hadley@bangor.ac.uk

Relevant publications involving Bangor University

  • Chaskalson, M. (2011). The Mindful Workplace. Wiley-Blackwell.

References

  • Wolever, R. et al. (2012). Effective and viable mind-body stress reduction in the workplace: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17(2), 246-258.
  • Klatt, M. D., Buckworth, J., Malarkey, W. B. (2009). Effects of Low-Dose Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR-ld) on Working Adults. Health Education & Behavior, 36(3), 601-614.
  • Levy, D. M., Wobbrock, J. O., Kaszniak, A. W., & Ostergren, M. (2011). Initial results from a study of the effects of meditation on multitasking performance. Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 2011-2016