Intuit’s employee wellness program featuring yoga and meditation:

Promoting Workplace Wellness through Yoga and Meditation at Intuit

With ever-increasing work demands and constant connectivity, employee stress and burnout have become epidemic. Now more than ever, companies recognize the need to prioritize holistic wellness to sustain performance and retain talent. Intuit, one of the world’s leading financial technology platforms, has addressed this head-on through their comprehensive employee health program. A major focus is providing yoga, meditation and mindfulness resources to improve staff resilience, engagement and work-life balance.

This article will examine how Intuit designed their employee wellness initiative, key features like onsite yoga studios, and the measurable benefits realized by integrating yoga, meditation and mental health support into their corporate culture. We’ll also overview best practices applicable across workplaces seeking to drive wellbeing through mindfulness practices.

The Rising Priority of Employee Wellness

Long gone are the days when workplace wellness programs just meant the occasional gym membership discount. Today’s knowledge economy runs on constant creativity and problem-solving. Without healthy, engaged minds, innovation stagnates.

Added stresses like remote work isolation, economic uncertainty and political polarization leave workers overwhelmed. The World Health Organization now recognizes burnout as an occupational phenomenon stemming from chronic workplace stress.

The impacts are staggering, from reduced productivity, higher healthcare costs and safety risks to sagging morale and turnover. A Gallup study showed highly stressed employees are 63% more likely to take sick days. The ramifications of unhealthy work environments are far-reaching.

Businesses can no longer afford to ignore mental and emotional wellbeing. A new paradigm focused on mindfulness, resilience and prevention is needed to support sustainable performance.

Intuit’s Journey to Wellness

Intuit, developer of popular financial platforms like QuickBooks, TurboTax and Mint, recognizes employee wellness as imperative for their “AI-driven expert platform” strategy.

Early on Intuit offered standard benefits like Employee Assistance Programs and gym discounts. But it wasn’t enough. Employees reported lacking work-life balance, feeling stressed and disengaged. More was needed to cultivate sustainable high performance.

In 2015 they launched an expanded Be Well program focused on overall wellbeing. A central pillar was incorporating onsite yoga and meditation into the workplace experience. This allowed easy access to mind-body practices proven to relieve stress, improve focus, and restore mental clarity.

Let’s examine key components of Intuit’s approach to workplace wellness including robust yoga and mindfulness offerings.

Onsite Yoga and Meditation Studios

A major perk across Intuit’s offices is free onsite yoga studios offering a variety of classes from beginner-friendly to power flow. Employees can conveniently take yoga breaks throughout busy workdays.

Dedicated rooms are also available for guided meditations, with short daily sittings to recharge. For remote employees, live virtual sessions and pre-recorded content are accessible on the Be Well site.

Having yoga studios and peaceful meditation spaces directly within offices eliminates barriers to fitting in mind-body practices. Intuit understands that easily integrable wellness resources will get used versus difficult offsite programs. Convenience and flexibility are key.

Mindfulness Programs and Training

Beyond yoga and meditation spaces, Intuit offers programs to build mindfulness skills and mental resilience. ‘Mindfulness Foundations’ teaches techniques like breath awareness, mindful movement, and open monitoring meditation.

For managers, ‘Leading with Mindfulness’ provides strategies to lead with self-awareness, compassion and emotional intelligence. Mindfulness “snack breaks” give quick guided meditations.

Intuit also partners with mindfulness apps like Headspace and Ten Percent Happier that employees can access on-demand. A wide spectrum of offerings makes mindfulness engaging.

Holistic Health Resources

Intuit’s Be Well program further provides an extensive range of holistic health education like nutrition guidance, sleep hygiene, burnout prevention, and work-life balance tips.

Onsite Chair Massages and Wellness Rooms allow relaxation. Caregiver support, grief resources and family benefits assist with life’s ups and downs.

Robust mental health coverage, Employee Assistance Programs, and virtual therapy through platforms like Ginger offer counseling for those struggling.

Through diversity of resources, Intuit recognizes wellbeing requires supporting employees across all aspects of health.

Measuring Program Impact

Intuit partnered with Duke University researchers to leverage mobile sensing technology from Monk to assess stress-reduction through their yoga and mindfulness initiatives. Participants showed significant decreases in stress, and their heart rates lowered.

Surveys also indicate higher perceived wellbeing and work-life balance with Utilization increasing yearly, confirming strong engagement. The programs continue to expand through employee input.

The positive impacts even boosted Intuit’s employer Net Promoter Score measuring staff loyalty. Investing in yoga and mindfulness returned tangible dividends.

Takeaways for Companies Supporting Wellness

Intuit’s journey yields valuable insights for organizations aiming to optimize wellbeing:

– Make offerings accessible – Programs should integrate smoothly into workplaces and schedules. Reduce barriers to use.

– Stress prevention – Focus on resilience and stress prevention versus just treating burnout after.

– Variety – Different types of yoga, meditation and mindfulness appeal to diverse staff. Choice fuels participation.

– Management buy-in – Leadership modeling healthy behaviors propagates cultural adoption.

– Be proactive – Survey staff regularly to target emerging issues proactively, like work-life imbalance.

– Leverage technology – Mobile apps, wearables and virtual classes can make programs scalable.

– Measure results – Collect participation metrics and feedback to refine offerings and demonstrate ROI.

While workplace wellness programs require investment, the dividends include better performance, retention and employer reputation. For knowledge economy companies like Intuit, human capital is the core asset.

Harnessing yoga and meditation to foster employee engagement, resilience and growth is key to sustaining excellence. Intuit provides an exemplary case study in baking wellbeing into corporate culture.

The new era workplace must support mental and emotional health. People are hungry for more meaning, balance and caring environments. Companies embracing this reality through mindfulness will become destinations where top talent thrives.

Here are some informative links related to the article on Intuit’s employee wellness program featuring yoga and meditation:

Intuit’s Be Well Program:

https://wellness.intuit.com/

Overview of Intuit’s employee wellness program offerings including yoga, meditation, etc.

Intuit’s Mindfulness Programs:

https://www.workplaceinsight.net/intuit- mindfulness-program/

Case study on how Intuit partnered with mindfulness expert Mirabai Bush to develop workplace mindfulness training.

WHO – Burnout as an Occupational Phenomenon:

https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases

Background from the World Health Organization on formally recognizing burnout as an occupational syndrome.

Gallup Study – Stress and Burnout:

https://www.gallup.com/workplace/237059/employee-burnout-part-main-causes.aspx

Gallup study examining the factors driving employee stress and burnout.

Headspace Meditation App:

https://www.headspace.com

Overview of the popular meditation app Headspace that Intuit provides for employees.

Monk Mobile Sensing for Corporate Wellness:

https://monk.com/corportate-wellness

Information on how Monk provided mobile sensing technology to help Intuit measure the impact of their mindfulness initiatives.

Let me know if you need any other links related to workplace wellness programs, yoga/meditation benefits, or Intuit’s specific offerings. I can provide additional resources on these topics.