After implementing a wellness program which included meditation, Seven Oaks General Hospital in Winnipeg, MB:

• Reduced employee turnover, the lowest for a heath care facility in that city
• Reduced Workers’ Compensation Board rates from 3.8% to 1.97% per employee, the lowest for this kind of facility in the province
• Increased participation in health risk assessments—two wellness teams reached 50% coverage in their divisions
• Received recognition from Maclean’s Magazine as a top 100 employer and the Manitoba Gold Award for Human Resources Leadership

John Kabat-Zinn has done extensive research into the health benefits of Mindfulness Meditation and he and Richard Davidson collaborated on a recent study of workers in a high tech company who took a two-month training program in meditation. It showed significant changes in brain activity, declines in anxiety and beneficial changes in immune function. (Reported in the Shambhala Sun, September, 2005)

In another study of a company, significant improvements in relations with supervisors and co-workers were noted after an average of eleven months practicing meditation, in comparison to control subjects. And while meditators reported that they felt less anxiety about promotion, their fellow employees saw them as moving ahead quickly. Job performance and job satisfaction increased while desire to change jobs decreased. People at every level of the organization benefited from practicing meditation. (Reported in Academy of Management Journal, 17: 362-368, 1974.)

A three-month study of managers and employees who regularly practiced meditation in a Fortune 100 manufacturing company and a smaller distribution-sales company in Philadelphia showed that meditation practitioners displayed more relaxed physiological functioning, greater reduction in anxiety, and reduced tension on the job, when compared to control subjects with similar job positions in the same companies. (Anxiety, Stress and Coping International Journal, 6: 245-262, 1993.)

In two companies that introduced meditation, managers and employees who regularly practiced meditation also reported significant reductions in health problems such as headaches and backaches, improved quality of sleep, and a significant reduction in the use of hard liquor and cigarettes, compared to personnel in the control groups. (Anxiety, Stress and Coping International Journal, 6: 245-262, 1993.)