The Guardian: Mindfulness, purpose and the quest for productive employees

On 3rd June 2014, The Guardian online published an article in the Professional > Guardian Sustainable Business section titled: Mindfulness, purpose and the quest for productive employees.

Here are some key quotes:

"In addition to Google's various lauded - and often lampooned - perks, which include everything from on-site massage therapists to a fleet of bikes for employees to use at will, the tech company routinely offers employees workshops in skills to boost their wellbeing and productivity, ranging from yoga to the popular "search inside yourself" class (now also a book), which teaches mindfulness.

Google may have blazed the trail when it comes to employee satisfaction, but it has been joined by legions of tech companies in the last year, particularly in Silicon Valley and the UK, which currently find themselves in the middle of another dot-com style talent war.
"In tight labor markets like California, you really do have to be good at this to retain talent," says Jane Dutton, PhD, professor of business administration and psychology at University of Michigan. "It was more trendy before and I think it's now real economic imperatives, but there are multiple imperatives, it's not just about retention and the attraction of talent."
Within the positive organizational universe, the experts tend to divide into two camps: those who feel that employee happiness hinges largely on a sense of purpose, and those who feel that relationships are the secret sauce. Dutton falls into the latter camp. "Having positive relationships at work is seen as a major predictor of employee engagement, and that's a major driver of customer engagement," she says.
When it comes to cultivating health and well-being among workers, Dutton says that the most important consideration is community. "Meaning or purpose is part of it, but I would bet on positive relationships," she explains. "Evidence on the almost instantaneous effect of positive human connections on people's bodies convinces me that if I had to choose whether my workplace had purpose or positive connections, I'd bet on connections.""