In 2016/17 more than half a million workers suffered work-related stress, depression or anxiety and 12.5 million working days were lost due to these conditions¹.
Any business owner worth their salt should appreciate the value of a happy and healthy workforce and will want to support their workers to manage stress. Not only are happy workers less likely to take sick days, they are 12% more productive². Happiness also helps employee engagement and retention, helping businesses avoid the costly, time-consuming and sometimes stressful process of recruitment.
Offering in-house massages is one of the simplest ways employers can support workers to manage stress and show them they care about their wellbeing.
Massage can be an effective treatment for reducing stress, promoting relaxation, and easing pain and muscle tension. Research has found that a 15-minute chair massage once a week can help to relieve stress³ and regular massage reduces cortisol – one of the main hormones associated with stress*. Some studies suggest that massage also helps with anxiety, headaches, insomnia, digestion and sports injuries.
It also enables individuals to take some time out of their busy lives to focus purely on themselves allowing them to organise their thoughts, realign their feelings and reflect. Some people report that massages enable them to put things in perspective, prioritise their to-do
lists and clearly see solutions to problems that have been niggling them for a while.
The convenience of an in-house service encourages employees to take a break and tend to their physical and mental health, before returning to their desk feeling refreshed and relaxed. It also increases the number of people that use the service, and therefore reap the
benefits, as it removes the barrier of spending extra time or money travelling to visit a spa or health centre.
There is also a degree of flexibility with visiting masseuses, which means that the offering can be tailored to suit your staff and their needs. Consider neck and shoulder massages for workers that spend the majority of the day sitting at their desks; targeted sports massages for employees who are particularly active or have more physically-demanding jobs; or focus on relaxation, aromatherapy and scalp massages at particularly stressful times such as the year-end.
As the overheads of hiring a massage space are negated and masseurs can arrange a number of appointments back-to-back, employers can negotiate packages, which enable them to pass on the saving and offer more cost-effective treatments to employees.
There is also the opportunity to build treatments into employee benefits systems – whether it is offering a free massage as an incentive for workers to meet their targets, or recognising an employee who has gone above and beyond. Making it a win-win option for everyone!
To learn more about the benefits massage can bring to your business, call the team now. Email info@moaningcowmassage.com or call 020 7129 7310
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