It goes without saying that ensuring the general wellbeing of employees goes some way towards engaging them in their work, but research shows that many organisations struggle to measure and improve upon wellbeing in their own workplaces.

National Stress Awareness Day (NSAD) on 4 November aims to highlight the issue of stress at work.

An all-party parliamentary group inquiry report, launched in October, recommended that the public sector lead workplace best practice by offering staff mindfulness programmes to combat stress and improve organisational effectiveness.

Non-profit, The BeingWell Mindfulness, says that UK workers take over 15m days off a year due to stress, depression and anxiety, while UK employers lose £26bn each year due to stress, an average of £1,035 per staff member.

Dr Sherylin Thompson, director of The BeingWell, says, “Stress carries stigma and is therefore suppressed, buried and difficult to get into the open to address. Rather than asking individuals to step forward for help, giving all employees the skills to keep their minds fit, toned and focused builds resilience and strengthens performance across the workforce.”

Some major companies, including Credit Suisse, KPMG, Google and the NHS, are turning to mindfulness to tackle employee stress. According to the Institute for Mindful Leadership, 93% of business leaders going through a mindfulness programme, said that mindfulness also helped with innovation.