As part of its continued 20th anniversary celebrations this year, German kitchen retailer Kutchenhaus recently delivered a mindfulness initiative for its Support Centre personnel across a two-day period.
On the suitably named 'Tranquil Tuesday and Thursday,' the brand brought the topic of mindfulness to their head office, giving those in attendance a chance to learn more and benefit from simple techniques.
On the morning of Tuesday, 20th August, the Rochdale office was joined by professional Bridget Fitzpatrick of Mindful Manchester for an introduction session on mindfulness. The session included learning about its origins, what it is and is not, and practising different mindfulness methods that can be used every day.
After the session concluded, a gift card lucky dip allowed colleagues to pick a voucher at random as a thank you for their continued hard work. Cinema vouchers, book tokens, garden centre gift cards, National Trust cards, and café cards were all available.
Two days later, on Thursday, 22nd August, Kutchenhaus gave all its Support Centre colleagues the afternoon off and encouraged them to take part in mindfulness activities. This resulted in people opting for outdoor walks, thanks to the good weather, gym sessions for some, and coffee catch-ups or relaxing with a good book for others.
Paul Lee, Head of Marketing for Kutchenhaus, comments: 'The mindfulness initiative gave us a great opportunity to come together as a team and do something different. Everyone lives busy lives, so it was useful to take this opportunity to learn about mindfulness and the tactics we can employ to help make things a little easier.'
'The session was light-hearted and informative, with some laughs along the way, so I think we all enjoyed it and found it beneficial. Taking Thursday afternoon off to do something mindful was an added bonus which I think colleagues appreciated from the business.'
Regarding the initiative, Ian Croft, Showroom Coordinator, adds: 'I really enjoyed it, and it gave us all a bit of time to think. If you have multiple things going on, it can lead to stress in your life, and it's therefore important to be able to recognize triggers and how to deal with them. I joke, but it's no different from software; you need to do the necessary maintenance to ensure everything runs correctly and continues to run smoothly.'
More information:
Kutchenhaus
www.kutchenhaus.com