Mindfulness in the workplace can take many forms. For some, it represents delivering fully recognised 8-week courses, for others this simply isn’t appropriate or possible. Deviating away from evidence-based programmes doesn’t necessarily mean poor quality however some form of quality assessment is recommended and knowledge of the field and audience is essential.
How then, can we support workplaces to offer mindfulness with high quality and regard for safeguarding whilst also enabling the development of flexible solutions to a wide range of demographic needs and inclusivity?
This challenge has been carefully considered by BAMBA in collaboration with HSBC.
Mari Thorman, the co-founder and Director of the sustainable Mindfulness programme at HSBC has been supporting the evolution of this space since 2011 to help safeguard HSBC’s approach and support other organisations looking to do similar.
Mari had the early vision to engage with leading Mindfulness training organisations in the UK on these topics (including Bangor University Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, Oxford Mindfulness Foundation, The Mindfulness Initiative, BAMBA and Awaris).
HSBC, like many other organisations, have been keen to follow Good Practice Guidelines but have found this difficult as they tailor programme contents and delivery to be suitable and sustainable to their organisational needs, operations and structures. Through HSBC’s pro-active dialogue with BAMBA on how to support workplaces and provide Quality Benchmarks for Mindfulness-Based Approaches delivered to employees in organisations, a new BAMBA service has now evolved.
In 2022, BAMBA began developing a Workplace Quality Assessment process which would enable a thorough review of workplace mindfulness with the intention to offer guidance and support to those delivering in the workplace. Additionally, BAMBA sought a mechanism to offer reassurance to funders, practitioners and the employees of an organisation that what was being delivered was meeting a high-quality standard underpinned by the experience, research and advice from experts in the field of secular mindfulness.
BAMBA sought a mechanism to offer reassurance to funders, practitioners and the employees of an organisation that what was being delivered was meeting a high-quality standard underpinned by the experience, research and advice from experts in the field of secular mindfulness.
A comprehensive Quality Assessment application process was created; submission of this application provides BAMBA reviewers with key information on a workplace programme of mindfulness. The evidence required to demonstrate competencies was intentionally designed to be flexible, to allow the process to be accessible and inclusive for a full range of organisations from small local charities with limited or no funding, to large well-funded multinational organisations – in a range of settings.
This approach was essential to recognise the diversity of workplaces with information gathered during the application stage centred around 5 competences:
- Ethics
- Curriculum/Approach
- Teachers Competence
- EDI
- Sustainability
On receipt of a workplace Quality Assessment application, a working group within BAMBA is assigned to each organisation to review the application and engage with the organisation via open dialogue. A detailed report is then offered to the workplace with feedback, recommendations for development areas (if appropriate) and outcome of assessment i.e., if Quality Assessment Mark is granted.
Terms and conditions have been created which govern the use of the Quality Assessment Mark which can be displayed both internally and externally to evidencee the care and skill present within their mindfulness in the workplace programme.
We are delighted to announce that HSBC have successfully completed the first BAMBA Workplace Quality Assessment process and have been awarded the Quality Assessment Mark. This was a detailed process, and thanks go to all involved within BAMBA and HSBC. A great deal of work was carried out to convert the vision into practice with established processes and procedures to offer this service with integrity and replicability for other organisations to apply.
Following this process, we send thanks to HSBC who were open and engaging, sharing a wealth of information about their mindfulness practices and programmes within HSBC. Not only did our engagement with HSBC support our understanding of challenges in the workplace but provided an exemplar of openness and integrity within a workplace offering mindfulness.
Not only did our engagement with HSBC support our understanding of challenges in the workplace but provided an exemplar of openness and integrity within a workplace offering mindfulness.
The HSBC team evidenced care in following field wide standards whilst being pragmatic with what was possible in their workplace, this has been instrumental in the development of a process to enable a structure (within BAMBA) to take this initiative forward for other organisations. HSBC have kindly offered to share their feedback report and hope this will support others who opt to apply for this Quality Assessment review – you can view the HSBC report below:
Therefore, it is with great pleasure we congratulate HSBC on their achievement in obtaining the first Quality Assessment Mark from BAMBA and for the impressive and skilful delivery of mindfulness resources in a sustainable and safeguarded way for their colleagues.
BAMBA are delighted to now open this process out to other organisations to begin their exploration of Quality Assessment in their workplaces.
For further information please contact BAMBA’s Director, Stephanie Unthank-Latter at info@bamba.org.uk