Listen This article here authored by SHAURYA GARG
While we adjust to the new normal, our shift from daily ups and downs to working from home has given us new perspectives on work. While some people are still adjusting to their new routines as a result of the pandemic, many others are experiencing an increase in work load as corporations strive to maximise employee engagement.
Apart from an increase in work load, people who work from home face a variety of psychological issues, including social isolation, blurred boundaries between work and personal life, job insecurity, and a fear of leaving the house. Employee productivity suffers as a result of low job engagement and poor job performance.
Music is a universal language that communicates in such a variety of ways to each of us. Music can help employees cope with work-related stress and anxiety, as well as improve their job performance, because it has a positive effect on our heart rate, blood pressure, and mental focus.
Creating a theme song for the organisation is one of the most effective ways for HR team to instil music therapy in the workplace. They can bring employees together virtually, in a team building exercise in which each team is asked to suggest a theme song regardless of the employees’ musical background or knowledge. It will also instil creativity, leadership and also boost the morale of the employees.
Other ways to incorporate music therapy into the workplace, ‘work from home’ includes:
- Self-care reflections through music and therapeutic instrumental play.
- Team building exercises through song writing, creating group musical videos etc. and other activities.
- Music of the week contests,
Incorporating music therapy into an organisation’s daily operations can improve employees’ psychological well-being.
Given the changing dynamics of human resource management, an organisation should be proactive in incorporating these tools to achieve their overall goals. Individual employee can be facilitated with identified Musical video/audio and be advised to play the same during starting of the day, during lunch time and to end the day.
The authors discovered in a study on the ‘Effects of music tempo upon submaximal cycling performance[1]‘ when the music was played faster, the participants chose to accept, and even prefer, a greater degree of effort. Allowing yourself to take music breaks, asking employees to create a ‘work from home playlist’ can boost morale and improve job performances.
Because music therapy is a highly individualised field, one must exercise caution when selecting appropriate tools to incorporate this therapy into their workplace culture, including work from home, setting. Seeking help from trained music therapists and offering music therapy workshops online can also help employees understand this area and incorporate its practices into their work lives.
To further assess the effectiveness of Musical therapy employed during “work from home” setting, technology be utilised meaningfully. Certain Apps can be developed to monitor the usage of the guidelines provided with regard to Musical therapy. Individual employee’s productivity can be monitored month on month basis, before and after the musical therapy is employed. This will provide fair idea about the success or limitation of the intervention and help re-design the methodologies of implementation, if so required, to achieve the desired results. The expert services may also be hired to deal with the specific areas of limited success.
Similar way, candid feedback from employees and their families could also help HR teams to identify the needs of tweaking with the music contents, designing of suitable hours for more effective reach, ways to facilitate individual employee’s specific needs etc. in this regard. Music is such a powerful tool, that it stimulates even vegetation, what to talk about human beings. Properly designed effort to provide effective ‘Music Therapy’ can certainly help organizations in achieving better productivity through better employee mental stability overcoming fear of surrounding situation due to Pandemic and maintenance of overall good health overcoming stress of sitting aloof for long hours, during ‘work from home’ setting.
[1] J. Waterhouse, P. Hudson, B. Edwards, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (2010): 20: 662–669,
SHAURYA GARG
Law Graduate
Pursuing MSW (Amity University, Noida)