“Your companies best asset will never show up on any spreadsheet” that was the opening line for a presentation that was conducted for a financial house who look after the worth of other companies and if you think about that now, it is true isn’t it?

 

Regardless of the business that you are in, it will always be your employees that are the drive behind getting the job done. Without your workforce on side, getting through the current credit crunch, increasing profits and expanding your empire is very difficult! So often it is the performance and focus of a single employee who turns up to work day after day that is the making of a good business. You can have all the soldier ants in your colony that you want, but without the worker ants and their continued support, energy and work ethic and moral, then even the biggest colony can collapse in chaos very quickly. Yes, looking after each and every worker in the business and ensuring they are as productive and efficient as possible is going to be the way through this current financial market. And having a workforce that has wellbeing is going to be the way for it to go.

 

People who are calm, happy, balanced and have focus, rewards and praise from their employer can accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than a stressed, negative and unhappy workforce. A happy and fulfilled workforce tend to have a greater loyalty and longevity within an organisation, and costs to advertise and recruit are much reduced. The costs associated with training up a new recruit are much reduced, and the team within a stable workforce who are valued and cared for by your organisation will usually go beyond what is expected of them for short term projects and give the business more than would usually be required of them.

 

So, what can you do to bring an ethos of well-being into the workplace? What can you do for your organisation and the people that support the business vision and it’s success?

Now I am not talking about employee benefits. Having a pension or mobile phone or expense account are all tools that are given to an employee usually to enable them to do their job more effectively, or to reinforce a promotional or status raise within a company.

I am talking about introducing wellbeing focused benefits that are there and available to every single employee, from cleaner to director.

 

Environmental factors – can include anything from the decor around them, to listening to music. Being able to personal workspace with items that boost their own motivation for being at work in the first place. Knowing that working in a wharehouse doesn’t mean that it can’t be bright and colourful. Working in an office doens’t mean that it has to be square and clinical. Looking to cheer up the environment can help people feel more valued and inspired in their job role.

 

Physical Factors - For physical ailments such as bad backs (which are deemed to be one of the most common ailments that increase the sickness rate in a business) you can host lunch time exercise sessions. From making work desk yoga sessions, which can actually be done from a seated position at their desk to aid mobility and reduce RSI (repetitive strain injury). Having lunch time walks organised that can promote a good 20 – 30 minute brisk walking session. Having an Osteopath, reflexologist, or masseur come into the workplace once per month subsidised by the company can be an enormous boost and service for the workforce, and will cost you less than replacing a sick workforce or a high turnover of staff. Marks and Spencer for a long time had hairdressers and chiropodists come into the business, ensuring their staff looked good and were kept healthy.

 

Emotional Factors - For emotional workplace stress, then creating an atmosphere where it is ok to switch off, feel calm and relax can have enormous effects. With a stressed mind the brain actually switches off! Being relaxed allows the brain to work creatively. This is due to our work stress being seen by the body as a perceived attack, this creates the body to suffer incremental stress response and the body will then go into the fight or flight response, and non vital organs are closed down. This includes the creative and problem solving portion of the brain. The way to open up the creative element in the brain is to allow the body to relax and go back into it’s natural state of the rest and digest state. This can happen very quickly if a person is allowed to relax, and the best way for that to happen is if there is some time given to just that.

 

One of the most important items to have a stress free organisation, is to ensure each worker has a management that can coach their individual team members to success, in such a way that it promotes and inspires, rather than stresses and fuels negativity.  Having rewards in place for great work has far more benefits that using a negative strategy of disciplining a worker for poor performance. If your managers are not able to coach the workforce sufficiently, then calling upon a business/management coach to come into the workplace to address this with the managers will enable them to harness the skills and talents of the teams that they already have. Wouldn’t it be good to keep the talent you have within your organisation?

 

If you have a workforce that is with you, and enjoys the company’s benefits and feels valued by you they will be your best advocates. You will have fresh, new, talented and positive people searching you out and approaching you to ask if they can work for you and your company. You will have talented individuals in-house wanting to work harder for you and gain promotion. You will have happy people who know their worth and potential suddenly feel their own personal ambition and know that they are supported by you in achieving their full potential and want to use it for you! in your company!

 

 

Well-being is more than just feeling good. It is about knowing your own worth, and feeling absolutely in alignment with what you are doing. It is about giving value in what you do at work whilst knowing that the value is returned to you multiplied in the form of rewards, perks and real genuine care and affection from your managers, owners and organisation.

 

For the businesses that have made the initial investment in making these changes and promoting well-being at work, very quickly they see the benefits in reduced stress and lower sickness rates. Over time there will be a reflection on your balance sheets due to increased performance, using the best talent that you have available, and reduced business costs. It is the only sensible and logic way to go if we are to become ever more efficient in this fast paced world of commerce!

 

Why not host a Well-being week at work? Allow your workforce to experience all the guest therapists and coaches that you invite into your business, and get their feedback as to what they found to be of the most benefit. Cheer up your immediate environment. From office desk, to staff room, to warehouse try using classical music or soft mood music. Fill the place with plants or flowers, and allow your workers to bring in personal items such as pictures of loved ones or inspirational quotes!... and the very best way to start to promote wellbeing in the workplace? Just say “thank you”

 

Written by Karrin Lawrence

Cert. NLP trainer, Master Hypnotist & Master practitioner of Time Line Therapy(tm)

Founder of The Coach Collection and author of The New Manager’s Coach CD.