91% of staff say they are stressed at work

Bad News, Good News

Bad News: Stress Awareness Day saw the release of many statistics relating to stress in the workplace including the shocking 91% of staff saying they are stressed at work.

Good News: NICE - the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence - will today launch new guidance for employers about how to improve mental wellbeing promotion.

The guidance will include information on how to prevent stress and identify problems early. It promises to help save a 1,000-employee business up to £250,000 per year in reduced absence and increased performance. See full article in HR Magazine Bulletin

News of the guidelines is excellent but in our experience these figures seem a little conservative - planned and executed properly there's even more value to be had with the right wellbeing initiatives.

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Stress? What Stress?

It's National Stress Awareness Day today and members of our team have been out in various businesses delivering a variety of yoga, relaxation and stress relieving wellbeing sessions.

It's been a really encouraging and rewarding day.

Many of the sessions were oversubscribed and we met loads of people who, rather than reporting that they feel weighed down with stress and are struggling to cope, arrived at the sessions fully appreciating that a certain level of stress is inevitable in an ambitious and fulfilling life, and looking to find new strategies to help them manage their stress levels to achieve a better overall balance in everything they do.

This positive mindset of those who took part seems to have a lot to do with how the sessions were communicated in advance, with the focus not being placed on coming along simply to understand more about a very common issue, but to take part in practical sessions and leave with solutions they can use every day from now on.

So the message is clear. When it comes to engaging your staff in any new initiatives, wellbeing or otherwise, focus as much attention on how you promote your ideas as you do on what initiatives you decide to implement in the first place. Most people are looking to improve their personal and professional situation to some degree, so communicating with messages that explain the individual and immediate benefits of taking part will ensure you get maximum sign up and the best return on your investment in your programmes and your people.

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The Challenge for Wellbeing

When it comes to getting staff excited about wellbeing, there's nothing like a good challenge. Take this recent headline about Nestle for example: Nestle staff walk more than eight kilometres a day in major wellbeing initiative

It really goes to show how the right wellbeing initiatives can capture the imagination of staff and motivate them to action and to great results. We're all for this.

During a recent leadership programme we ran a similar initiative and participants managed to walk up to 11 miles (18km) a day! And this while spending much of the programme sitting down in a lecture theatre.

It's amazing what the right motivation, a group challenge and a bit of healthy competition can do. And it proves that small steps really do produce big results.

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Fit for Work? The Boss may be counting your calories

Thanks to a new Big Brother-style gadget being adopted by American companies — and coming to Britain early next year — bosses can measure exactly how many calories you are burning in a day and compare the data with “performance benchmarks”.

In other words: staying in shape might soon become as important as getting to the office on time.

I'm all for new ways to motivate staff to improve their health and wellbeing and I'm sure this gadget will work for some. You can read more about it here.

It won't be for everyone though, so what businesses who adopt it must do, along with all organisations putting wellbeing programmes in place, is aim to devise a range of initiatives - a menu of interesting wellbeing services - that ensures there is something for everyone. This means tackling the key areas of health and wellbeing - exercise, nutrition and stress management - with creative solutions that fit the various schedules and priorities of the workforce.

This is the most simple way for businesses to make wellbeing easy for every single employee. Not only can there be no more excuses for not participating in something relating to improving wellbeing and performance; better than that, all members of staff will be able to find something healthy that inspires them and that will guarantee they get a great result.

One size wellbeing does not fit all so when planning initiatives, take care to sample individuals to find out what they would find useful and make sure your solutions cater for everyone.

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SMEs are invited to bid for share of £4 million Health, Work and Well-being Challenge Fund

The Government is to invest £4 million over the next two years in improving health and wellbeing for staff at small organisations.

This is fantastic news for SMEs that may have been struggling to find or justify a budget for wellbeing. The other thing businesses of 1-249 people struggle with is time to plan initiatives in this area so if you'd like some help on how to design a wellbeing programme that could then be funded by the Government, we'd be happy to help come up with the solution that will get you great results for your people and your business.

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