What is a Healthy Business?
We've been delivering wellbeing programmes for businesses for a number of years now. In general the results are excellent. Watch this video to find out more
The theory is sound: healthier people perform better, they have more energy and focus, they are more motivated, they are more creative and generally nicer to be around. This all means they get more done and done to a higher standard, then in turn the business will perform better.
Yet something we often see is that it is the very business that has invested in a well-being programme for its people that is unwittingly putting a ceiling on the benefits to the business.
Sound strange?
Let me explain.
We all know what a huge role stress plays in our health and wellbeing and that excessive, prolonged stress can massively impact performance.
Whilst we're great believers in taking personal responsibility for our health; that with the right lifestyle changes we can build our personal resilience to a point where we are able to deal with most things that come our way, and find a way to thrive in almost any circumstance - it shouldn't be such a struggle.
That's wasted energy that could go towards doing something productive!
Yet in many businesses it is the internal environment that's one of the leading causes of stress for people.
That can be the physical environment, but more often it's the intangibles - the culture within an organisation.
Similarly, it can be the systems and processes operating within a business that are a big source of frustration and stress to people.
If the culture or the systems within a business are causing unnecessary stress, imagine if the people aren't equipped with the personal leadership skills to navigate, articulate and solve this?
The business is shooting itself and its people in the foot!
We've observed these things happening in businesses many times now, and so our work has begun to cross over into other areas. Having begun working within “health and wellbeing” in its traditional sense, it's becoming more integrated within other business areas as well as the business's overall strategy for growth.
It's really exciting!
Fortunately within our team and our immediate network we have people with the knowledge and experience to facilitate this. We've always been far-removed from a traditional “health and fitness business” and I've known all along this would be the natural extension.
This whole thing got us thinking about the question: what is a “healthy business”?
We think it's more than just the personal health of its people.
But equally it's more than just the bottom line.
As such we've begun expanding our offering to make it more complete, focussing on this idea of a true “healthy business”. It's a tailored consultancy and training service and will include elements of lifestyle coaching, executive and leadership coaching, business process reviews and workshops to support or create effective business strategies. We want to work with businesses who are committed to true health; the health of the organisation and well as the personal health of all of its people.
Businesses who want to do more than just tick the box of “employee wellbeing programme”.
There's so much potential there!
In the forthcoming series of articles we're going to talk in more detail about the specifics of both healthy and unhealthy businesses.
