Why should you care if you have ‘happy’ employees?

Or put more succinctly: “Happy people = Happy business”

Do you think that looking after employees plays an important part in the performance of a business overall, or is it just an exercise in ticking boxes or increasing costs for little return? Many great employers are going even further by looking at ways to enrich their employees’ experience above a remuneration package, by having a positive culture, enabling professional development, encouraging social connectivity both within the organisation and in the greater community, offering health and fitness incentives, allowing flexible working time, etc.

Employee Enrichment puts people first

This approach genuinely takes a people-first approach, over other human resource and management strategies. It centers around core, positive values that provides the framework for the company’s overall culture, and the more leaders are able to take actions that are designed to enrich and enhance employee experiences, the greater the payoff will be in increased productivity, engagement, loyalty and – crucially – profitability.

Because with increased profitability attributed to employee enrichment, any costs associated become moot.

My own experience… I worked for a large corporation for more years than I care to think about and there was always an atmosphere of back stabbing, venal politics and whispered gossip; I’ve sat in a meeting with a dozen other colleagues whilst our manager shouted at us from the front; I’ve been told that an 11 hour overnight flight was the perfect opportunity to write a 5 year budget plan, whilst being expected to walk off the plane at the other end and go straight into a client’s office; I’ve been polite to people I loathed; I’ve wasted hours perfecting emails to my boss, re-wording and re-wording in an attempt to avoid a toxic response; I’ve wondered why I was sitting in a pointless meeting or kicking my heels at an airport or in an hotel waiting for the time to tick on so I could get home and do something better with my time.

It wasn’t very nice and a lot of it was pretty pointless, certainly not furthering the aims of the business.

But I think mine was an extreme example, not every company operates the way this particular one did – or at least I sincerely hope not!

The HSE estimates the number of working days lost due to work-related ill-health (that’s stress, anxiety or depression) or injuries was 31.2 million days in 2016/17. In 2014/15 that translated to a cost to the UK economy of £14.1 billion!

Having re-trained as a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist, I’m on a mission to help businesses open the conversation on workplace stress, to remove barriers and stigma on mental health, and ultimately change their climate to be more productive, with lower rates of absenteeism through sickness or staff turnover. Because happy people = happy business.

And this feeds into that employee enrichment vein, enabling employees to manage their stress (no one expects stress to disappear, it’s about building resilience to it, learning to bounce and not break), because it also:

• facilitates communication which is the foundation for any organisation to thrive
• facilitates conscious choice rather than reactive behaviour
• builds that resilience so employees are better able to cope with day-to-day challenges and reach their full potential
• engages employee in the overall aims of the business, which increases loyalty
• encourages free thinking and creativity which makes employees feel valued and empowered

And there is of course the legal aspect of addressing stress in the workplace: mental health has parity of esteem which is the principle by which mental health must be given equal priority to physical health. It was enshrined in law by the Health and Social Care Act 2012

So what do you do now? If you want to address stress in your workplace, contact us. We will discuss what you want to achieve and specific challenges your organisation might have, we can then work on a tailored plan to help you make the shift to employee enrichment through a range of resources such as:

• Talks (what stress means, how to build resilience, sleep)
• Workshops (understanding the effects of stress, brain/body connection, strategies to cope, creating a healthier working environment)
• Initiatives (such as flexi-time, break policy, wellness week, mindfulness or meditation groups)
• Personal stress management plan (for both employees and managers to use as a framework for review)
• Further training
• 1:1 de-stress coaching

Contact now on: 01798 344879 or email info@mind-yourbusiness.co.uk

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