What is wellbeing?

Most of us have heard about ‘wellbeing at work’. It is a beautifully circular concept – look after the health of your staff and they will look after the health of your business. Helping your people to manage stress and build resilience is good for everyone.

But start a search for detail and you will inevitably encounter a minefield of lengthy publications and complicated strategies. And with today’s managers having many other calls on their time, they may never register the concept of ‘wellbeing at work’ as anything more than a current catchphrase.

At Cafe Therapy, we like to keep things simple. This is because we believe that simplicity is the key to effectiveness in a very complex world. So we decided to bring you a short introduction to the concept of wellbeing and how it drives engagement, and suggest some easy-to-implement strategies that every business can use to improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce.

We all know from personal experience that when we are healthy, we are also happy. And it follows then that when we are happy at work, we are engaged and feel motivated to deliver our best. Sadly, this fact can be overlooked in many workplaces, due to the constant pressure to increase productivity and keep overheads down. People end up simply ‘going through the motions’, leaving managers puzzling over the kind of changes needed to improve on lack-lustre output and build team morale.

Physical health

Physical health is an important factor behind mental wellbeing, with team activities and sports in particular helping colleagues to bond while improving their physical health together. Sponsored hikes or runs, for example, with all the attendant training sessions, get-togethers and celebrations of achievement, are an excellent way of cementing relationships at work and promoting wellbeing.

Mental health

According to mental health charity Mind, 60% of employees say they would feel both more motivated and more likely to recommend their organisation as a good place to work if their employer took action to support mental wellbeing. This approach can be supported by encouraging your people to identify the early signs of mental health issues and deal with them appropriately, both by raising mental health awareness within your company and then actively providing support to those of your staff who need it.

What can we do?

Our surveys and focus groups help you get right to the crux of what your people think of how things are now, how and where they think you could make improvements and also the kind of activities and events that they feel would bring them closer together as a team. Our training workshops and seminars deliver the knowledge and skills to promote wellbeing, manage stress and develop resilience. Our approach will bring you positive, measurable results to improve wellbeing, engagement and business performance.