Developing a Health Strategy for Optimum Business Performance

Developing a Health Strategy for Optimum Business Performance Employees are the core asset of any business, and for every $1 invested in employee wellness, a business saving of $2.50 is made from reduced sick leave and improved staff retention. While many employers are aware of the benefits of promoting health and wellbeing, often it’s done on an ad-hoc basis, which makes it hard to evaluate and achieve the best results effectively. Express’ Emma Davidson discusses how to develop a corporate health strategy which delivers tangible results for both employers and their staff all year round. Finding the starting point A workplace culture which supports employee well-being rather than focusing solely on the bottom line is better for employees and employers because it shows you care about your staff and how they feel when they spend time at work. However, many business leaders don’t adequately consider the results they want from a wellbeing strategy meaning some programmes end up ineffective in practice, without a good return on investment. Look at the areas of your business you want to improve. Whether that’s reducing sickness absences, driving more sales or decreasing staff turnover. Having clear goals in mind will mean you can develop a more robust strategy, which will also achieve buy-in from senior management. It’s all in the planning To create a healthy company culture, businesses should integrate a total health model into every aspect of business practice, by creating a strategy which supports emotional, financial, physical and social well-being. This goes beyond an occasional health workshop or free fruit. You need to look at long-term schemes to help you meet your business goals. Consider offering flexible working, setting company health-goals and providing general, ongoing social support to establish a robust workplace environment. Listen to your employees Providing frequent opportunities for employee feedback creates an environment where issues can be identified and responded to head-on. One-to-ones are a great way to do this. However, there can be drawbacks. If reviews are too few, employees may feel their input isn’t valued or may not discuss issues which happened months previously. For some, reviews can be a source of anxiety, so make sure the focus is on a common goal, and any discussions have a balanced focus, with input from multiple sources who regularly work with that member of staff. Employee feedback surveys can be highly effective. However, there are a few factors to consider. Surveys with broad, over-arching questions will leave you with vague data, which isn’t practical for planning your strategy. Address specific topics with targeted questions to evoke more profound thought and give more potential for honest answers. Once you have this information, you can analyze the results and try to action the findings into your programme. Evolving approach 78 percent of organizations expect workplace wellbeing to be measured formally by 2018, so, you need to consider the internal KPIs you need to track to measure the effectiveness of your programme. Consider issues such as absence levels and staff attraction, retention, morale, and productivity which have quantifiable data attached to them to see progression or areas where further improvements can be made.   This information may also provide something tangible you can use to show to the C-suite and be seen as more authoritative. If you can clearly show how a targeted approach can improve these areas and reduce costs it will be easier to build a case for further investment.   About the author: Emma Davidson is the Area Retail Manager for  Express, a top five graduate employer amongst SME’s in the  UK and voted top graduate employer in the Consumer Goods Industry.  

Want to Transform Your Results Manage Your Emotions

Want to Transform Your Results Manage Your Emotions A  few short years ago, if anyone in the business world suggested that how you managed your own and others emotions had a direct impact upon the results you and the business were getting, they would have been laughed at. It was all about action, action, action and drive, drive drive! None of this emotional rubbish â€" far too touchy feely for us hardened business people! Boy, but how that has changed! And, the truth is, those who have really got it have seen the impact of embracing this approach. Emotional intelligence: Since Daniel Goleman started to gain prominence with his work on Emotional Intelligence in the 90s, we have come to realize and recognize the direct correlation of emotional maturity and sustainable business results. My own experience of working with clients on developing emotional intelligence in their businesses has been fascinating. I have seen first hand how effective development of emotional intelligence has really helped CEOs to become more effective leaders, and management teams become more effective at delivering results. This improvement has not been just small incremental changes, they have been really significant. When their emotional intelligence has been assessed and reviewed, so often it has been a real aha moment, and those that embrace the output and do something about it, really do start to operate at a different level altogether. It is truly transformational! When managers really begin to understand how emotional intelligence works and how it contributes to outstanding individual performance, it just takes off in an organization. But don’t just take my word for this phenomenon! Research undertaken by Martin Seligman, considered by many as one of the leading modern psychologists, proved that insurance agents who had learned to manage their own emotions, outsold those who had not, by 8% in the first year and 31% in their second year. That’s fine, say you, that is key to a salesperson â€" but would it make any difference to a non sales, non customer facing, or technical role? The answer is a resounding â€" YES. Increasing emotional intelligence improves performance even in the most high tech of situations. In fact, Goleman did a study in the technology sector and his findings were that the top 6 competencies that separate the star performers from the average are â€" and they are in this order, and the order is important: Strong achievement drive and high achievement standards Ability to influence Conceptual thinking Analytical ability Initiative on in taking on challenges Self-confidence. When you look at that list only conceptual thinking and analytical ability can be described as intellectual competencies. The rest, and including the top 2, have everything to do with emotional competency. So, for those who need hard-nosed research and data, well, it supports my statement that your managers, and you, can really shift a gear in terms of performance and sustained delivery of goals, if attention is paid to the development of emotional intelligence. Would you welcome a step change in your results? Well, contact us here, and we will start that conversation that will lead to a change in behavior, thereby delivering improved results â€" year after year!

11 Digging myself out of the debris

9/11 Digging myself out of the debris I was at the World Trade Center when it fell. At each anniversary that passes I write my story, and each year it changes a little. This year, I have been thinking about that moment when I accepted death. I was at the corner of Liberty and Broadway when the first tower fell. I was too close to the building to be able to see what was happening. It sounded like a huge bomb, and it felt like a snowstorm of dirt. Everyone ran. But in just a few seconds, the world became dead silent and no one could see. I crawled over piles of people. My mouth was full of dust and I could barely breathe. I had no idea where I was or how to preserve myself. I thought I might be the only person alive. As breathing got more difficult, I settled into the idea of dying. Time got very slow and I seem to have had an hours worth of thoughts in seconds. At first I worried that my family would be sad. But then I was disappointed. I would not see my brothers as adults. Would not know what I was like as a mom, or what it was like to grow old with my husband. My to-do list was overflowing with things I wanted to achieve, things I had been looking forward to. But the minute I thought I was going to die, that list didnt matter. I was sad that I would not get to hang out and watch family life unfold. Its surprising because like almost all New Yorkers, I was not the hang out type. And in case its not clear from the obituaries and essays that have come from 9/11, the World Trade Center did not attract the slow-lane types. Like many New Yorkers, I went to a World Trade Center recovery group. The groups were divided into the kind of trauma you experienced. People who watched the scene on TV were not in the same group as people whose spouse died. I was in a group with people who were there the ten minutes or so before the Tower fell. Some of the people in my group felt the impact of the plane while sitting at their desk. Some of the people ran from their building and were splattered by body parts from jumpers. All of us felt lucky to be alive. All of us vowed to make life more meaningful after 9/11. Almost all of us changed jobs to do something that gave us more personal time. The few of us who could, had a baby. Now I know that if I die tomorrow, what Ill regret is not getting to watch my life unfold. So I have been changing my life, a little at a time, to give myself more time to watch life go by. I made a career change from Wall St.-based business development to home-based writer, I had two kids, and I encouraged my husband to reject jobs with long hours. We vowed to cut back our spending 70% to create a more simple life. But cutting spending is not so easy, especially in New York City. It required making a lot of difficult choices. Finally we decided we could not reach our goals without moving. So this year, on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I am making a new home in Madison. Sure, Im still competitive and ambitious when it comes to my career, but what 9/11 gave me the strength to make the scary decision to slow things down. Slowing down means missing opportunities, missing a chance to shine or a serendipitous meeting. Its hard to simplify life because a complicated life is so stimulating. But nearly suffocating in the rubble showed me that what I want most is to be present: Consciously watching while my life unfolds.