Leading Happiness & Wellness in the Workplace
"You can create, design, build and dress the most beautiful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality." - Walt Disney
Many of us have been banging on the drum for years now about WORKPLACE WELLNESS interventions and TOTAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS APPROACHES, and about the impact that the world of work has on our health. I was writing articles in publications way back in 2007 to raise its profile and we are never going to get away from this fact or change this ever-growing need, so let us get on with it by:
• Fulfilling the responsible mission of raising consciousness about what individuals can do to help themselves positively thereby influencing their own happiness and wellness
• Educating people by providing a platform for learning where employers and business inform and provide choices about strategies, tools, techniques and approaches that enable individuals to get the most out of their lives
• Enabling employees to give their best to their organisations that they are part of by increasing engagement at work and reducing absenteeism
• Impacting the surrounding community and families as employees will take back learning of what ‘wellness’ means home to their families and their communities
Business leaders and managers are key to the strategies linked to the happiness and wellness of an Organisation's workforce.
Just how do you improve business performance and bottom line results through integrating wellness initiatives with your business strategy?
Gill Main Partnering 4 Performance has incorporated personal 30 year plus experience coaching and training in a wide range of sectors and situations in the corporate and business world on business development, leadership, management and the performance and development of people; as well as positively contributing to the happiness and wellness of people through delivery of life coaching and hands on complementary therapy approaches.
The desire to bring these HEAD AND HEART approaches to business and people together led to the brand of PARTNERING 4 PERFORMANCE (P4P). It was created as an approach to bring together an incredible team of specialist expertise to help people in the fullest sense, physically, mentally emotionally and spiritually.
My purpose with the P4P Brand is to remove the ‘warm and fuzzy’ perception that many people have about the subject of WELLNESS IN THE WORKPLACE. Employees are a precious asset in a business, and any asset requires maintenance to be fully effective.
It is sound business sense and also of great benefit to employees to integrate wellness practices into mainstream business operations. I doubt many leaders in organisations need reminding just how much the wage bill contributes to the overheads in a business? The cost of the people resource is often the highest, or certainly one of the highest outgoings.
“You can have the best systems in the world, but if your people aren’t fresh, if they’re burned out, it won’t matter. They won’t provide the kind of service that customers expect.” Bob Daniels
We spend much of our lives at work and this can and does cause a host of work / life balance and personal issues.
Neglected family relationships, anxiety, stress and weakened immune systems, low confidence and self-esteem leading
to all sorts of health problems, physical and mental.
We need to address these issues collectively as responsible people, simply because we care for one another as fellow human beings.
P4P service is about supporting and caring for the WHOLE PERSON that works in a business and raises consciousness further that the workplace ‘employs’ the WHOLE PERSON not someone that between the hours of 8am – 4pm or 9am –
5pm becomes an entity solely in relation to the work world.
It may seem obvious. My experience tells me that this is not always so, and it gets forgotten all too often.
"Life impacts work, and work impacts our lives and overall health, happiness and wellness - both positively and negatively" - Gill Main
There are many proven benefits for introducing happiness, health and wellness into a business for both the employee and the business. These include:
Reductions in
• stress and anxiety of individuals and teams
• the costs linked to absenteeism and sickness
• risk of future occupational health illness and insurance costs
• costs linked to presenteeism and lack of full engagement of individuals
• potential litigation costs
“Presenteesim is defined as those that turn up for work, but don’t perform at or even anywhere near their full capacity, either because they have dragged themselves in when they should really be tucked in under the duvet keeping their germs to themselves, or because they are not fully engaged and have simply relocated themselves to the office, without being as productive as they could be.”
Improvements in
• personal resilience in individuals
• productivity and performance of individuals and teams
• communication, engagement, motivation, morale, job commitment, satisfaction and happiness
• retention and recruitment of staff
• recognition as an employer of choice
• demonstrates corporate responsibility
• return to work for employees after genuine sickness
• retention of experienced older workers sharing experience with younger staff
CREATING THE RIGHT WORKING ENVIRONMENT WILL ENCOURAGE
• performance, progression and fulfilled potential in individuals
• access to sufficient information for individuals to make lifestyle and health related choices
• the business to contribute to sustainability, corporate responsibility and moral contribution to the wider community in which it operates
"You know when you have had one of those days when you feel really tired because you have worked hard mentally and done some serious learning and moved on, doesn't it feel good at the same time though?" – Gill Main
A pro-active and managed wellness strategy can make an amazing difference to the people in any business as it reinforces the message that you understand how important they are to you.
An effective wellness in the workplace strategy is a win / win solution for everyone, healthy, happy staff and maximum production in a harmonious workplace for the leaders and managers.
Lee Francis
CEO, RE:GEN Group
I have worked with Gill on and off for over 20 years. She has been a huge part of my career and success.
Since joining RE:GEN Group and having no boundaries, embracing our culture of ‘challenging the norm’, the senior leadership team have embarked on a revolutionary campaign to embed wellness into our business. We care about our employees and are more than aware that an engaged individual is so much more productive, efficient, engaging and HAPPY. Gill has a wealth of experience and tools / techniques and is one of the main driving forces behind our wellness campaign. I would highly recommend working with Gill.
Nadia Scott
MD, RE:geon Training
My relationship with Gill is both personal and professional.
She has been my life coach for over a year now, in which I have learned so much about myself in that time. Gill has helped me to see what’s inside and develop my self-awareness. She introduced me to Reiki which has become a huge part of my life. Helping to restore the balance and better prepare myself to deal with the day to day stresses of life.
Gill is also the Life, Leadership & Wellness Coach for my business RE:geon Training. Over the last 3 months, Gill has supported the business with the implementation of a leadership and wellness coaching programme to support the growth and development of my team.
Through my work with Gill, I am living a very happy and fulfilled life, surrounded with happy and productive employees.
Louise Buckton
I have worked with Gill on two separate occasions. First as a personal coach hired by my employing organisation to provide one to one support; secondly I hired Gill under her Partnering4Performance offering to provide support to 30 managers in a division I had joint responsibility for. Gill always delivers as promised, is very client focussed, and results oriented. I recommend Gill to you.
Some of the businesses I am proud to support:
