Posts from — September 2008

What Exactly is Corporate Wellness?

The other day someone asked me “What exactly is corporate wellness?” It occurred to me that many people might not know and be curious about just what exactly corporate wellness entails, why does it matter and how can your organization achieve it?

Why Corporate Wellness Matters:

If you own a business or work for a business, which includes most people, then corporate wellness affects you. According to the US Department of Labor, people spend 7.6 hours a day working. This translates to approximately 48% of our waking hours being spent at work. Given this, the environment in which we work can have a profound effect on the rest of our lives and on our general sense of well being. Wellness is fundamental to being a healthy high performer and having a successful organization.

What is Wellness?

Wellness is defined by the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual status of each person; i.e. a healthy body, an alert mind, a balanced emotional nature and an inner essential presence. One’s behavior is a manifestation of her wellness at that given moment. On an organizational level wellness is measured by examining these manifestations of behavior as they relate to such dimensions as motivation, communication, leadership styles, conflict management, morale, inclusion, and how well individuals work together.

What Does a Corporate Wellness Consultant Do?

By measuring and helping to change behavior, corporate wellness consultants enable individuals to review and enhance their strengths and potential to grow, innovate, and excel in performance. Any dysfunctional (unwell) behavior such as bullying, aggression, ineffective communication, poor leadership, and symptoms such as anxiety, poor team work, lack of confidence, and low morale are addressed. Through their interventions, corporate wellness consultants contribute to the creation of a healthy, successful, high performing corporate culture.

Corporate Wellness Affects Your Bottom Line:

The costs of poor corporate health are great, both financially and emotionally. Corporate health and unhealthiness commonly manifest in the areas of:

1) Leadership

2) Communication

3) Team Work

4) Conflict Management

5) Morale

Leadership:

Healthy effective leadership can decrease organizational erosion caused by conflict and poor communication and steer an organization toward its Vision of Success.

Unhealthy and ineffective leadership can create serious consequences such as:
· Reduced productivity

· Increased supervision overhead

· Excessive employee turnover

· Increased stress

· Low morale

· Decreased customer satisfaction

· Damaged management credibility and distrust

Communication:

A reduction in productivity of those in conflict is one of the more serious consequences of unhealthy communication. A 25% loss of productivity e.g. doing things to get out of the area of conflict or tension reduces an average work-week to fewer than 20 hours. One of the key foundations of any successful workplace is being able to use healthy and effective communication.

Healthy communication can help people:

· Receive and share information better

· Define and understand goals

· Avoid the negative effects of conflict and confusion

· Build rapport and enhance relationships

· Promote self-confidence

· Have a positive overall effect on the working environment

Team Work:

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision…the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” (Andrew Carnegie) Unfortunately unhealthy corporations do not understand how to develop an effective working team. This is often reflected in a lack of productivity and in high levels of conflict.

Conflict Management:

The monetary as well as the emotional costs of conflict are great. Unfortunately many unhealthy organizations suffer chronic patterns of unresolved conflict that are costly and often symptomatic of serious organizational dysfunction. Some experts believe that unresolved conflict represents the largest “reducible cost” in many businesses.

Addressing conflict and creating a harmonious work environment should be viewed as an important element in achieving organizational well being, effectiveness, and enhancing productivity.

Morale:

Low morale, a common symptom of poor organizational health, due to stress and other issues can destroy your business. In fact according to the American Institute of Stress (2004), stress and burnout-related absenteeism, tardiness, low productivity, and job turnover cost American companies over $300 billion annually.

So What Does a Healthy Corporation Look Like?

A healthy corporation has a healthy “high performance” culture.
Healthy high performers:

· Have genuine positive attitudes and high motivational levels

· Bring all of themselves to work and give their best

· Communicate clearly, cooperate and encourage team members, and know how to resolve conflicts

· Display a high degree of wellness and performance especially under pressure

· Stand up for their own views but never trample others; they are innovative because they recognize that their human capacity to perform is great.

Research shows that healthy high performers have a significant influence on an organization’s success. Addressing corporate well being as it is manifested in the areas above will lead to the creation of a healthy high performance culture. Healthy corporations create healthy high performing workers. Having high performers just makes good business sense.

There is nothing new about the idea of a group retreat. The family vacation may be the original of all retreats. This vacation was an opportunity to get away from distractions of a hectic life and enjoy the group time for bonding and experiential activities. Today, these same principles that directed the family vacation retreat, can and are utilized for many different corporate and recreational groups. An opportunity to bring a core group together, outside of the standard setting, having time for team building and to focus on an individual or group of challenges can be very powerful.

If heading up a team building retreat, you will want to do all you can to ensure every bit of scheduled activity provides for the utmost ability for all participants to focus and accomplish their goals. To do this there is more to be done than the simple scheduling of space and ensuring meals are available for retreat group participants. What activities will you provide to give them mental downtime? How will they workout the kinks from the days activities, sitting through presentations and brainstorming meetings? You will want to assist them in staying mentally and physically fresh. This is best done when utilizing the skills of a fitness professional.

5 Reasons for Adding Wellness to Your Group Retreat

1. Physical activity has been shown to increase brain function. A fitness professional, depending upon their specialty, may be able to provide cardiovascular activities, resistance training opportunities, yoga for flexibility sessions, boot camps, tai chi, or a combination of fitness formats to keep the blood flowing to all parts of the body including the brain.
2. Providing morning and afternoon classes for the corporate retreat group will offer an excellent opening and closing to daily activities. To start the day with a little physical activity is not only good for the body but it will also mentally prepare the mind for the upcoming business activities. Closing the day with a bit more physical or mind/body activity allows for a separation of the days activities and initiates the mental relaxation that is beneficial for being ready and capable of quality focused activity the next day.
3. You will show the retreat participants you care about them as much as you do about the targeted retreat business activities. You can even go as far as a dual purpose and offer multiple educational classes as part of a wellness retreat or yoga retreat in addition to your designed corporate retreat. Multiple studies have shown the positive link of a healthy workforce and reduced employee absenteeism.
4. You may choose to utilize the intensity of the incorporated workout sessions as team building opportunities. Yoga and boot camp programs are well suited for taxing not only the body, but also the mind. Encourage your team to work together to meet a common health & fitness goal.
5. Finally, various forms of wellness retreats are occurring every day. Your group will have an excitement leading up to their event as they look forward to the somewhat exotic wellness schedule. This alone will not only increase likely participation, but it will also increase the overall moral of the group.

Take your corporate, recreational, family reunion, or whatever the reason, retreat to the next level. Keep participants refreshed, enlightened, and appreciative with the assistance of a fitness professional. Personal Trainers, Yoga Instructors, Group Fitness Instructors, or those with combinations of skills are available throughout North America. Utilizing a single source company can easily assist you in finding a fitness professional that will best fit your needs. The Fit Pro will be a valuable piece of your retreat meeting and exceeding all the business goals your retreat was designed to meet.