Energy management in the workplace

A recent YouGov survey of over 2,000 employees, commissioned by Lucozade Revive, finds nine out of ten of us suffer with a dip in energy in the afternoon. This afternoon energy slump equates to a shocking 24 days in lost productivity per year per employee. 

These two findings really show the benefits that can be gained from improved energy management, for both employers and individuals themselves.

A couple of months ago I was asked by Lucozade Revive to chair their Energy Management Summit. The panel discussed energy management in the workplace and the role employers should play in helping their staff achieve high energy.

The conclusion following the summit is that there are three huge benefits linked to improved energy management within our organisations:

        Employees achieve a better quality life 

      They are not only much happier but their performance at work improves as a result.

      Improved organisational performance 

      Sickness absence reduces, reactive healthcare costs drop and employee performance improves.

Less pressure on the NHS 

      Energy management is directly linked to health, when energy improves our health also improves.  Healthy people put less strain on the NHS, which currently costs the UK £109 billion per year.

To find out how you can help your staff beat the 3pm working slump click here. 

Workers are suffering with poor energy – why?

Research, from energiseYou, shows the large majority of UK workers score just 30-40% on the key drivers of good health and energy.

We now live in a 24/7 world and these things are just some of key changes that are causing us to feel drained or low in energy: 

Nutrition

Our nutritional habits have changed over the last ten years, quite often for the worse. E.g. More processed food, less nutrients in our food

Lack of movement

We are now much more sedentary at work and at home

Approach to work

The way we work now. E.g. Dealing with everything as if it’s urgent, lots of task swapping

Pressure

The sheer pressure people are under

Technology

The excessive technology we are exposed to

Hyper-thinking syndrome

We can get so busy problem solving that thinking takes over our awareness, and we lose our sense of the here and now – this is a common problem

Work-life balance

In today’s 24/7 working world many of us find a blur between work and home, leaving us working too many evenings and weekends and quite often not taking a real break

Lack of sleep

With new technology new information is being delivered to us all the time. Our nervous system is quite often being over stimulated and this is negatively affecting our sleep

The modern world is having a negative impact on our energy and this is just going to get progressively worse unless we take action now. Take action today – to find out what you can do click here to contact one of the energiseYou team  

Positivity is central to success

It can be difficult to remain positive when something goes wrong or you experience a setback. But being optimistic and taking a positive approach to how you deal with challenges is central to success.

In a world where change is constant it is only natural that we face challenges along the way, inside and outside work. These may appear to have a negative impact on circumstances/things around us but it is how we deal with them and move on that will determine the real impact.

Listen to any great leader and you will hear them talk about the little (and sometimes quite big) setbacks that they have experienced along their road to success. One thing they all have in common is that they don’t dwell on these setbacks or consider them ‘problems’, they focus on addressing them and then quickly move on.

Follow in the footsteps of the likes of Richard Branson and Steve Jobs – acknowledge mistakes, learn from them, make relevant changes and then move on. The moving on part is crucial and it is often this that so many people find impossible to do.

But dwelling on what’s gone wrong all the time and taking a negative approach to things around us or setbacks that we experience could leave us stuck, unable to move. This will not only get us down it will get everyone down around us.

Negativity feeds negativity and this is dangerous in the workplace. Because it not only has an impact on how we feel as individuals but it can lead to low employee engagement levels, poor productivity, an increase in sickness absence and high staff turnover. Positivity, on the other hand, builds successful organisations. It creates an engaged and high performing workforce.

So, how do we encourage our people to focus on the positive?

We need to ensure the culture supports this positive approach. This means making sure that our leaders and managers create a positive working environment for their teams, where people can talk openly about mistakes and learn from them but also where people are encouraged to share successes and build on what is good.

Doing this will not just influence how we feel, but also how we perform, individually and as teams. The more we are able to move our attention to what makes us feel good, the more able we will be able to deal with challenges that come along our way.

Creating an environment that builds on positive emotions can build the pathway to success. To find out more click here to register to listen to our free webinar on the 21 August, at 12pm – I will be joined by Chris Samsa, Positive Psychologist, from the NeuroLeadership Group, to discuss the power of positivity in boosting performance. 

Healthy eating needs to be on every employer's agenda

What does good nutrition and healthy eating have to do with employers? Is it really our responsibility to educate staff about healthy eating?

There is a lot of debate about whose role it is to educate people about their health. But the best companies know that a healthy workforce means a healthy business.

According to our recent poll 100 per cent of HR professionals believe nutrition has an impact on the performance of their workforce.

With 100 per cent of the food that we eat affecting our health, energy and performance at work it makes good business sense for employers to support their staff to make healthy choices. 

The challenge for many employers is that they just don’t know where to start...

It is really quite simple. Essentially employers need to do two key things: 

1. Educate employees  
Give employees the tools to achieve a balanced diet. This means educating them so that they understand what a balanced diet is for them and how to achieve it - we work with lots of organisations to do this by delivering regular health related workshops, webinars and events.

2. Make sure healthy food is easy to access and not too expensive 
Where possible include healthy options for staff – if you have a canteen work with your caterers to include healthy options.  

If you have vending machines either remove them or ensure they are filled  with healthy snacks, ensure water is readily available and try to opt for healthy snacks, food and drink during meetings.

It is simple really. If employees are not eating a healthy diet and getting all the essential nutrients they need then they will end up feeling low in energy and will be unable to perform at their best. 

To find out more click here to listen to our recent webinar: How modern day nutrition is affecting your workforce

Employers need to focus more on the positives

The large majority of us tend to focus on what is wrong in our lives, both at home and in the workplace. This needs to change if we are to be successful in creating a positive working environment where people are able to achieve their potential.

Think about what your leaders and managers focus the majority of their time on. You will probably find they give more time and attention to problems, rather than focusing on the positive things that are happening within their team and organisation. For example, managers tend to focus more time on what employees are not doing or what is not being done properly instead of sharing all the positive things that have been achieved.

This happens naturally and is what our mind is trained to do. Think about the ‘fight or flight’ response, our body's automatic response prepares us to fight or run from danger or a threat. But times have changed. We don’t need to be on the look-out for danger in the same way we did years ago.

It is important to remember that problems create problems and therefore focusing all of our attention on what is wrong will have a detrimental effect on business and our employees. It creates a ball of negative energy that just attracts more of the same.

This negative focus will eventually lead to a hostile working environment and a disengaged workforce, which will have a negative impact on both productivity and the happiness of our employees.

It’s time for leaders and managers to take a stand. We need to focus on what is positive within our organisation and training our people to do the same. By this I don’t mean we should ignore problems, I simply mean we need to turn most of our attention to what is good and build on this.

This is not easy and our mind will quite often naturally default back to focus on problems and negative things that surround us. It will take time but this shift needs to happen if we are going to attract and retain the best people and succeed as organisations.

Mind management is at the heart of everything we do.  Crack this, and everything else becomes easy.

Click here for more information about our mind management workshops.

Creating a healthy mind really can boost success

It’s not just famous athletes and celebrities that are reaping the success of mind management and meditation.

If you listen to any ‘great’ leader they attribute much of their success to having a healthy mindset and adopting the right attitude. Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Bill Ford have all spoken about their use of meditation and the benefits associated with creating a healthy mindset.

Now, if we can get our employees to do the same then we are really onto a winner.

A healthy mind offers huge benefits to us as individuals in terms of increasing happiness, improving creativity and aiding weight loss etc. But it also offers huge benefits to our businesses.

People who manage their mind effectively are more successful at work because they have higher energy levels, are generally much healthier and they are able to handle with pressure more effectively.

Our research, of over 4,500 individuals, shows the large majority of people score just 42% on the key drivers of positive mind management. This highlights a huge opportunity for us as employers to improve performance within our businesses.

In today’s nonstop 24/7 digital world, we lead such busy lives and as a result our mind rarely stops thinking. Most people’s habits mean they are using technology non-stop from the minute they open their eyes to the minute they close them at night. This over stimulation of mind and body can drain energy and cause poor health, such as sleep problems and mental health fatigue.

By helping our employees to manage their mind effectively we can really improve performance. 

To find out how you can create healthy mind and body in the workplace click here and sign up to my free 30 minute webinar today.

This is taking place on Wednesday 15 May 2013, at 12pm 2013. I will cover:

- How supporting your employees' health & energy can improve business performance
- Why your staff need a healthy mind & body at work
- The 7 essential ingredients to create a healthy body
- Innovative mind management practices to improve performance
- Practical steps to improve the health & energy of your staff this summer

The Best Companies Understand The Importance Of Wellbeing

With The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For Awards taking place this week I reflected on where we are now and what the future holds for employee engagement and wellbeing.

When I founded energiseYou, eight years ago, things were very different. Employee engagement was quite a new concept and as for wellbeing, well it was only a small minority of companies that were really leading the way.

I’m pleased to say things have really moved on since then. More employers understand that their people are key to the success of their business and as a result are focusing on employee engagement.

And this does not simply mean investing in people in a monetary way. The eight key factors that Best Companies feel drive employee engagement include:

-       Leadership
-       My company
-       Personal growth
-       My manager
-       My team
-       Giving something back
-       Fair deal

-       Wellbeing

 

We know that the large majority of organisations do now have employee wellbeing on their agenda in some shape or form. But it is the pioneers in this group, like the Top 100 Best Companies, leading the way and taking a proactive approach to wellbeing that are seeing a real return on investment. This is set to continue.

With research showing employee burnout is becoming more common employers can no longer afford to simply dabble in employee wellbeing. The best companies know they need to take a proactive approach to wellbeing and make it part of their people strategy – only when they do this will they prevent burnout and reap the rewards in terms of helping employees are able to perform at their best.

So in a further eight years I predict organisations will be doing more with regards to wellbeing. I will be as bold to say there won’t be any companies around just dabbling or dipping their toe in the water because these organisations just won’t be able to survive in the current climate.

To find out what the forward thinking companies are doing to engage staff click here to sign up to our free webinar. Guest speaker, Wayne Clarke, from The Sunday Times Best Companies Partnership will join me to discuss:

- The 8 key ingredients for a fully engaged workforce
- Best engagement practices from some of the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies
- How to get directors to buy into your staff engagement programme
- Q&A session with Oliver Gray (energiseYou) & Wayne Clarke (Best Companies Partnership)

 

What are you doing to tackle sleep deprivation in your business?

Chronic sleep deprivation can do more than cause tiredness, it can have many negative effects. Employees with sleep problems may find it difficult to pay attention at work, struggle to remain alert and unable to concentrate.

But employees themselves aren’t the only ones suffering the consequences of sleepiness at work; it’s costing businesses money and, in some cases, may be putting the safety of others at risk.

Not only does a lack of sleep affect people’s health, which can cause an increase in sickness absence and have a negative impact on productivity, it can also be the cause of poor performance and injuries in the workplace.

Fact – sleep deprivation and poor quality sleep is not good for business. Clearly, it is a problem that needs to be addressed. Our research, of over 3,000 people finds the large majority of people score less than 50% on the drivers that help them achieve a good night’s sleep.

Although workers’ sleep habits are largely out of an employer’s control, businesses need to be aware of the effects of sleep deprivation and take a proactive approach to limit the impact of poor sleep, so that employees do their jobs more safely and efficiently.

There are companies, such as Google, that are taking action by providing sleep pods so employees who have to put in long hours sometimes or need to re-energise are allowed to take a power nap during their working day.

But it’s not just allocating enough time to sleep that determines how tired we feel or has an impact on performance, it’s also the ‘quality’ of sleep. And this is where education comes in. There are many factors that have an impact on the quality of sleep and these will depend on individual’s daily habits - only when we understand how to improve the quality of sleep can we improve it.
 

Whilst every workplace is different, there are a couple of simple steps that businesses can start with to limit the negative impact of sleep-deprivation:

1.     Help employees identify the problem

To help employees understand whether sleep is a problem area for them and understand how to start addressing this get them to complete our free online health and energy check. For more information about this check click here.

2.     Education

Forward thinking organisations, like eBay and TES Aviation, are taking a proactive approach and providing their staff with workshops where experts are on hand to offer sleep related advice. 

To mark National Sleep Awareness I am holding free 30-minute webinar focusing on the secret to great sleep in 2013.

This is being held on the 6 March 2013, at 12pm. Places are limited so you will need to register in advance – please click here for more information.

Within this webinar I will cover:

      - The benefits of great sleep
      - Why your habits are the key to your sleep
      - The top seven habits to avoid for great sleep
      - The top seven best habits for great sleep

3.     Culture of your organisation

Fatigue can affect more than the employee involved. It can create health and safety risks and have a negative impact on performance and productivity. It’s important to ensure you have the policies and procedures in place, within your organisation, so that employees are able to achieve a positive work-life balance and are able to take regular breaks throughout their working day to re-energise.

Say goodbye to Blue Monday

Monday 21st January 2013 is apparently the most depressing day of the year, due to the combined effect of Christmas blues, lack of money, lack of natural sunlight, broken New Year resolutions and it being a Monday.

However, Blue Monday is only bad if you allow it to be. I challenge you to go against what some of the experts and say goodbye to Blue Monday. Make it a great day for you and everyone around you – your colleagues, friends and family.

By taking a positive approach to our daily tasks and challenges we really do have the opportunity to say goodbye to Blue Monday and make 2013 a fantastic year.

The key is to develop and maintain a healthy mindset. So, take today as an example – it is snowing heavily today and as a result a couple of people have cancelled meetings that I had scheduled. This could be seen as really negative but it’s just meant I’ve had to rearrange my day.

Yes, the snow causes some problems but it only falls occasionally here in London and it looks beautiful outside. Also, by rearranging my meetings I am able to use my time today to focus attention on other projects.

The key to happiness and success, both inside and outside the workplace, is to focus on developing a positive mindset.

Start doing this today. Surround yourself with people who energise you, start speaking more positively and consistently do more of the things that positively affect your health, energy and happiness.

Make 2013 your best year yet….

What's your focus for 2013?

Traditionally December and January is a time when many people start thinking about what they want to achieve in the New Year.
 

This month all the staff here, at energiseYou, have picked an area that they want to focus on to improve their health, energy and happiness. Some of the team plan to eat more fruit, there’s Lily who is going to learn to cook and someone upping their marathon training.

This got me thinking about what I want to focus on in 2013. I’m already very proactive when it comes to nutrition and exercise so I started to think about other areas that will really help energise me – this led me to success and fun…

Why success? Having played professional tennis for four years and always being interested in sports I am naturally very competitive and love the thrill of a win. For me, losing is just not an option and this is why success is so important.

Why the fun? Whilst it is positive to have an objective in mind and a belief that you will achieve it the danger is that you become so focused on the end goal that you stop enjoying the journey. So, for me, this is where the focus on fun comes in.

It’s so important to enjoy work and our day to day activities. When we have fun and enjoy life we are more energised, more likely to achieve our goals, and we are naturally much happier.

All too often we take life and work too seriously, especially in the workplace. Yes, there are serious issues that will need my attention and yes there might be challenging moments but this doesn’t mean work can’t be fun.

By having fun along the way I know I will enjoy everything a bit more and hopefully those around me will too. So here is to a fun and successful 2013.

Some of the energiseYou team will be sharing updates on how they are doing with their new habits on Twitter @energiseyou and @olivergray7 and Facebook You can do the same – don’t forget #ENERGISEYOU

HR professionals need to think about themselves…

A recent research report, published by vocational training organisation, City and Guilds, has found HR professionals are some of the unhappiest across the UK workforce.

We know that employee wellbeing often falls to the HR team to manage. The challenge for some HR professionals is that they are so busy looking after the needs of their people that they can forget about themselves.

I often talk about the benefits associated with a healthy, happy and motivated workforce. But this really is essential for our personal wellbeing and if we are to improve the performance of our businesses.

Now is the time for HR professionals to factor their needs into the wellbeing equation. Here are some tips to help you get started…

Replace the word stress with resilience

Stress is a word that is so overused, both inside and outside the workplace. This is not to say it is not a serious issue – in fact new research from the Group Risk Development (GRiD) shows employee stress has been voted the number one risk to employee wellbeing.

But if you are to limit the negative impact associated with, and caused, by stress in the workplace you need to move away from focusing on it so much and think about how you can deal with pressure and become more resilient.

Invest in yourself

Invest in your physical and emotional energy wisely. Develop ways to ensure you are more resilient and make sure you build in recovery time so their energy isn't drained – for expert advice click here to secure your place on our live webinar, on the 12 December.

Try and give yourself 20 minutes of ‘stop time’ per day. Try sitting in a relaxing place in silence and focus on your breathing or listen to some relaxing music.

To check your health and energy click here and take our free online, 10 minute, questionnaire.

Believe

Believe good things can happen. This will give you the motivation to want to make them happen and to be persistent.

Be positive

It may sound very simple but very few people get this right – consistently do more of the things that positively affect you and do less of the things that affect you negatively.

Stay focused

Stay focused on what's important rather than allowing problems or concerns about what might happen to take you off course. 

You can improve your focus and energy by trying to do one task at a time.

                                                        
Make wellbeing part of your culture
Work with your leaders, managers and HR team to make wellbeing part of your organisational culture. Ensure they understand that people need space to perform, relax and take time out to re-energise if they are to give the most at work and your managers need to recognise and support this.

Employee wellbeing – make sure it’s more than a tick box exercise...

Our research, Health and wellbeing at work – where we are at and where we need to be, shows the large majority of employers have wellbeing on their agenda. However, many organisations don’t know where to start or what to do to really improve employee wellbeing and deliver return on investment for their business.

In addition to this, many professionals who are responsible for wellbeing are time poor and have budget restraints. This means welbeing often moves down their list of priorities.

I attended a recent conference focusing on employee wellbeing and two things stood out to me:

1. There are still some organisations that treat wellbeing as a tick box exercise

2. More can be done to deliver return on investment

Let me give you an example...

A senior HR Director talked about his approach to employee wellbeing. He was asked how he got buy-in from those at the top to provide employees with private medical insurance.

He said: “I’m lucky, I don’t have to get buy-in. The directors just get the need for it. They understand the importance of having people in work and therefore understand the need to help those who are off sick get back to work quickly, so I have never needed to make a business case.”

But he then went on to say private medical insurance is very rarely used and claims are very low because of the profile of their workforce.

There we have it. Private medical insurance is not adding real value to this organisation or its employees. In fact, the organisation is wasting thousands of pounds on a service that very few employees will ever need and very few will ever get to benefit from.

Challenge what has been done before
In order to deliver real change we need to move away from treating wellbeing as tickbox exercise or a standalone activity, it is something that needs to be threaded through all talent management activities and that really becomes part of the culture.

It is not enough to simply offer private medical insurance or hold one event or workshop. Only by understanding the challenges your people are facing, such as poor engagement and low energy, can you set your objectives. And these challenges change over time which is why what you offer needs to be reviewed regularly.

In order to influence those at the top and really improve employee wellbeing, HR need to focus on what’s best for employees and what will improve business health.  It is time to challenge what has always been done, review what people related initiatives are in place, start being innovative in our approach to employee wellbeing and not be afraid of change.

To listen to our October 2012 webinar, focusing on practical ways to tackle wellbein, please click here.
 
Please email emma.price@energiseyou.com for a copy of Health and wellbeing at work – where we are at and where we need to be.