Who Needs Well-being, Work-life Balance and a Healthier Lifestyle?
Are we fooling ourselves, do we really want work-life balance? Are we really prepared to give up financial rewards for a healthier lifestyle?
This is an important question for organisations and staff. The costs of work-life imbalance are real. Exhausted people can’t concentrate, don’t have creative ideas and communicate poorly. But even in organisations where there are flexible working solutions on offer, people seem reluctant to change. So how can employers encourage staff to take more care of their health?
“29%, also said that they are concerned for their health because they do not have enough time to follow a healthy diet, compared with only 17% of all Brits being concerned about a healthy diet”. Source: Legal and General Health Uncovered Research
Employers need to help employees address their work-life priorities. By helping employees to think about:
- Yourself first - what and who matters most to you?
- Dreams - how can you get out of repetitive behaviour? What habits drive you and how does your current life compare to the best life you could imagine?
- Simplicity - what pressures control your time? What are you saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to?
- Stepping stones - set priorities, ensure that the change you want is compelling, and useful and determine when to take the first step.
- Organisation - take control of your life. Being organised requires you to be disciplined, practical and decisive.
- Team - other people are essential. We can help ourselves tremendously by knowing how and when to delegate and by building up our network.
- Finally - we always have choice. We can always choose our attitudes and our ‘state’.
A programme like this encourages your employees to see that they have an input and choice. In the past they may not have even realised this. It also helps people to see that personal imbalance is generated when they don’t stand up for what is important to them. They may find it difficult to challenge existing habits and working cultures but will see how they have been compromising on personal values. This alone can be enough to motivate real and valuable change.
One of Illumine’s specialist creativity, motivation and excellence trainers Helen Whitten says: “Sometimes people need to dare to tell their colleagues what they care about and, in so doing, challenge corporate norms. This may sound risky, but organisations do in fact want to support people who bring their full vitality to home and work. They know it makes sense in terms of someone’s organisational performance and they are aware it’s good practice in terms of individual health.” Helen delivers a number of well-being and motivation courses for Illumine Training
Eating to perform
Looking after yourself is important! A balanced diet is good for physical and mental well-being.
Why not check out our fact sheet on ‘stress relieving foods’
This article and associated PDF fact sheet appeared in our November 2007 issue of the Illuminating Newsletter.
Tags: Engagement and Motivation, Health and well-being, Healthy eating, Stress Management (Training), Work-life Balance