How are you feeling?

If I ask you to stop for a moment and think about how you are feeling, how would you answer?

We start our Home Working Health and Wellbeing sessions with this question to bring awareness to our physical and emotional wellbeing, because being conscious of our health is more likely to prompt a positive reaction to improve it.

The global pandemic triggered a stress response where we collectively went into fight-or-flight mode to deal with the immediacy of the crisis.

A year on, this prolonged period of elevated stress is causing pandemic fatigue.

Where businesses recognise the connection between poor employee wellbeing and the impact on business health, we see the motivation to address it.

But if your first thought is ‘wellbeing is an unaffordable luxury’, think of a runner with a sprained ankle. An injured athlete would not compete in a race, or if they did, they would not be performing at their best.

If your employees are suffering from fatigue and stress there is a higher risk of them taking time off, or at best limping along in a state of presenteeism.

The 2018 NHSA Health for Wealth report identified 30 per cent of the £4 per person per hour gap in productivity (or £1.20 per hour) between the Northern Powerhouse and the rest of England is due to ill-health.

A separate 2020 report by Deloitte identified that every £1 investment employers make in supporting employee mental health returns £5 in reduced presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover.

If your answer to my initial question is “fatigued” or “stressed”, it is likely your teams are feeling the same. Contact us to find out how our unique YOLO Wellbeing services can reduce stress and energise your teams with rewarding and personalised experiences.

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