As businesses can only be as good as the staff they employ, it makes financial sense to look after your team. After all, if they’re unwell or unhappy then they won’t be able to produce their best work.
This has been broadly acknowledged over the years, with ‘wellbeing’ becoming a recent buzzword.
While the intention is good, the results are often fairly uninspiring. There may be some information around mental health and perhaps fruit snacks and subsidized gym memberships, but little that will drive true and lasting healthy changes.
Lasting change is certainly what’s needed: across the U.S. businesses lose over $500B a year to sick days and health related productivity issues. It’s clear just by looking at these figures that something is wrong in the way we live our lives.
That’s where metabolic health coaching in the workplace comes in. It gives your staff the tools to improve their health in and out of the office, and helps to remove some of the misconceptions around what is healthy.
In this article I will talk about how working with a metabolic health coach will improve your workplace health.
Why a healthy workplace is important
A healthy workforce is a productive workforce. But what does ‘healthy’ mean?
There’s far more to it than the person being in the office and at their desk. In fact, presenteeism is a major issue in the modern workplace, and Investopedia explains it like this:
“The lost productivity that occurs when employees are not fully functioning in the workplace because of an illness, injury, or other condition. Even though the employee may be physically at work, they may not be able to fully perform their duties and are more likely to make mistakes on the job. Although not tracked like absenteeism, the costs of presenteeism have been estimated to be larger in real terms as employees suffering from longer-term conditions see persistent drops in productivity. It is important to note that employees contributing to presenteeism are, by definition, trying to give their best efforts but are physically or mentally unable to do so.”
Despite this, it’s very common for managers to assume that if someone is at work, they’re healthy and capable of performing their job to a high level. Some employers encourage staff to come into work even when they are ill as they want to avoid the loss of profit from staff being off sick. The irony with this is that member of staff is unlikely to be very productive that day, and the business would benefit from more them taking a day or two to properly recover, and return at full productivity.
Our understanding of productivity has also improved over the years. We know, for example, that the best ideas come from those who feel alert and have the space to be creative.
We all know that we shouldn’t drive when drowsy or tired, because it causes a lack of mental clarity. This is similar to an office: tiredness and stress dampen productivity and creativity, and high quality results can’t be expected.
Staff that are happy and healthy will always be more productive than a workforce that feels tired and unappreciated.
Almost 20 million U.S. workers have quit their jobs since April of this year, largely because the transactional nature of the modern workplace leaves them feeling unappreciated. Metabolic health coaching will show your staff that they are valued, and improve morale as well as workplace health.
What an unhealthy team looks like
Do you know what the signs of poor metabolic health are?
It is more than just the visible symptoms often associated with illness, like coughing, sneezing, and running to the bathroom.
The signs of being metabolically unhealthy can be more subtle and many are so widespread that they have become normalized, meaning they can be staring us in the face and we’d still be unaware.
When everyone around you is feeling tired, or poorly motivated, then you start to think that this is normal. But it’s not normal.
In fact, there are a number of behaviors that you can see in people who are struggling with metabolic health, such as:
- Living on caffeinated drinks
- Making regular trips to the shops or vending machines for snacks
- Coming into work tired each morning
- Being tired or unmotivated after lunch
Take a look around your office and there’s a good chance you will see them all. This alone should show you the poor workplace health of the modern world. It’s also where a metabolic health coach can prove vital to improving your workplace productivity.
How being metabolically healthy can boost the business
In most cases a metabolically healthy employee will be more energetic, happier and have greater mental clarity. All of this will improve not only their productivity in the workplace, but will also help them to feel better in all areas of their lives.
As noted at the start of this article, many companies offer healthier options in the office, such as:
- Healthier vending machine snacks
- Lunch time running clubs
- Free gym memberships
Whilst this is a good start, it only has an effect while they are at work. Perhaps when they go home they feel tired, so instead of cooking they order a takeout, or make unhealthy choices they mistakenly think are healthy.
The increase of remote working over the past two years has made this issue more prominent, with people spending less time in the office than before.
This is why heart health training in the workplace is so valuable. Rather than simply offering healthy choices for the office, a metabolic health coach can give your employees the information they need to make healthy choices all the time.
The results?
Happier staff.
Higher energy levels.
More productivity.
Positive benefits for the business as a whole.
To find out more about metabolic health coaching for the workplace and how it can benefit profitability, visit my business coaching page here.
If you’re looking to improve your workplace health, then take a look at my metabolic health coaching service.