In recent years, the concept of employee wellbeing has gained significant attention, and for good reason. A healthy and happy workforce is not only more productive but also contributes to the overall success and sustainability of a business. In fact, FTSE 100 companies that prioritise employee engagement and wellbeing, out-perform the rest of the FTSE 100 by an average of 10% (The Workforce View in Europe). However, with the increased focus on wellbeing, a new concern has emerged in the corporate world: ‘wellbeing washing.’

This article will explore what wellbeing washing is, why it’s a concern, and how small to medium-sized businesses can genuinely prioritise employee wellbeing.

The Gold Standard

I was spoiled with my first experience of wellbeing provision in the workplace. My wellbeing calling began at Hewlett Packard in Bristol 20 years ago. I remember being amazed at what they offered their staff on site, including me and one other as specified wellbeing consultants.

This wasn’t about just providing a gym, an exercise studio with a daily class timetable, squash courts, tennis courts and volleyball, it also included regular health and wellbeing assessments, massage, osteopathy, acupuncture, physiotherapy, occupational health nursing, alexander technique and chiropody. Also, lunchtime health and wellbeing checkups, workshops, stress management training, weight management courses, self-enquiry, smoking cessation, ergonomic assessments, flexible working hours, family fun days, away days, Friday reward and beer, big screen to watch world cups, subsidised restaurant….amazing right?

This is NOT wellbeing washing, this is an example of a really cool and comprehensive health and wellbeing programme in the workplace. This is a company that values their workforce and wants them to do their best work and be their best selves at work. It is a company that understands that a healthy and happy workforce creates a healthy and happy business, including productivity, creativity, focus, flow and yes, profits.

I know that there was a big workforce at that site 20 years ago and it doesn’t compare to a SMEs but still, the provision was high and if small to medium sized companies provided a fraction of this, what a difference it would make to the culture and happiness of the staff.

What actually is Wellbeing Washing?

Wellbeing washing refers to the superficial or insincere efforts made by businesses to appear as though they care about employee wellbeing without implementing meaningful changes. It’s akin to greenwashing in environmental contexts, where companies falsely claim to be environmentally friendly to improve their image. In the realm of wellbeing, this can manifest as empty gestures or token initiatives that don’t address the root causes of stress and dissatisfaction in the workplace.

For example, a weekly yoga class, it’s definitely nice to have but someone who is stacked up with work, who needs to get home to the kids and check in on an elderly parent, hasn’t got time to drop in to the yoga class after work. Don’t get me wrong here, I love yoga, I taught yoga for years and I still practice myself, however yoga and the like in the workplace, will often attract the people who already look after themselves and would probably go to an exercise class outside of work if it wasn’t provided there. A yoga or other exercise class would be great if it was part of a bigger programme of wellbeing provision.

Of course, any wellbeing provision has to fit the business environment and there needs to be cultural readiness and commitment. Wellbeing needs to be embedded into the culture and not seen as an add-on or something for the ‘worried well’, nor just a reactive service. You want your employees to thrive.

The Bottom Line

Research by Deloitte has shown that company-wide preventative activities which improve employee resilience can achieve a high ROI. As part of the activities, programmes that include stress management with tailored support have the biggest ROI at an average of £5 for every £1 invested, with the biggest ROI being 10:1. (Mental Health and Employers: Refreshing the case for investment, Deloitte 2020). ROI is the bottom line and a tangible way to measure how effective wellbeing programmes are. Also, a regular wellbeing check in with employees would be a priority to measure the effectiveness of any programme.

The Pitfalls of Wellbeing Washing

1. Eroding Trust: When employees perceive that their employer’s wellbeing initiatives are mere window dressing, trust and engagement suffer. Employees may become cynical, believing that their company is more interested in optics than in their actual wellbeing.

2. No Real Impact: Superficial wellbeing programs may not lead to the desired results. Employees might still struggle with stress, burnout, and low morale if the underlying issues in the workplace remain unaddressed and employees don’t get the support they need to enable them to build resilience and more easily manage their stress levels.

3. Wasted Resources: Businesses that engage in wellbeing washing may invest time and money into initiatives that do little to improve employee wellbeing, which is a wasted opportunity for both the employees and the organisation. Investing in long term wellbeing programmes that bolster employees stress management rather than sticking plaster services is key.

Moving Beyond Wellbeing Washing

Small to medium-sized businesses have the advantage of agility and the ability to make meaningful changes swiftly. Here are steps they can take to prioritise and enhance employee wellbeing genuinely:

1. Conduct Surveys and Feedback Sessions: Start by listening to your employees. Conduct anonymous surveys and hold regular feedback sessions to understand their concerns and needs. Use this data to inform your wellbeing strategy.

2. Tailor Wellbeing Initiatives: Develop initiatives that address specific challenges within your organisation. For example, if long working hours are a common concern, consider implementing flexible work arrangements or encouraging employees to take regular breaks. If stress-related problems are common, then taking a two pronged look at the underlying business causes of stress and how employees can manage their stress and build resilience, needs to be considered.

3. Promote Work-Life Balance: Encourage employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Set clear boundaries around working hours, don’t expect employees to be on call if that’s not part of their role and discourage excessive overtime. Also, don’t expect every employee to join in after work activities, sometimes getting home to their family is more important.

4. Mental Wellbeing Support: Partner with specific mental wellbeing services such as coaching and counselling. Promote a stigma-free environment and psychological safety, where employees feel comfortable seeking help when needed and they feel safe to be themselves in the workplace.

5. Leadership Training: Train managers and leaders to support their teams effectively. Strong leadership is crucial for fostering a positive workplace culture. Toxic positivity needs to be part of that training, some leaders expect their employees to be positive and ‘up’ all or most of the time. This is unhealthy and puts pressure on people to mask up which can lead to an unhappy, unproductive and stressed out workforce.

6. Transparency and Authenticity: Be transparent about your intentions and efforts to improve wellbeing. Authenticity is key to building trust with employees. If leaders are authentic and themselves, it gives employees permission to be their authentic selves too.

7. Measure Progress: Regularly assess the impact of your wellbeing initiatives. Use data to track improvements in employee satisfaction, productivity, and overall wellbeing. Repeat the anonymous surveys and have regular feedback sessions.

Conclusion

Wellbeing washing is a new concern in the business world, but small to medium-sized businesses have the opportunity to rise above this trend by genuinely prioritising employee wellbeing. Listening to employees and tailoring initiatives to meet their needs is a priority. Making a budget available and not being restricted by investing in the right services for the business is imperative. There is an opportunity here for these businesses to create a workplace where employee wellbeing is not just a slogan but a lived reality. Ultimately, a happier and healthier workforce benefits everyone involved, from employees to employers and beyond.

As part of one of my wider wellbeing programmes for SMEs, I offer a wellbeing check in audit for companies. This enables employees to give feedback on how they feel at work, how stress affects them at work and also gives them an opportunity to pinpoint factors that affect their mental wellbeing. The questionnaire follows a route of looking at the 6 pillars of happiness at work – Autonomy, Connection, Contribution, Fairness, Growth and Purpose. The audit comes with a caveat; Management teams in companies need to be in a place where they are willing to accept the honesty of their employees and embrace taking action to genuinely improve the wellbeing in the workplace.

If anything in this article has piqued your interest or if you’re curious about my wellbeing check in audit, please get in touch claire@theflocoach.com

8-Steps to Navigate the Crossroads of life

In the words of David Bowie (any excuse to quote him:)), ‘Where are we now’? For me, this triggers the next question, ‘Where do we want to go’? There have been countless times in my life when I’ve had to choose a road to travel on and I’m not just talking literally. Whether it has been spiritually, emotionally or in my work, there has been a lot of choosing going on at ‘the crossroads of life’.

Sometimes, at the time of choosing, I have been unsure whether or not I made the best decision in a given situation. The alternative though, of standing still or even worse, stagnating has not reaped any rewards for me. It has more likely been detrimental to my mental health. I’m very good at giving myself a hard time about dithering around at the beginning of a new road. I can often feel mentally paralysed in taking a decisive step in any direction; choose a path Claire, any path, just choose and start putting one foot in front of the other and take aligned action.

Next Best Steps

It can be difficult when you’re at a crossroad in life; to know what the next best step is or even more of a challenge, to realise a bigger picture about where you want to go. The choices of life can be overwhelming. The fear of making the wrong turn can be immense enough to stop you taking any steps or action in any direction.

We can get stuck in our head and forget to listen to our body when we think about where we want to go. Ruminating in our head gets us nowhere fast and can actually create a backward motion and more frustration.

What about if we took the control back from our minds firing in all directions and were able to focus simply on the way we want to head? Life would certainly feel more in sync and we would experience more flow in our lives.

Throughout my years of training and self-development, I’ve found some really useful ways to do this. I want to share some of those ways here (but also share about my in-person Crossroads Coaching Circle for up to 10 people at a time, you can find out more here.) For now though, read on for tips on how to manage your crossroad moments in life.

The Crossroads of Life

1. Figure out where you are now — ask yourself lots of questions, such as, what does a successful meaningful life mean to me? Do I believe that I deserve this life? When I think about my life/work/business and moving forward/changing direction, what blocks/sabotaging thoughts/challenges come up for me? What impact do they have.
2. Figure out your big WHY for a change in direction/a new path/new decisions, what is driving this? If you don’t know why you want to go in a particular direction, what is the point of going there?
3. Look at your strengths, are you using them in your life/work. Do your strengths also become your weaknesses if over used? Happiness research says that you’ll be happier if you have opportunities to use your strengths.
4. With regards to work, are your pillars of happiness fulfilled? The Flo Coach 6 Pillars of Happiness include Autonomy, Connection, Contribution, Fairness, Growth and Purpose. Will the next road create more balance in these 6 areas?
5. Do you know your stress triggers? Have you got a tool-bag of techniques to help you self-regulate while you navigate decisions and action-taking in your new direction.
6. Become more aware of your mind saboteurs and subconscious programming that can stop you in your tracks. Recognising these tricksters and remaining in your conscious brain, rather than letting them take over, will help to keep you on the road and focusing on your goals.
7. Learn to get yourself into flow more often. Set up a flow routine and recognise what activities enable you to reach the flow state. It’s lovely spending time there. This is where your sabotaging mind can’t go and it’s so nice to have that break.
8. And finally, make realistic goals that you actually want to achieve, not just anything plucked out of the sky. Once you know your wishes/wants/desires, then make sure you add an ‘if-then’ plan, to help counteract those pesky saboteurs again. If ….. happens (to scuffer your goal), then I will do ….. Having an if-then plan is the missing key to making powerful goals.

Helpful?

I hope this is a helpful list. This is how I work with my clients to support them in making decisions about their future and the direction they want to go in. Plus, I use practical techniques to help them emotionally regulate. These include, deep conscious breathwork, relaxation techniques and vagus nerve and brain exercises to help balance the nervous system.

Please get in touch if you would like to chat about anything mentioned here. If you’re local to Brighton and Hove and are interested in joining my Crossroad Coaching Circle, you can email me claire@theflocoach.com

The habits that are part of our every day life, like cleaning our teeth, driving, making a cup of tea etc. are well trodden pathways in our brain that have become automatic. This enables us to do essential tasks through our day without thinking about it. These unconscious habits free up resources for our brains to carry out other more complex tasks, like solving problems and making decisions. What about forming new habits though? How do we ensure successful new automatic brain pathways?

We all have habits that we can do without, ahem, you know the ones I’m on about! Or maybe you want to adopt new healthier habits. Either way, there needs to be a change at the brain level, to make new pathways for forming new habits or make redundant unwanted habit pathways. Research has shown that 40% of what we do is determined by habits, not conscious decisions. So how do we overcome habits we don’t desire and build new ones that we do?

Just as a habit is formed from repeated actions or behaviours over time, so to a new habit can be formed with a repeated decision over time.

Let’s break that down:

• A habit is a decision repeated over time.
• Forming a new habit starts with a thought, then the emotion intensifies that thought, that informs action and finally belief.

Generally, people say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. This is sort of true. At 21 days an old habit you’re not wanting and a new habit you desire, (if you’re practicing the new habit daily) the two brain pathways are about the same. So you can still choose either path, you can go either way and this is when it can feel really hard to keep going with the new habit.

Neuroscience

Neuroscience has found that it takes around 60 days when an old habit is shut down and a new habit becomes automatic; you get to that autopilot stage in your brain.

I know, it’s a long time and can feel overwhelming but here are some tips to success.

• The key is to decide every single day to do the new habit, narrow your focus one day at a time.
• Schedule the new habit into your daily diary, wake up every day and be the creator of your thoughts.
• Ask yourself ‘can I do this (new habit) TODAY?’ and don’t worry about tomorrow.
• You can choose whether it’s ‘hard’ or ‘easy’, you have the choice how to feel.
• Mark xxxxxx off on a calendar if it helps.
• Set your intentions for your day.
• Don’t think ‘I have to do this forever’ just think ‘I’m going to do this today’. One day at a time.
• And remember, your brain wants to do its best for you, it’s not against you.

WOOP Goals

Using the WOOP goals strategy, can also help you to overcome mind saboteurs and obstacles that can trip you up along the way. WOOP stands for wish, outcome, obstacle, plan. The premise is, once you’ve made goal and you’ve thought about the outcome, then you put in an ‘if-then’ plan for when obstacles come your way.

For example:

Wish

If a new habit you want to form is meditating every day for 10 minutes. This is the wish.

Outcome

You think how this will enrich your life. How amazing you will feel, how accumulatively you will feel calmer and less reactionary. You’re feel more centred and in touch with you inner world. You’ll be making decisions based on an inner knowing rather than simply guessing. This is the outcome picture.

Obstacles

Then think about what might get in the way on a daily basis to stop you meditating; perceived time pressures, family demands, not feeling like it. These are the obstacles.

If-Then Plan

The if-then plan could be, if I feel like I haven’t got the time, then I will turn my phone on silent and that will trigger me to sit down for 10 minutes to meditate. If my family are being demanding, then I will calmly tell them I’m taking a 10 minute time out. If I don’t feel like meditating, then I will put on a favourite song and dance to it and then I will sit and meditate afterwards.

The if-then plan tricks your brain by triggering doing the habit that you want to form. 60 days of doing this and your new habit will be carved into your brain and feel much more automatic.

If you would like to chat through WOOP goal setting or need help in forming habits in your life, then please get in touch. Email me at claire@theflocoach.com. You can also trial The Flo Club to help support you on your wellbeing journey The Flo Club

How to Regulate your Nervous System in the middle of being triggered

1. Shake

For at least 30 seconds, shake your body quickly, like a shudder down your spine and tremor around your body. This is a quick and easy decompression technique that can help to regulate your nervous system.

Why it works

When an animal is scared or after it’s been chased (and survived) it needs to discharge the response in the nervous system, so it tremors. As human mammals, we can do the same. When our stress response is triggered, shaking can help us to discharge and bring the nervous system back towards homeostasis.

2. Hum

Breathe in deeply and as you exhale, hum your breath out.

Why it works

Humming can tone your Vagus nerve which runs through your brain stem at the back of your neck. The Vagus nerve rules your parasympathetic nervous system which controls your relaxation, rest and digest response. Toning this nerve can increase resilience to stress and soothe the stress response through the breath and the vibration and sound of humming.

3. Cold Water

Splash your face with very cold water a few times.

Why it works

Cold water immersion or splashing gives your nervous system a little shock which can bring you out of your mid brain where the stress response is, back to the front brain where you are more conscious and where all your best self hangs out. Regular cold water immersion can also increase the bandwidth of your reaction to stress, building resilience. For more info, check out https://www.wimhofmethod.com/blog/cold-showers-for-anxiety-relief

4. Breathe

There are many breath techniques (for access to some, join The Flo Club for a free month to check them out — info below). I like to use an activating 10–20–30 technique when I feel dysregulated. Breathe in through the mouth into the upper chest quite fast and blow it out through the mouth (like a panting dog). Do this 10 times, on the 10th exhale, hold the breath out for 10 seconds. Repeat for 20 breaths and 20 second hold out and 30 breaths and 30 second hold out.

Why it works

Interrupting the natural breath stimulates/shocks the sympathetic nervous system and can bring it back into balance, reducing the feeling of stress and overwhelm.

5. Think

Think of something novel or weird, something that will make you curious or laugh, use your wild imagination. If you find this difficult right in the middle of a stress response, watch a funny video or cute animal photos or anything that will stimulate your front brain instead.

Why it works

Your brain only has a certain amount of nutrients available to it, those nutrients, i.e. blood, glucose and oxygen are shared by the whole brain. When the mid brain/stress response is triggered, the nutrients go to that part and the front brain goes quiet. We want to get back into our front brain, that’s where all the best stuff is, so stimulating your curiosity which is part of your front brain activity, will help to get your brain back to homeostasis.

These are my top tips for managing nervous system dysregulation but there are many more techniques and tools. You can check out more at https://www.theflocoach.com/the-flo-club/ (join for free, to try it out) or email me claire@theflocoach.com to find out how I can help you manage your stress and overwhelm.