Wellbeing Week
In support of World Wellbeing Week 2019, we’re delighted to chat to Ruth Tongue, MSc, BSc, Director and Co-founder of Elevate.
What is Elevate?
At Elevate we provide solutions to make your employees happier, healthier and more productive. We address all areas of health, including; physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We work with companies to provide tailored programmes, consultancy and ongoing support to assist with creating a comprehensive wellbeing offering.
What is wellbeing?
To me, wellbeing is about finding your place where you can truly thrive. However, this is different for everyone, hence why there’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to health and wellbeing. We do know that there are physical, mental and emotional aspects of wellbeing, all of which are equally as important and you can’t neglect one aspect and expect to thrive in every area of your life. Our three pillars; move, nourish and thrive cover all of these areas and we’ve recently added financial wellbeing to our offerings as we believe that in this unstable political and economic environment, people are feeling the effects of financial ill health in many areas of their lives.
What is employee wellbeing?
Employee wellbeing used to be seen as simply providing a fruit bowl and perhaps a discounted gym membership. We know that it needs to be much more than this. Not only should a wellbeing programme encompass all aspects of wellbeing (physical, mental, emotional and financial), but it also needs to have a strategy, with effective data capture to measure engagement, progress and success.
Why is it important for employers to spend time and money on the health of their employees?
We know that healthy employees equal productive, motivated, happier employees resulting in less sickness absence, reduced staff turnover and a better bottom line. People are also looking for more than a good salary when job-hunting these days – they want to know that the company they are joining has a healthy staff culture, flexibility in working practices and will value them as individuals.
How can everyone improve their wellbeing?
Firstly, by recognising all of the aspects that make up wellbeing – it’s not just nutrition and stress management. It is also the amount of time you spend in leisure activities, the social support and networks you have, your sleep quality, your sense of purpose, and the alignment of your personal values to your current life habits. Once you can determine which of these areas might need a little help, you can start to set some achievable goals. As a company, Elevate can help you to spot the areas that your employees may need a little more focus and support with.
How can I improve my mental wellbeing at work?
Setting and knowing your own boundaries is really important. Ask yourself ‘what are my core values and am I living by these in my working life?’ For example, if family and friends are really important for your happiness, are you honouring this value with your working hours? If honesty and integrity is a core value of yours, how does your work life reflect this? At Elevate we run a number of programmes designed to support the mental health of your employees including sessions on mental health signposting, resilience and stress management, mindfulness and looking at lifestyle factors affecting your mental health.
Is wellbeing just a mental state?
No definitely not. Wellbeing encompasses physical and mental health. Positivity and optimism can of course have a huge effect on our health (in fact optimists have been shown to live substantially longer than pessimists) but to say that health is all in the mind is far too simplistic.
You can find out more about Ruth here;
Website: www.elevateyourhealth.co.uk
Instagram: @Move_Nourish_Thrive
Twitter: @ElevateLondon
Facebook: Elevatemywellbeing