T hree steps to improve your company’ s competitive advantage

Martin Crisp

Fit for Business

Fit for Business

T hree steps to improve your company’s competitive advantage

E dited version

Martin Crisp

© 2011 Martin Crisp

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Contents

Introduction 5

Are your premises lowering your employees’ resilience? 7

Step No.1: Gaining full buy-in from the senior 9 management team

Step No. 2: Initiate and then continuously reinforce the 12 value of individual health and well-being to everyone within the organisation

Step No. 3: Nurture a healthy eating culture 15

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Introduction

With all companies constantly competing to gain market share and position, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to provide a product or service that is genuinely unique. When unique products do arrive to market they are quickly copied or improved by your competition. In such a market, one of the most effective ways to establish your competitive advantage is by out-behaving the competition. Out-behaving leads to out-performing; however, delivering this level of competitive edge can be highly stressful for your senior management and their teams.

Such is the rate of change that day to day demands will, if left unchecked, impact on an individual’s resilience and personal effectiveness, which in turn undermines your competitive advantage.

Absenteeism as a result of long-term health issues (such as stress, cancers and chronic diseases) is on the increase. The CBI reports that absence through sickness costs the economy £13.4 billion per annum. Companies now have to consider the many senior managers who face the prospect of having to work additional years before they consider retirement. Losing this resource for even a relatively short period of time leaves employers potentially depleted of both experience and wisdom.

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Worse still, it is likely that ‘presenteeism’ (attending work but underperforming due to illness, stress or depression) is going to become an increasing problem as colleagues struggle to keep pace with the demands of the workplace.

There are other health concerns too. The rise of obesity within the UK is alarming with one in six people over the age of 40 developing diabetes. The average man now weighs a stone more than in the mid-1980s. Economists are truly concerned about how the UK will afford to support and treat the predicted levels of obesity and associated conditions. The Government is beginning to form policies to try and reverse this trend and will be looking to legislate to ensure employers adopt a level of corporate responsibility to support their employees improve their health and well-being.

In fact, the Government’s recent public health white paper, ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People’ talks of “working with employers to unleash their potential as champions of public health” whilst suggesting that employers “should look to support the health and well-being of their staff”.

This booklet is aimed at providing you with cost-effective, easy ways to ensure your work environment is not only supportive but also boosts your people’s physical and mental well-being which is essential when building a resilient workforce.

Martin CrispExecutive Coachwww.martincrisp.com

Martin Crisp

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Are your premises

lowering your employees’ resilience?

How many times have you entered an organisation and felt there was something lacking? Did the environment

affect your behaviour? This effect, termed the ‘Power of Context’, helps explain why we whisper in hospitals, feel anxious in police stations and sad in cemeteries. Physically, many workplace environments are drab and uninspiring and they can dampen the enthusiasm and energy of those working within them, which results in bland thinking.

Working environments are often not conducive to improving the resilience of people who work within them. This is especially important when you consider how many workers are office-based and how much time they spend sitting in front of computer monitors. One of the biggest challenges faced by senior managers today is the need to keep abreast of new ways of working and technological developments. This fast pace can bring additional challenges and place more pressure on employees. This can have a negative impact on employees – whereas they might once have felt exhilarated by their work, they begin to feel stressed.

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Research suggests that companies engaging in programmes that improve workforce resilience achieve better results through improved productivity, better employee engagement and lower absenteeism. It should come as no surprise therefore that many of the ‘Times Top 100 Companies to work for’ have invested in this area.

Initiating a focus to improve workforce resilience needn’t involve a massive investment as the key is often one of raising awareness, effectively signposting services locally and supporting colleagues to consider the benefits of making some small yet fundamental changes to their everyday routines that together produce considerable benefits.

The ideas aren’t complex but like anything, they only work when they’re actually used regularly… creating a culture that makes them stick is what makes the difference. How many programmes and courses have you been on where you’ve left feeling highly motivated with a hastily written action plan that promises to change the world only to find it three months later stuffed into the bottom of your briefcase?

People take action and remain motivated when they see improvements and to do this, some clear measureable targets need to be firstly set and then regularly reviewed.

With that in mind, I’ve chosen seven steps that are easy to implement with over 40 actions for you to consider which will help you to dramatically improve your company’s productivity, talent retention and employee engagement.

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Step No.1: Gaining full buy-in from the senior management teamIt’s not always easy for senior managers to fully appreciate the return they will receive from a programme to improve workforce resilience. In 2008, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke were commissioned by the Department for Business (BIS) to take an in-depth look at employee engagement and to report on its potential benefits for organisations and employees. In their report, ‘Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement’, they demonstrated a clear link between improving employee engagement and productivity.

So what benefits can a health and well being initiative to improve resilience provide employers with? Well, those who have invested report the following effects on their workforce:

• increased productivity

• reduced stress and anxiety

• lower rates of absenteeism and quicker return to work after illness

• fewer injuries in the workplace

• improvement in communications, morale and working atmosphere

• a positive corporate image which attracts higher calibre employees.

Here are some actions to consider when building a business case for a well-being initiative:

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Action 1. Calculate how much absence is costing your business.

No. of employees x average days absence/employee per annum = Total days absence

Your company’s average daily salary rate x total days absence = Cost of absence

Actual cost of absence = Cost of absence x 3*

MacLeod confirmed that engaged employees took an average of 2.69 days of absence per year compared with 6.19 days per year for those who felt disengaged.

*average contribution to the business lost from each employee absence day

Action 2. Consider staff turnover by determining the number of employees who have left the company in the past year and multiply by £7,500 (which is the average cost to replace an employee based upon a CIPD study). Remember, this doesn’t take into account the potential time it takes to bring that person up to a similar level as the previous jobholder. It is also worth considering the likely risk of members of the senior management team being absent from the business either from ill-health or because they have moved to pastures new. MacLeod established that engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the company when compared with those who felt disengaged.

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Action 3. Another area to consider depending on your business is the impact a healthier, more resilient senior management team could have on your sales line.

It has been proven that there is a clear link between leadership and motivation of colleagues. John Adair, one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership and leadership development, suggests that 50% of motivation comes from an individual’s environment, especially from the leadership encountered there. Harvard Business School in turn identified a clear link between motivation and engagement whilst MacLeod linked improved engagement to improved productivity and measurable output.

How many additional sales and customers are being lost through ‘presenteeism’ in your business?

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Step No. 2: Initiate and then continuously reinforce the value of individual health and well-being to everyone within the organisationMany companies have a clear purpose, vision and mission with a set of company values to help guide them towards success and prosperity. There is often considerable investment to help employees appreciate and understand these business goals; however they are often lost as short-term priorities take over.

All of us have our own set of personal values and beliefs, although we often don’t bring them to the surface. It is well known that frustration and discontentment can often arise when individuals feel their values are being compromised by the company they work for. When completing a ‘values exercise’ with many professionals, I’ve found that ‘health’ is often identified as one of their core values. More often than not, this value doesn’t emerge until very close to the end of the discussion. Furthermore, when asked to prioritise their core values, ‘health’ usually comes in the top three. This is borne out by a study done by the Really Rich Project where over 1000 people were asked to value the things that were important to them and ‘Having good health’ came out on top being valued at over £180,000.

You may be thinking, ‘So what?’

Well I believe that generally people don’t really value their health until something goes wrong. They wait until a ‘significant emotional event’ happens. It’s a bit like not

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getting your car serviced and wondering why it decides to breakdown on a frosty December morning. So the second step is all about how helping your employees truly value their health will inspire them to take action before a significant emotional event occurs.

Here are some practical actions for you to consider:

Action 4. Review awareness of the company purpose, vision, mission and values, considering whether there is an opportunity to re-communicate or re-invigorate them. If you don’t have these, engage your employees to help identify and appreciate what your company stands for.

Action 5. Help colleagues to consider their own personal goals and core values and what’s truly important to them. Even though ‘health’ might not come up specifically I would be very surprised if it didn’t underpin at least some of the personal goals identified. It could be a simple as ‘wanting to kick a football around the park with my future grandson’.

Action 6. Consider carrying out an audit of the offices, workstations, facilities, rest areas, bulletin boards, food facilities and overall ambience to understand the simple steps that could be taken to create a more energising working environment. From the findings, create a clear action plan with measurable goals and review dates.

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Action 7. Build on the understanding that health and well-being helps people to take a more holistic approach to their lives, whether at work or at home. Working on the different elements that contribute to better health actually compounds the benefits. This can be demonstrated simply using a model such as the Health Millionaire framework. An initial ‘health awareness day’ offering to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI), and assess physical activity levels and current eating habits is a great starting point.

Action 8. Lead by example. Global professional services company Towers Watson found that only 29% of UK employees felt that senior management were seriously interested in their employees’ wellbeing. It may seem like a cliché but when members of the senior management team are seen to place a high value on their own health and well-being it inspires other to follow their example. A Harvard study identified that great leadership from a motivated senior management also improves employee engagement and has a positive impact on the P & L. Consider therefore the potential benefits of investing in a coach who could align the resilience initiative with the delivery of company KPI’s.

Action 9. Identify ‘health champions’ within your company who have a particular passion for supporting others to improve health. They can lead initiatives such as an on-site weight management programme or a walking group.

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Step No. 3: Nurture a healthy eating cultureThe modern day workplace is a very different environment to the one our parents worked in. One element however has remained completely unchanged. … the inner workings of the human body. In fact, not a lot has changed in the human body since prehistoric times. This can help us understand why today’s lifestyle can be so damaging to our general health and well-being.

Rewind to our cavemen ancestors and their bodies, in a fight or flight response to perceived danger from ferocious predators, released adrenaline. We release adrenaline when we deal with the ferocious pace of corporate life. The stress can lead to potential burnout. Cavemen had to hunt for food. When they ate their body released insulin to control their sugar levels and store any excess as fat because their bodies didn’t know when the next meal would come. Fast forward to our modern day diet and our bodies are bombarded by refined sugars that send blood sugars soaring. Our bodies literally have to defend themselves by releasing large amounts of insulin to ‘mop up’ the sugars which then get converted into fat. If this process continues it results in undesirable weight gain. More concerning, our bodies effectively give up trying to defend themselves against the onslaught of sugary snacks and insulin-resistance develops which can then lead to diabetes.

So what actions are required to encourage employees to eat a healthy balanced diet?

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Action 10. Break down the myths of dieting. Let people know that healthy eating is a habit that needs to be maintained for a lifetime, not a sacrificial discipline to achieve short-term weight loss. It’s also important for people to understand that their body shapes differ depending upon their inherited genes. There are three basic body types (ectomorphs, endomorphs and mesomorphs) and these should be considered when setting weight loss goals and deciding on appropriate activity for exercising. For example, Muhammad Ali would probably not have excelled in the 60 metres hurdles.

Typical traits of an endomorph:• Soft and round body • Gains muscle and fat very easily • Is generally short and stocky • Round physique • Finds it hard to lose fat • Slow metabolism.

Typical traits of a mesomorph:• Athletic • Hard body with well-defined muscles • Rectangular-shaped body • Strong • Gains muscle easily • Gains fat more easily than ectomorphs.

Typical traits of an ectomorph:• Small delicate frame and bone structure • Lean muscle mass • Finds it hard to gain weight • Fast metabolism.

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Action 11. Help everyone appreciate the potential hazard of eating a diet full of refined sugars and carbohydrates (for example, fizzy soft drinks, muffins, white bread, etc.). Raise their awareness of foods with a low ‘Glycaemic Load’ which contain slower releasing carbohydrates and how these can help stabilise blood sugar levels.

Action 12. Good eating habits develop when an individual becomes more appreciative of the food they eat and how full it makes them feel. A poster of a ‘hunger scale’ in the canteen area can help employees to eat only when they need to. (A ‘hunger scale’ encourages people to identify how hungry they really are on a scale from one to 10 with one being ‘feeling faint with hunger’ and 10 being ‘not hungry at all’.)

Action 13. Champion breakfast. Everyone seems to buy in to the notion that having breakfast is a good idea but very few seem to find the time for it. How can your company support your people start their working day on the right foot? One way would be to provide a microwave so employees can make porridge if they wish when they arrive in the morning.

Action 14. Encourage people to bring in mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. Review how easy it is for employees to access snack foods containing a healthy balance of slow releasing carbohydrates, protein and healthier fats. Such a snack might be a small piece of fruit and a handful of almonds and pumpkin seeds. Not all fruit is the same in terms of controlling blood sugars - bananas and grapes are the worst culprits; berries however contain the slower releasing xylose sugar which has a far lower glycaemic load value.

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Action 15. Most people appreciate the need to drink plenty of water at regular intervals throughout the day but very few actually do. Sometimes the feeling of hunger can be simply due to lack of regular fluids. This can be very common in long meetings where an opportunity for a break usually sees people drinking cups of tea or coffee rather than the water their bodies crave. Lack of water in the body can often be misinterpreted as hunger so encourage colleagues to drink a glass of water, wait seven minutes and then review how hungry they really feel.

Action 16. Why is it that the snack options for energy maintenance at meetings take the form of Haribos, milk chocolate snacks or muffins? There are plenty of healthier alternatives that can provide a longer, more sustained source of energy without sending blood sugars through the roof. Why not start regular ‘Fruity Fridays’ and encourage people to consider healthier snack alternatives?

Action 17. Public displays of an individual’s weight can put people off from participating in a programme so consider an alternative measure such as a ‘total circumference measurements’ figure. This is simply determined by adding the measurements of the waist, hip, thigh and upper arm circumferences together.

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Get the Full version

So there you have it. Three steps to consider that I believe will make a real difference to any business.

I hope you have found the steps and actions useful and feel inspired to share them with your colleagues.

You can download the full version of this booklet which containsfour more steps..just go to www.martincrisp.com/freebook/ for details.

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About the author

Martin Crisp, director of London-based Fit4Life Coaching Ltd, qualified as a pharmacist in 1987.

He worked steadily through the corporate ranks at two leading health and beauty organisations to become Head of Pharmacy responsible for over 200 practices.

Along the way, he acquired a wealth of experience and knowledge in health matters, leadership, speaking and personal development. As a fully qualified ILM Level 7 accredited Executive coach, he offers a unique blend of skills and experience to support companies to become truly fit for business.

Testimonials

“Martin helped me take control of my life at work and hence reduce my stress levels considerably. I would recommend him to anyone trying to balance work and family life and feel that they are ‘sinking’ or at best ‘floating’, when they should in fact be ‘swimming’.”

Caroline Hargrove Programme Director at McLaren Applied

Technologies

“Martin really makes you stop and think. His style is both challenging and supportive which generates both clear objectives and the inspiration to take action.”

Sean Watret Regional General Manager at Superdrug

Seven steps to dramatically improve your company’s competitive advantage

Fit for Business complete

With all companies constantly competing to gain market share and position, building workforce resilience is key to improving your company’s competitive advantage.You might think that such a programme is a luxury that only the largest companies can afford to run. But in this booklet, Executive Business Coach Martin Crisp explains how such a programme can be introduced at a low cost. The returns, as he explains, are well worth the small investment.

He provides seven steps that will considerably impact your company’s bottom line. They are: Step No.1: Gaining full buy-in from the senior management teamStep No.2: Initiate and then continuously reinforce the value of individual health and well-being to everyone within the organisationStep No.3: Nurture a healthy eating cultureStep No.4: Encourage activeness Step No.5: Help your people focus and they will deliverStep No.6: Have fun giving something backStep No.7: Signpost local services and create opportunities to bring health and well-being into the workplaceBy the time you’ve finished reading this booklet, you’ll know how to start your own cost-effective programme to build a resilient workforce truly fit for business.

“Martin really makes you stop and think. His style is both challenging and supportive which generates both clear objectives and the inspiration to take action.” Sean Watret - Regional General Manager at Superdrug

www.martincrisp.com