As a small business owner myself, I meet a lot of other small business owners and it seems to me that business gets a whole lot more complicated as soon as staff enter the picture. You want to be able to provide a safe and positive environment for them, you want to spend as little money as possible, you want to attract excellent staff who value your vision and are proud to work for you and once you’ve got them, you want to be able to hold on to them. Of course, you want to do ALL this while protecting and growing your bottom line.

We know that absenteeism, people taking a lot of sick days, stress leave and frequent cigarette breaks are bad for business but what about the more subtle things that impact the quality of their work for you? Here, I’m talking about chronic physical pain, the family or relationship issues staff may have, stress, anxiety and depression. They may be having trouble sleeping, be drinking too much, be dealing with the side effects of medication they’re taking, have digestive complaints, be experiencing hormonal ups and downs or have just been diagnosed with some auto immune condition or other disease that you know nothing about.

The question is, is every member of your team getting the help they need when they need it? Do they know what’s available in their community to help them? Do they know where to begin?

Chances are, one or more of the issues above are affecting at least one of the people who work for you right now. You may even know who. Personal and health issues negatively impact not only the quality of each staff member’s life outside of work but their ability to think clearly and focus on the task at hand, to feel good about their job, to put a smile on their face when dealing with customers and to be effective and work their best for you.

At the end of the day, you can’t force people to get help, you can’t make them want to change but you can remove the barriers in their way and you can support them practically in achieving better health and happiness. The culture of your workplace, the wellbeing of your staff and the health of your business will benefit enormously when you do.

We work with small to medium business in Brisbane and the Gold Coast to help them promote the health and wellbeing of their staff at work with inspirational education, health events, workshops, personal consultations and more. Healthy people = happy business and we understand the importance of keeping expenses down so we provide low-cost corporate health and wellness strategies for your people in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.