The heart and soul of any business are the people behind the scenes (or even out in the limelight) that make things happen. Without these people working to the best of their potential, business will be affected.
Although the health of staff is a huge priority for any business, unfortunately within the UK staff sickness is a big problem:
- 30.4 working days a year are lost due to sickness or illness-related underperformance (1)
- Sickness costs around £554 per employee annually (2)
- 54% of sickness is due to work- related stress, anxiety or depression (3)
Why use nutrition as a focus for staff wellness?
Gut health directly impacts mental health which is currently the leading cause for staff sickness. Although food can have such an impact on your mood, there is currently a ‘Nutrition Gap’ affecting workplaces across the UK
- 75% of adults are not achieving their ‘Five a Day’(1)
- Around 60% of daily food intake happens at work yet very little support is given within the corporate setting
- Corporate nutrition interventions often focus on weight loss rather than mental wellbeing. Weight loss interventions are often ineffective at long term behaviour change and can cause shame, disappointment and unhealthy eating behaviours
Mind Nourishing’s corporate wellness programme
Corporate results to date:
- Specialising in supporting Housing Associations (but will consider other forward thinking business partners)
- Using evidence based research to improve mental wellbeing
- Personalised programmes to meet your business needs
- Offering a range of delivery methods to suit your staff. Examples include:
- Webinars on topics like ‘how food effects your mood’ and ‘eating for energy’ so that employees are educated on how to fuel themselves properly and mental health related staff sickness is reduced
- Group nutrition and mindset coaching within teams so that colleagues can reflect on their working habits and create action plans together to reduce the prevalence of stress and burnout
- Practical resources like recipes and workbooks that can be stored internally so that staff feel more supported by the organisation when they need additional support to improve their wellbeing
- Senior management training so that the culture of wellbeing becomes a key priority within the organisation
Previously worked with:
“Mind Nourishing delivered a session as part of our wellbeing week. It was a really different kind of session for Taff which got colleagues thinking about the links between their food/hydration/sleep and wellbeing both in and outside of work. The session was optional for our colleagues and really well attended, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive because of the interactivity and upbeat presentation by Laura. Who knew hummus could create so much conversation amongst team members?”- Taff Housing- Cardiff
“We engaged with Laura as we wanted to help to provide some education around food and how it links to mood and the impact it can have on your day. Equally with the increase in cost of living, it’s easy to get drawn away from some of the healthier food options, so helping to provide useful hints, tips and information on how to stay on track, even on a budget has been invaluable.
The feedback we’ve had from the team has been invaluable and whilst it’s been impossible to measure the isolated impact, we’re noticing people engaging in healthy conversations around food along with our measurements around ‘mood’ being broadly positive.
The take-aways, workbooks and checking back in all left a sense of value for everyone and our team certainly got a great deal from it.” Amber Energy
“We have been working with Laura over the last 12 months, as part of our wellbeing plan. It started with her getting to know us and the different teams that make up our organisation, followed by a series of practical and inspiring ‘learn over lunch’ sessions, designed to help our colleagues change their eating habits and understand the link between our food intake and our mental health. She delivered these with considerable knowledge, a dose of science, lots of ideas and her own sense of fun.
She also showed great care and respect for the different needs and interests of colleagues, so that everyone felt comfortable and engaged, resulting in many booking on to further sessions and contacting Laura directly for additional support and advice.
The sessions and the blogs and recipes that accompanied these have attracted the interest of colleagues across the organisation, with her session on ‘Happy Hormones – a Menopause Special’ being a particular winner.
In these uncertain times these nutrition workshops have shown us that there are lots of things we can do to help ourselves, given us lots of tips, demonstrated that there is a clear and scientific link between our food intake and our mental wellbeing and that nutritional interventions should be a key part of any organisation’s wellbeing plan.
We are looking forward to working with Laura again in the future and tackling together some of the problems and issues that modern life throws at us.” Claire Turner- Curo Housing
“Laura’s knowledge and experience go hand in hand with her passion for food and healthier choices! We worked with Laura as a team and not only benefited from understanding more about how what we eat can affect our gut bacteria and ultimately our brain, but also it lead to a great exercise in team building as we shared thoughts and ideas on what to eat and cook! What we eat affects every aspect of our lives and when we want to perform we need to be sure we have the right fuel to do it! Laura is inspirational and mind nourishing should be a way of life ’- Jessica Antly- Worcestershire County Council
