When the body is stressed
it must work harder than usual in order to remain healthy. It is easy to forget what deep relaxation feels
like at this time. By offering time and/or flexible
on-site access to short, time sensitive, stress treatment sessions, companies can gain great benefits in terms of occupational
health and stress management.
These include:
· Better employee work performance with less effort and
improved results
· More motivated, focussed employees
·
Lower
staff attrition, reduced recruitment and retraining costs
· Compliance with HSE stress management & employee
risk reduction recommendations
By rewarding success and loyalty of employees after particularly stressful business
operations, such as sales drives, new computer systems implementations, change projects, re-organisations, redundancy programmes
and such, companies can achieve personnel retention and productivity levels unheard at other times.
IN-WORK,
ON-SITE STAFF REWARDS
The ability to work with pressure rather than against it defines whether one learns to use stress or let
it use you.
According to the Health and Safety Executive
‘a closely focused stress
management programme, addressing stress-related problems, provides front line prevention as opposed to third party cure, ensuring
maximum benefit and excellent results'. (Nov 2000)
Many companies have implemented use of a variety of
on-site wellbeing techniques to complement the organisation's occupational health and stress management programmes.
ANTI-STRESS TREATMENTS
Some stress is a necessary part of life and can function
as a stimulus to achieve our goals. Availability of a range of stress
relieving treatments in the work place enables staff to deal with work and home pressures and positively combat negative stress. These are often given as part of a Staff Rewards Scheme and have the added benefit to the company
of showing it takes stress management in the workplace as a serious matter.
Treatments
may be selected from:
·
Shoulder
and arm massage
· Indian Head and cranial massage
·
On-site
back massage
· Seated acupressure
·
Hand
and Foot Massage
· Hand and Foot Reflexology
·
Facial
acupressure
· Lifestyle counselling and nutritional advice
There are no other clubs of on-site massage practitioners offering such a varied programme
deliverable:
·
on-site,
at the work place
· fully clothed
·
using
minimal space
· in sessions as short as 15 minutes
·
accessible
flexibly
The H Club treatment routines are devised specifically
and are tailored to suit an on-site, in-work delivery.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
‘6.5 million working days are lost each year due
to work-related stress. It is the biggest single cause of occupational ill-health among non-manual workers and affects
about 500,000 workers in the UK'. Health and Safety Executive (May 2002)
Careing employers have taken note of this and employ complementary
therapists, stress management workshops, lifestyle coaches to help their personnel with issues relating to aiding
·
Clearer
thinking of decision-makers
· Improved time management of employees
FLEXIBLE ACCESS
Many organisations are now adopting provision and flexible
access to on-site stress management treatments & health & wellbeing workshops for their staff. Such organisations may already have centralised occupational health departments to deal with
specific incidents, health counselling and health and safety issues.
To complement
the skills of their Occupational Health and Health and Safety personnel, these organisations are increasingly welcoming outside
complementary therapies and stress management therapy specialists to work, periodically on-site.
The method of access varies from organisation to organisation. Some give
time off, some offer flexible working or staggered lunch breaks.
Many
organisations have found that the savings in terms of the lost productivity re-gained and in reduced attrition, recruitment
and re-training costs can be used to fund subsidies to employees for such treatments. Others have found that once introduced,
employees will fund treatment sessions themselves.
Whichever, The H Club offers a cost effective
way not only to trial such an approach but also to continue it thereafter.
CORPORATE BOOKINGS
Most organisations facilitate the
session booking process themselves by allowing staff to sign up for slots which are available on a set date each month. The H Club wellbeing practitioners are booked
for a minimum of half a day at any one organisation's premises. Strict adherence to session times
must be maintained.
