Rachel Grunwell: Workplace wellness starts with one person

Are you in a workplace that has an ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff-style wellbeing strategy? You know, an organisation that only has counsellors at hand to deal with the most catastrophic events when things are already a mess.

Or does your workplace care about trying to uplift your wellbeing so you are more balanced and resilient if your stress-levels tip over the edge?

If you work for a smart company, they'll understand workplace wellbeing strategies are smart. If employees are healthy and happy, then this can increase productivity, more engagement, result in fewer sick days and help staff retention rates. So, a good organisation that treats people well has a better chance of holding onto good employees for longer.

These are just some of the many benefits of caring about staff. There are so many cool strategies too on how to help staff to uplift their wellbeing.

Since the launch of my book Balance: Food, Health + Happiness, I've been doing lots of speaking events in front of corporates. I share science-backed wellness ideas and strategies from the 30 diverse global experts from my book — as well as advice I use when coaching clients.

Last week I spoke in front of workers at the Trustpower building in Tauranga doing just that. This week I was in front of hundreds of staff at a bank.

Workplace wellness speaking has fast become one of my favourite things I do through my wellness work framework.

The mission of my business InspiredHealth is to inspire Kiwis to live healthier and happier through science-backed strategies. This is the same mission for my book also.

So, talking in a workplace means I can potentially help to propel a whole organisation forwards and working "smarter". Even if only one person in the room is inspired to make healthier changes ... then there's magic in that. That one person is someone's sibling, parent, relative or friend. They're loved and so important.

Actually, one of the people who bought my book from a recent workplace talk took me aside at the end and asked advice to help their wonderful partner. So even if I help or inspire a partner of someone in the room at one of my talks ... that's enormously heart-lifting. There's a ripple effect in helping others.

It starts with one person. Then they inspire others. And it continues on.

— Rachel Grunwell is a qualified coach, yoga teacher and author of the book Balance: Food, Health + Happiness. Find Rachel via inspiredhealth.co.nz, Instagram (@rachelgrunwell) or InspiredHealthNZ's Facebook.