Show #180: The Connections Between Stress, Anxiety, Mental Health, Resilie

Special Guest: Piers Bishop, co-founder of WeThrive.

Stress of every kind is on the rise, with several million cases of anxiety alone in the UK every year at a cost to business of about £30 Billion. But the medical effects of stress are just the most visible aspect of the problem, because in every organisation there is a great deal going on that never surfaces as a medical diagnosis, but ‘just’ causes unhappiness, retention problems, productivity gaps and, of course, low engagement.

At the same time, companies put time and money into initiatives aimed at making people happier, from mindfulness sessions to yoga, free fruit and evenings in the pub, but the people who take most advantage of these are generally the ones who are more fit and motivated in the first place. The best way round this muddle is to connect the various pieces of the puzzle into a whole picture, get upstream of the problem and set about making the organisation inherently healthy, so it doesn't stress people and make them ill in the first place.

There is also free white paper on this - A practical 8-point guide to stress, anxiety, mental health, resilience and wellbeing for HR Directors, available from WeThrive, together with other engagement resources. It makes a good read to accompany this E4S radio programme, and you can also use it to make the case for having someone responsible for health and wellbeing at board level.

Link for the white paper - employee engagement resources

Join us as we discuss how companies can go about making their organisation inherently healthy, so it doesn't stress people and make them ill in the first place.

Host: Jo Moffatt