LEAD WITH WELLBEING

ABOUT THE
Leanne Spencer is an author, podcaster, endurance athlete and expert in corporate wellbeing.

AUTHOR
Leanne’s expertise is around health, fitness and wellbeing, specifically focusing on sleep, mental
health, energy, resilience, fitness, immune health and the challenges of remote working. She
hosts a popular podcast on iTunes called ’Remove the Guesswork ‘, and her TEDx talk on ‘Why
fitness is more important than weight’ has had over 62k views so far. Leanne is the author of the
bestselling books ‘Remove the Guesswork’ and ‘Rise and Shine’ and she regularly speaks to
corporates on health and wellbeing.

Leanne’s personal values are to live truthfully, considerately and to “suck all the marrow out
of life” as Thoreau said. She facilitates workshops for the charity Diversity Role Models which
works to combat homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying and fundraise for Alzheimer’s
Research. Leanne recently completed the world’s toughest ski race, raising £10,125, and is on a
constant mission to live in a way that is sustainable and environmentally friendly. She loves sport,
fitness, reading, gardening, business, podcasting, and being with her wife, cat and their scampish
little rescue dog, Kami from Romania.

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 INTRODUCTION
According to data issued by the Chartered Institute of Personnel &
Development (CIPD) on 31st March 2020, employee absenteeism
hit an all-time low at 5.8 days per employee per annum. Whilst this
appears to be a good sign, there were some alarming statistics
associated with this number.

89% OF RESPONDENTS HAVE SEEN CASES OF

PRESENTEEISM AT WORK (WHEN SOMEONE IS
WORKING WHILST UNWELL)

73% OF RESPONDENTS HAVE SEEN CASES OF

LEAVEISM (WORKING WHILST ON HOLIDAY)
Of even greater concern, only 32% of companies were actively
taking steps to discourages these unhealthy practices.

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 MAJOR
The most common causes of long-term absence are mental health (59%), followed by
musculoskeletal conditions, (53%), and stress and acute medical conditions at 46%. Minor

CAUSES OF
illnesses accounted for 22% of long-term absences. Caring for young children accounted for
24% of short-term absenteeism, raising the issue of remote working as a viable alternative to

ABSENTEEISM
this challenge.

Only 58% of the respondents felt that line managers are bought into the importance of
wellbeing, and just 31% are comfortable having a sensitive conversation about wellbeing and
signpost appropriately. Only 25% are perceived to be able to spot the early warning signs of
poor mental health.

£77BN
The total cost of the UK economy of absenteeism,
presenteeism and leaveism combined is estimated
to be £77bn per annum - a startling figure.

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 THE COVID-19
Unsurprisingly, wellbeing scores have been adversely affected by the recent global
pandemic. According to a report by Simetrica-Jacobs and the London School of

PANDEMIC
Economics, wellbeing scores are their lowest since 2011, with the costs of the pandemic
and social distancing on mental health and wellbeing estimated to be a whopping
£2.25bn, or the equivalent of £43 per person per day. This doesn’t include the business
impact, the impact on children, government or healthcare expenditure.

According to data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), between 20th and 30th
March 2020, 44.6% reported having an anxiety score of 6/10 upwards (an increase of
21% from the previous year). Low happiness scores also increased from 8.4% in the
period October-December 2019 to 20.7%.

The main concerns were wellbeing, work, finances and a worry about the reduced
ability to save for the future.

• Where household income had dropped, 16% of people had higher anxiety
• Those who rented were most likely to have their health negatively affected

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 CONCLUSIONS It’s clear that the general wellbeing of the UK workforce has been negatively affected
by the global pandemic, and this will have a knock-on effect on productivity and
performance. We are perhaps only just seeing the fallout from the lockdown and social
distancing measures.

It is my belief that companies with a robust wellbeing strategy in place will be well-
positioned to reset and recover in time. Prioritising the wellbeing of your teams is
paramount for a successful business recovery, so what are the key considerations?

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 A NEW WAY OF IT’S EASIER TO MOVE BYTES THAN ATOMS

WORKING
The way we work has changed irrevocably. We’ve spent the early part of 2020 in one big working
experiment, and one of the positive outcomes is we’ve established that many of us can work
productively and fruitfully away from the office. A lot of us welcome the increased autonomy,
better work/life balance and reduced time spent commuting. Remote working is now likely to be
our new normal for most workers, and there are a number of benefits to this to the company:

• Hiring new talent is no longer constrained
to a specific geographical area
• Retaining talent: if someone wants to
move area they can still work for you
• Opportunities can be taken to new cities
to improve local economies
• Diversity can improve because hiring
isn’t constrained to a particular city’s
demographics
• Reducing commuting and travel has
environmental benefits

Remote working does present additional challenges for wellbeing. Those companies who were
paying lip service to wellbeing will find themselves paying for it in lost employee engagement
and retention. Attracting new talent into the business will also be harder; employees are no
longer drawn to an organisation with the lure of a flashy company car, dazzling bonus scheme
or corner office. It’s going to be about wellbeing and work/life balance in a purpose and values-
driven business.

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 WINNING
TOGETHER:
iTECH MEDIA
iTech Media are a fast-growing and very exciting tech company
that really understand the value of wellbeing as a crucial way
to attract talent into the business, drive energy through the
business and create a powerful competitive advantage. From
a program of fun events, amazing health benefits, a cardboard
cut-out of Pat Butcher (a ‘pat on the back’) for team members
who do well, iTech are a fast-growth company that leads with
wellbeing. They even have a Head of Wellbeing overseeing the
health and vitality of the company.

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 A TIME TO REVIEW
Many people will have rediscovered hobbies and passions that
the convergent pressures of work and home had meant they had

AND RESET
no time for. They will thrive on the autonomy and headspace that
remote working provides. There will be many for whom remote
working isn’t an ideal situation however. They might miss the
camaraderie, the human contact, the exercise they get on the
commute and the separation of work and home.

A comprehensive wellbeing strategy will need to be adapted for

everyone. Some people are suited to remote working and others
are not; the first role as we integrate back into a new working
pattern is to identify who needs to be office-based, who wants
to be and how both groups can have their needs met in a way
that works for them and the business. HR and leadership teams
are going to need to get their heads around remote working,
connection – people and tech, fitness for the rigours of business
and daily life, creating energy, resilience, and a much bigger focus
on mental health.

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 BACKED AT It is my firm belief that wellbeing should be backed at the very highest level in the
organisation, ideally with the CEO. The day-to-day responsibilities can reside with a Head

C-LEVEL
of Wellbeing or a dedicated member of the HR team, but the responsibility for wellbeing
needs to come from top-down. Intention must be matched with investment, not only
financially, but also in time and energy.

As the first ever Chief Heart Officer it is my great honour to lead at VaynerMedia.
I work for 800 Humans, and I am in touch with the heartbeat of every single
person in the company. My role is to infuse the Agency with Empathy. It’s my
purpose. Culture is a texture. It’s a vibe. A feel. And culture is alive. It’s definitely
not one or two-dimensional — I think culture is very three-dimensional. Culture
is, in a nutshell, the heartbeat for me.

Claude Silver
Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia

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 NEW SET OF
HR CHALLENGES
As we move into the next phase of recovery, a new set of
HR challenges will present themselves. Whilst hiring can
effectively happen anywhere if a role is open to remote
working, onboarding will become more difficult when relying
on online technologies. Assessing performance will become
potentially harder, with the nuances of a person’s performance,
contribution and discretionary effort being harder to recognise.

Opportunities for promotion may be more of a challenge for

a remote worker; those that are seen may be top-of-mind.
And, of course, maintaining wellbeing will undoubtedly be
more challenging with a predominantly remote workforce or a
workforce that is disparately located.

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 WHAT’S GOING TO BE IMPORTANT:

SLEEP MENTAL HEALTH ENERGY FITNESS

Ensuring high levels of Creating a culture of Staying happy, healthy For the rigours of business
cognitive performance and openness and providing a and resilient and daily life
overall good health toolkit for employees

CONNECTION RESILIENCE SELF-CARE

Maintaining relationships and To withstand the challenges Proactively looking after
sharing energy of the new working world yourself

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 DELIVERED VIA A
BLENDED SOLUTION:
THE IMPORTANCE OF A ROBUST WELLBEING STRATEGY:
It is our belief that roles such as Head of Wellbeing will be the
most sought-after position as we move into the next phase of the
COVID-19 crisis recovery. Most companies have dealt with more
change in the period from late March to June than possibly the
last 10 years. Redundancies, furloughing staff, dealing with the
technical, logistical and people challenges that remote working
poses have been thorny issues that few companies have been able
to avoid.

As we move into the next phase of recovery, we will be faced with

major people issues to reconcile. Those still working will potentially
be feeling a version of survivor’s guilt, and we know from statistics
that anxiety levels are up.

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 FRUIT BOWL
Wellbeing is no longer about providing a comfortable place to
work, fruit bowls or some version of agile working. It’s about

WELLBEING IS
staying motivated whilst working remotely, managing family
time, blurred boundaries, staying connected to team-mates and

DEFINITELY A THING
company culture, mental health and staying physically active.
Wellbeing should be top of the agenda in any company and
must start with the CEO and be written into the objectives of the

OF THE PAST leadership team, management and across all teams.

This includes using technology and real-time conversations to

capture how employees are feeling; rewriting the employee
handbook to include culture and the values of wellbeing; creating
portal technology to share knowledge and expertise; running
workshops to educate and inspire; coaching for leaders and
managers on how to manage their wellbeing, role modelling good
behaviours and learning to identify red flags within their teams.

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 THE BOTTOM
Prioritising wellbeing does generate benefits to the bottom line. A chartered accountancy firm
that Bodyshot work with saw their absenteeism rate drop by 50% after rolling out a blended

LINE
wellbeing solution, creating a vast cost saving for the business. Other benefits include:

• Improved employee engagement and retention

• Improved personal performance (productivity and quality)
• Win awards and industry standard accreditations
• Attract and retain talent into our business
• Outperform the competition
• Have people queuing to work for your company

Health of your people is health of your business

As we enter the next phase of recovery, we have a wonderful opportunity to review and redefine
the way we do work. Let’s not sleepwalk our way back into old habits. I really hope that we take
this time to reset and ensure that wellbeing is at the heart of what we do. On a personal level, it’s
a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-evaluate our lives. What changes do we want
to make personally? How we will we do things differently? What are our new non-negotiables in
terms of working and wellbeing? Now is the time to embed the habits and practices we want to
live and work by.

LEAD WITH WELLBEING.

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 ABOUT
Bodyshot Performance work with companies who want to create a culture of energy, vitality
and performance through the business and position wellbeing as a competitive advantage.

BODYSHOT
We intersect the latest science and technology to provide unique solutions to the challenge
of wellbeing in the workplace that have a direct impact on the bottom line. Our clients have

PERFORMANCE
won awards for wellbeing and recognise it directly improves employee engagement and
retention and attracts talent into the business.

LIMITED Click here to find out more

Discover what your Health IQ score is based on our unique Six Signals® methodology:
sleep, mental health, body composition, energy, digestion and physical fitness. Our simple
diagnostic tool will help you understand where you should prioritise your efforts.

Click here to find out more

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 LEANNE AND HER TEAM TOOK THE
TIME TO UNDERSTAND OUR INDUSTRY
AND INTERNAL CULTURE TO OFFER
US A UNIQUE TAILORED OPTION
WHICH FITTED OUR BUDGET AND
REQUIREMENTS. THE WORKSHOPS WERE
ENGAGING, INSPIRING, MOTIVATING,
HELPFUL, TAILORED AND UNIQUE.
Jessica Nicol
Managment AAB

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WELLBEING
DRIVES GROWTH

info@bodyshotperformance.com
www.bodyshotperformance.com