Wellbeing for Work pays dividends on health and profits

From improved attendance to greater productivity, not to mention the long term health benefits, there is a growing recognition that a fit and healthy workforce can make a difference to the bottom line, and Wellbeing for Work is a company at the forefront of this revolution.

Founded by entrepreneur Sam Fuller (pictured here) and following the success of Absolute Nutrition. Indeed it was through her work as a highly successful nutritionist with two practices that she became aware the majority of her clients came from the corporate sector and were often sedentary office workers spending long hours behind their desks, going from meeting to meeting.

Morgan PR met Sam earlier today to learn more about Wellbeing for Work for a feature we have been commissioned to write. She explained: “This sedentary lifestyle was causing them high stress levels and exhaustion. These symptoms were really impacting on their work life balance and when I spoke to the businesses involved I realised there was a solution – and Wellbeing for Work was born.

“Our Health and Wellbeing programmes provide a fresh new approach for early intervention and prevention of ill health at work. We aim to improve employees’ mental and physical capacity for engagement and performance and help them to recognise the value of self management of health during demanding times."

Backed up by testimonials and more importantly facts and figures on attendance and productivity it is clear that companies will soon have to heed the expert advice of people like Sam Fuller. Of course those who truly care about their employees may wish to make contact even sooner.

It was Newbury Business Group... only different.

The Newbury Business Group is the foremost independent networking group in West Berkshire - we do not seek to profit from our members nor cash in on the abundant referrals and collaboration that it encourages, so it was an honour to be asked to chair this mornings and indeed next week's meetings while the chairman, Mark Arrowsmith from Snappy Snaps, is on holiday.

Unusually we did not have a 10 minute slot today where the group benefits from a masterclass from one of its members, so it gave me the opportunity to mix things up a little... The premise was simple: you introduce the person to your left before they do their one minute presentation and introduce the person to their left - and so on it would go.

Immediately it started quite the chattering kerfuffle as some members sought to reassure themselves that they actually knew what it was the person sat to their left did for a living. Which with the exception of the guests was a little alarming, after all surely we all know what one another actually does?

With Search Engine Optimisation supremo Chris Turberville-Tully from Inspiration Ink sat to my left I have to admit my task was a simple one, but everyone managed the task, even if some took considerably longer than others to manage a simple introduction, with one of two opting for a practical eulogy! Indeed Robin Winnett, from Kaizen Systems, practically had me in tears!

Special mention must surely go to Mark Furneaux from Lestac Services, who managed to give a terrific introduction to guest Alex Knapp from CIS Assessment having only met him for a few minutes.

With so much fun and frolics it was little wonder we ran past 9 o'clock this morning, however the universal opinion was positive. So, next week fancy dress?

We're LinkedIn... are you?

Naturally a healthy online profile is important for any business and this is probably why I originally joined LinkedIn sometime last year... and then did absolutely nothing with it. With sites like this blog and our own website achieving a good profile within Google searches it was easy to dismiss what seemed to be facebook without the annoyance.

However, over recent weeks LinkedIn has hit the headlines repeatedly and more and more people were pinging me to ask if I would 'join their professional network in LinkedIn.

Perhaps most significantly the LinkedIn raised $53 million for a sliver of the business and promptly valued it at $1bn. Which sounds crazy, but this is no internet start up. The website boasts 23 million members and is growing by 1.2 million new members each month.

So I have been devoting a set time each day to building my profile and believe it is now really rather respectable, with a growing number of recommendations from clients and business partners and a healthy number of connections. What is fascinating though is the momentum that has built with relatively little effort and that continues to build my profile.

And don't dismiss LinkedIn as another MySpace or facebook, it is a business tool beyond its networking facade and allows for company searches. You can profile staff, establish churn and of course get introduced to the online movers and shakers within companies through your own burgeoning network. It is clever stuff.

Then there is Google, which has been invited to crawl LinkedIn and now happily returns my profile among the various hits when people search for 'public relations, newbury' and suchlike.

Freely offering expertise to the myriad of questions that are posted on the site is another excellent way to boost your profile and follows the same abundance model that we employ offline.

I have heard about the companies on LinkedIn who encourage their staff to spend a specified amount on time on the site every day, to ensure their business stays at the forefront of searches. I can see why.

Recruitment advice from the heart of the Square Mile at Le Petit Square in Newbury

Talk about the Law of Attraction, no sooner do I blog about Le Petit Square and its new chef, then I find myself in the centre of Newbury needing somewhere suitable for a lunch meeting with recruitment guru and fellow Newbury Business Group member Mia Drennan.

Morgan PR has written about the company she founded, Square Mile Connections, numerous times in the past and secured publication of press releases about the company too, however, I was keen to follow up a generous invitation that Mia had made at a recent NBG meeting to freely offer the benefit of her considerable wisdom.

With Morgan PR on the brink of appointing two new members to the team it made sense to hear from Mia if we were on the right track... and thankfully it would seem we are, in no small part thanks to the business coaching we have been receiving and of course we must have paid attention during Mia's talks at NBG.

Beyond the simple calculation over whether you can afford a new member of staff it is important to consider how the creation of that post contributes to your vision, and the short, medium and long term goals for the business. The next step is ensuring that the recruitment process is suited to finding the right person - and just as importantly ensuring you don't pick the wrong person.

The terrific bonus of talking about Mia is that while Square Mile is used to finding the right candidates for often senior roles within the banking and legal sector, the wealth of expertise that this has brought can be applied to remarkable effect to most recruitment processes.

When business is good and schedules are busy there can be short-sighted savings in simply focusing on the job in hand and not investing in learning. Now obviously we do invest that time, but how much richer was I for lunch today (and naturally we paid!) ? More importantly, how much poorer would I have been?

New chef at Le Petit Square in Newbury

Morgan PR was recently retained to represent Le Petit Square, one of only two restaurants in Newbury to earn the coveted 'Highly Recommended' accolade from Michelin - and the other is sister restaurant The Square!

First order of business was to promote the arrival of a new chef at the Market Place restaurant and today that has been published online at Newbury Business Today.

When most of us are exposed to an unhealthy diet of Gordon Ramsay swearing his way through what might otherwise be good television (the exception is the US version of Hell's Kitchen where those wanna be executive chefs deserve to be more than sworn at most of the time!) it was refreshing to meet the blissfully calm John Cowan.

Or as owner Suzanne Hemchaoui put it:"John impressed us with his vision and flair in the kitchen, he is a good leader and is the calmest chef I have ever known and seems totally unflappable, but most of all he produces outstanding and delicious food.

"His new menu has proved a real hit with our regulars and has prompted some enthusiastic comments from first time visitors our French Bistro, ‘Une petite partie de Paris au coeur de Newbury'."

As a nice touch we entitled the press release that went out as ‘Communiqué de Presse’ which seemed fitting for a French bistro, especially one where 75% of the customers will order in French too!