When our Work Ready team connect with HR leaders and occupational health experts, the deterioration of mental health in workers is often their number one concern. Employees report high levels of stress, with the 2024 Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report finding that 40% of Brits said they experienced ‘a lot of feelings of stress’ the previous day. The consequent emotional distress can encourage negative workplace behaviours such as incivility and lower employee engagement.
The BDA Work Ready literature review on supporting healthier working lives found that there is growing evidence to suggest that good nutrition is just as important for mental health as it is for physical health and that a number of conditions may be influenced by dietary factors. So, assisting people to effectively manage stress may have a positive impact on the ability to control both mood and weight.
Good managers emphasise wellbeing at work and in life, but managers in the Gallup poll reported higher levels of stress and more negative daily experiences than individual contributors.
Although being a manager may provide higher status, pay and job role flexibility, many of us know that does not mean it is an easy role.
Manager engagement is positively correlated with wider employee engagement, and they are often a source of emotional support for the wider team. But the Gallup report says that in fact, they may need the most support. Given that managers are more likely to be able to influence the workplace environment and culture – changing the workplace, and not just the worker – any initiative to address employee mental health and wellbeing should recognise not only that managers are more likely to experience more stress, but also the positive impact that targeted interventions for managers might have on the wider organisation.
By providing managers with targeted wellbeing initiatives, these could simultaneously have the potential to improve both their own and employees’ subjective wellbeing. To truly unlock the positive outcomes that the best employers see from their wellbeing initiatives – lower turnover, higher quality, higher productivity, more thriving employees – consider offering dedicated training for your managers to enable them to support a pro-health environment, food and drink culture in your work setting.
BDA manager training on wellbeing and food
Step 1: Consider bringing a group of your managers and wellbeing leaders together for one of the BDA’s engaging and evidence-based workshops. Eat Well Feel Well is a popular topic which supports individual level knowledge improvements on how food and drink choices influence mood.
Step 2: Commission our tailored training programme on healthy eating barriers and enablers in the workplace. Alongside knowledge for managers on, creating a healthy environment, they work together to undertake a nutritional needs assessment for your organisation, including the identification of any cultural or physical barriers that may be impacting stress and emotional wellbeing.
