Health & Wellness in Your Business

When assessing how well your business is doing, it is critical that you look through a wide lens and capture the entire picture of your company. Gaging you have a healthy business does not always depend on looking at numbers alone — a successful business is not necessarily a healthy one.

The World Health Organization defines wellness as “More than being free from illness. It is a dynamic process of change and growth, a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

It is simple to determine if your company is doing well: You will be able to pay all your bills and expenses and have some profit left over. But is that enough to signify sound financial health or are there other discernible levels or obvious distinctions which can determine how well your business is doing?

Do you have a healthy business?

There are a few questions to consider to determine whether your business is on the right track.

• Is your revenue growing?
• Are your expenses staying flat?
• Are your debt ratios low?
• Is your business cash balance showing positive long-term growth?
• Are you working with new clients and repeat customers?

These questions will help determine the overall health of your business, though in today’s environment getting ahead is no longer just about financial gain. Your business will thrive only when there is constant financial growth, as well as opportunities for employees to learn and grow as well.

Consider your staff by asking the following questions:

• Are your employees happy and paying attention to work?
• Do they feel empowered and involved in the company’s decisions?
• Is your firm providing opportunities for employees to learn through seminars and workshops? Are you encouraging them to attain certifications and degrees?
• Is there a fair system of recognition in place for rewarding employees who show outstanding performance?
• Do employees have a good work-life balance?

Healthy organizations share their goals with employees at every level and develop teams to achieve them. Employees value their position in the company and take on opportunities to pursue certification and higher education. Employees put their trust in management to find new tools and cultivate existing ones to drive the business to success. They not only feel involved in the company’s decisions but also feel like they are a part of the firm themselves. They feel connected with the higher management and share the firm’s vision with them.

Challenges

As a business owner, most of your time is spent trying to grow your business into success, but in reality, your goal should be to build a successful and healthy company — because being successful does not necessarily equate to being healthy.

Each day corporations experience problems that keep their business from becoming fruitful and healthy. As a business owner, you have to ask yourself the following questions.

• Is your employee turnover rate increasing?
• Do employees feel stressed?
• Do employees offer low attention at work?
• Do your employees feel unhappy and less productive?
• Are there increasing cases of absenteeism?

As an owner, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture when there are multiple pressing issues vying for undivided attention. When a business owner allows these issues to gain his complete attention at the expense of his employees, they may be left feeling frustrated, disempowered, and uncared for.

It is imperative to occasionally step back and assess the health of your business. A quick health check can be performed by asking yourself the questions in this article, and focusing on areas that you find need improvement.

An assessment can help you understand if your business is successful and healthy, or only one of the two.

• Successful Business: Any business which is giving profit after paying off expenses and payroll is a successful business. It will show growth over time.
• Healthy Business: A business that is not only well-managed but also sustainable and resilient.

A successful and healthy business has open communications among owners and employees, it values diversity and institutional fairness. The staff is rewarded equally, and the company takes measure to promote employees’ physical and physiological well-being.

A healthy company also puts measures in place to maintain a work and family life balance. It gives equal opportunities for employees to learn and grow, and invests its resources in public and community interests.

Maintaining a healthy business

Measuring the health of your business can be as simple as analyzing a profit-and-loss statement or as complicated as assessing all the different elements of your business.

Building a healthy and successful business starts with the basics: hiring the right employees and management. Then, ensuring that there are chances for everyone to grow, and that there is a proper framework for succession.

The organizational structure plays a pivotal role in aligning the company’s goals with the corporate strategies and processes. Also key is how conflicts are resolved within an organization. Having in place a clear framework for solving conflict can be a strong indicator of a business’ health, just as lacking such a framework can deteriorate the internal working environment.

With all of this in place, you will be able to better assess the health of your business in the future. By keeping success as well as health as a factor in business, you will find your business strong and in a state of dynamic growth and change.
Where are you in your business? Do you feel there are areas for improvement?  That’s what Marcus Coaching is here for, to support you in these kinds of areas.