Note From Our Founder

Matt Elliott, People Director from Virgin Money said something to me as I was interviewing him at the London Wellbeing@Work conference (November 2018) that really struck a chord. He said that we shouldn’t be waiting for governments and politicians to change the world; it’s business leaders that can and should drive change. I couldn’t agree with him more, we can’t wait for someone else to make things better. We all have a responsibility! Whether that is related to the environment, societal challenges or mental health we need to start taking action urgently. When I started The Stress Management Society, I had a huge desire to make a difference, but there was a huge amount of resistance. We were regularly having conversations with organisations that believed that by openly speaking about stress, their employees were going to catch the ‘stress disease’. At that time the conversation wasn’t high up the agenda and it was very rarely a board level discussion. If anything it was often an afterthought, a nice to do and sometimes seen as bit of a ‘pink and fluffy’ subject.

As time progressed we have started to understand the true impact of poor wellbeing and how significantly it can affect an organisation, or society in general. The emergence of purpose led businesses has bought a seismic shift in the philosophy of how companies are built and run. Some of the biggest and most successful companies on the planet today didn’t exist or were just starting when we came into existence. Companies like Google, Facebook and Netflix for example built successful organisations from the ground up, with a radical approach to culture and wellbeing and with their people at the centre of everything. They understood that their key asset is their people and the better we look after them the more effective and successful they are! This is ultra-important if you want to thrive in the modern economy.

The high profile businesses that have collapsed like Woolworths, BHS, Blockbuster and Toys R Us show what happens if you haven’t paid attention to staying ahead of the curve, and if you haven’t invested in, developed and empowered your people. A powerful brand, clear strategy and purposeful future direction is imperative in a world of VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. It’s hard to focus on innovation and forward strategy if you are so consumed by firefighting, risk management challenges, and needs of survival. If you are stressed and overwhelmed its very difficult to focus on anything more than whatever is two centimetres in front of your nose.

Even though it is still not an easy conversation for some, I’m very pleased that more and more organisations are now focusing on wellbeing and building this in to their business strategy rather than just running one-off initiatives. Companies that are succeeding are the ones that have a long term strategy that is owned at board level, however according to the CIPD only 8% of organisations have a wellness strategy. There have been calls for legislation on line manager training and mental health training in organisations. More business leaders and celebrities are openly sharing their experiences of stress and mental health – and we have finally have role models emerging that are willing to share their experiences and destigmatise mental health.

Our international projects and clients are also giving us a much better understanding of different cultures and approaches from different parts of the world that we have been able to utilise to develop best practice approaches. And the key thing is we now have compelling data and research to back up why this is important. 16 years ago we didn’t have a strong and robust narrative to compel action. Now we do, and it’s very hard to ignore our evidence! Things are finally moving in the right direction.

I am proud that today International Wellbeing Insights and our non-profit arm The Stress Management Society are no longer waiting for governments and political leaders to change the world. Since 2003 we have helped millions of people through the work we do and so in our own way, we are doing our bit to make the world a better place. I’m so proud of all we have accomplished to date and every single person that has supported our journey thus far. There is much work to be done, and with my passionate, committed team, dedicated partners and forward-thinking clients, we can make a difference!