Corporate Health Coaching
Keeping the workplace environment healthy is crucial – but challenging
Many employers invest in measures to protect and enhance employee health and wellbeing. They know a happy, healthy workforce is an engaged, productive workforce.
Sadly, encouraging healthy habits and providing health benefits isn’t always enough.
Life today makes it increasingly hard to make healthy choices at work, despite employers’ best intentions. For example, a workplace cake culture makes it hard to avoid sugar or excess intake, while a sedentary role means it’s hard to avoid inactivity. Both these, and other lifestyle factors, increase health risk and could even undermine health and wellbeing investment.
Make it easier to be healthy at work
I help organisations develop healthy working environments so that employees are healthy, happy and engaged, and the impact of wellbeing investment can be maximised.
Through 1:1 health coaching, talks and workshops, and top team briefings, we can enhance your environment using nutrition, movement and exercise, stress management, social support as well as small changes to the physical environment.
Contact me to discuss how I could help your organisation.
One-to-one employee health coaching
Executive coaching is a well-established way to improve performance. Health coaching can have even broader-reaching effects.
When we're tired, stressed and not eating properly our performance suffers. Health coaching can improve energy and mental acuity and reduce stress. It can also impact absenteeism and presenteeism while increasing engagement. Importantly, your employer value proposition is enhanced: research shows employees are healthier if they perceive their employers value employee health.
Consider me your in-house health coach. I could be available in your premises for bookable appointments for say one day a week/fortnight/month.
Alternatively, a typical corporate health coaching programme might offer an initial 60/90-minute session, followed by two 30-minute follow ups at two to four week intervals.
Workshops and talks
I run workshops and speak on a range of workplace health-related topics including healthy eating, exercise/avoiding sedentary behaviour, sleep, stress reduction, office cake culture and biophilia (how bringing aspects of nature into the workplace can improve mood and even health).
I can tailor talks to suit a theme, audience and time frame and they typically last 45-60 mins with or without Q&A. They can be interactive and work well as part of a wellbeing event or as a series of monthly wellbeing talks. Why not ask employees to choose the topics they're interested in?
Tackling workplace sugar and cake culture
It usually gets a smile, but I am probably the world expert on workplace cake culture.
My published research was the first academic study to explore this growing phenomenon and found it had implications for both workplace and public health.
I can brief top teams on why this, sugar reduction and workplace snacking are important workplace issues and, crucially, how organisations can tackle it in a way that enhances social cohesion while reducing health risk.
“As head of group HR for an SME business I feel that having Lou Walker work with us as a corporate health coach has been hugely beneficial. We have had nothing but positive feedback from those that have had sessions with her. She has really changed the way we are looking at things, from company benefits to the food we buy in. Her relaxed but supportive approach has given individuals the tools and guidance they need to better help themselves. Her way of working has been a great fit in our company, I couldn’t recommend her enough.”
“It was a real pleasure to see Lou speak to a group about low carb food to manage insulin resistance syndromes including type 2 diabetes. Lou’s communication style was effective, interactive, easy to understand. The message was clear and would have impacted all with take home practical changes to make to their diet from the first meeting. All were engaged from start to finish.“
“From the first moments of the intro session I felt both motivated and inspired, not to embark on a diet but on a whole new way of life, looking after my body and my mind. A massive thank you to Lou for all her help and ongoing support in enabling me to achieve this. I’d recommend this course not only to anyone that needs to lose weight but to type 2 diabetics, those with prediabetes or anyone that just wants to have a healthier way of life.“
“Lou has a fabulous ‘can-do’ attitude and is tirelessly enthusiastic about the benefits of Real Food. She has a very motivating style and manages to encourage patients to think in different ways about their health and attitudes to food, eating, sleep and exercise. I highly recommend Lou as a coach and a course leader – we can’t thank her enough!“