At the start of the summer I wake-boarded to work. My friend has a boat, we left at 7.15 am from the Marina, I shot past the two piers at 7.30 am and waded to shore still in my wetsuit with my office clothes in a waterproof bag on my back, James Bond style. When I got to work my PR colleague Stella said I looked different. No, it wasn’t the fact that my hair was wet, no it wasn’t that I didn’t have any make up on, I just looked … chilled.  I was feeling like a Sunday morning on a Thursday and I’m still talking about it!

This type of activity sparked our idea to start a wellbeing team with the sole aim to make everyone here happier and healthier and our results are paying off. We’ve just been shortlisted for the BAHBA Healthiest Workplace Award, which makes us one of the total 37 finalists of some of the best companies Brighton has to offer. So how did we do it?  By injecting a healthy dose of ‘life’ into our ‘work’ with fun activities, providing healthy options for food and drink and creating a general atmosphere of wellbeing.

Here’s a snapshot of what we do:

Food and drink
We’ve got fresh fruit in the office as well as a wide range of herbal teas as an alternative to caffeine. Water coolers are dotted throughout the office and in the summer our Friday lunchtime BBQs feature locally sourced organic meat. Yum!

Lunchtime activities
Lunch-breaks are not just for eating scrumptious baguettes from the butcher’s next door, but also essential for refreshing the mind. Our wellbeing board announces which lunchtime and after work activities will take place each week and a weather report too. We encourage everyone to STEP AWAY from their desks and get active. Frisbee sessions, beach walks, BBQs and even kite-flying sessions are organised regularly and enjoyed by all. In the winter we’ll carry on when we can and fill rainy day lunchtimes with mind-shaping videos like ‘The Secret’ and ‘What the Bleep do we know?’. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a winter barbie in there as well somewhere…

Annelies Kitesurfing (Photo Credit: Extreme Visuals @ Animal Windfest)

Sports activities
Our regular company outings are always a blast and usually sporty. Volleyball, golf or swinging through the trees and going ape – we’ve done it all. In February 2009, 5 of the Propellernet team completed the Brighton Half Marathon raising lots of money for Depression Alliance (justgiving.com/forluke) and we enter an annual team of guys and girls into Tough Guy. We all encourage each other to get fit, with for example Lucy, Stella & Linda regularly attending the hardcore Military Fitness sessions at Hove Park. Our own 5-a-side football team, the Propellernuts, are aiming to make it into the Premiership of the Brighton Pitch Invasion league. Good luck boys!

The Propellernet Volleyball Team (Recently reached the Semi Finals of the Brighton Businesses Volleyball Tournament)

Other bits and bobs
Plants make you happy, it’s official! So we each have one on our desk and buy in fresh flowers regularly. Some go a little overboard and you could say the PR room looks quite jungle-like, but we like it! Our suggestion box gives us a voice and two health schemes keep us healthy. We finish earlier on Fridays and go to the pub for a well deserved beer. Hey, it doesn’t always have to be herbal tea and bananas; it’s all about finding a balance…

So there you have it, it’s all very simple really: Healthy body = healthy mind. Healthy mind = great marketing! You know, I think I might organise a bigger wake-board to work session and get some journalists down to snap it, there could be a PR story in there somewhere…

If you’re reading this and thinking you might want to inject some wellbeing into your company, here are some links that might help:

www.sussexsport.org: Inject some sport into your life.

www.endlesspossibilities.eu: We were consulted by Karen Smithson when putting together our wellbeing plan.