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Get your wellbeing on point
Wellbeing is a big issue for the events industry. Martin Fullard talks
to Sarah Mayo about how her company can help
ever has the issue of
wellbeing been so high up
the events industry agenda.
Until now, events businesses
could only turn to general guidance
institutions, which perhaps don’t have
the full understanding of the
practicalities of working in events. It
stands to reason, then, a company
which provides a simple approach to
managing mental, physical and
emotional health and wellbeing, with a
focus on events, enters the market.
POINT3 was set up by Sarah Mayo,
Nicky Morgan and Siôn Stansfield in
June 2018, and with 45 years’ events
experience between them, works with
businesses to embed wellbeing into the
workplace and events through
experiences that motivate, educate and
energise people to create lasting
cultural and behavioural change.
“It takes resilience to cope with the
high-pressured nature of events,” says
co-founder Mayo. “There were certain
things that we did well to manage this
pressure, and certain things we didn’t.
We’ve made it our mission to help
people manage those day-to-day
stresses through education on a range
of themes, as well as training in mental
and physical health via our movement
and mindfulness experiences.”
The UK-wide impact of mental
health issues on the UK economy is
well documented, and stress has
been dubbed the “Health Epidemic of
the 21st Century” by the World
Health Organisation. One in six UK
workers are affected by mental
Above: Siôn Stansfield,
Nicky Morgan and
Sarah Mayo
Illustration
by Open Doodles
Website:
point3wellbeing.com
health issues in some way, yet only
11% of employees have discussed
the matter with their line manager.
Indeed, the government’s Thriving at
Work Report in 2017 revealed the
cost of poor mental health to the UK
economy is up to £99bn a year.
Mayo says that ‘presenteeism’ is a
greater cost to burden than
absenteeism. “Presenteeism is when
individuals are less productive due to
poor mental health at work, i.e. they
show up but they’re not performing to
their best ability,” she says. “This
accounts for up to £26bn in lost UK
revenues each year, compared to
absenteeism which costs up to £8bn.”
Numbers like this are hard to
fathom, and productivity can be hard
to quantify. So, in practical terms, what
does POINT3 offer to help businesses
ensure their staff’s wellbeing isn’t
compromised?
Mayo says: “Our training promotes
holistic wellbeing, as well as focusing on
specific areas of mental, physical and
emotional wellbeing, and those
elements that can impact this,
including, but not limited to: sleep and
nutrition, movement and mindfulness,
goals and a sense of purpose, work
and relationships.
“Our training modules look to
develop Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
skills as well as particular wellbeing
knowledge. EQ and wellbeing are
interlinked with happiness, as well as a
product of it. In order to manage
www.conference-news.co.uk
Wellness
wellbeing, it’s
important to
develop EQ. We are
accredited Mental Health First Aid
England trainers, supporting MHFA
England’s mission to train one in 10
people in mental health awareness.”
Through educating event
professionals in all matters of mental
health, the knock-on effect means this
intelligent thinking can transfer over to
client events. Mayo points out that they
are increasingly being asked by
agencies to support with wellbeing
initiatives at events as their clients are
looking to engage their audiences with
wellness-inspired experiences.
Mayo says that POINT3 supported a
conference for 200 delegates in
Prague for agency Ashfield Meetings &
Events with a series of mini-workshops
throughout the conference.
Glyn Davies, project director of global
healthcare specialist, Ashfield
Meetings & Events was notably
impressed with the impact. He says:
“The content and theme of the meeting
[which POINT3 Wellbeing supported
on] made the inclusion of wellbeing
sessions something we decided on
when we pitched for the work. We used
wellbeing sessions as obvious pauses
throughout the conference, where
delegates were able to reset and think,
and as a thread to hold together the
progression of meeting content.”
Davies says the client response was
positive, adding: “They loved the ideas
and had a very clear understanding of
not only the benefits of the sessions,
but also of how they helped to drive
the agenda’s narrative. We won the
job on our creative approach to the
brief and the sessions being very
much a part of that.”
Does wellbeing have to be
expensive? Not according to Russell
Allen, founder of Crescendo, which also
works with POINT3 to deliver wellbeing
content. He says: “As with every
decision when it comes to content
planning, it needs to be considered and
resourced correctly. And I believe this is
about a blend of money, time and
permission. If you have the permission
and the culture within a business, then
the simple act of thoughtfulness
doesn’t need to cost much.”