10 October is World Mental Health Day. Whilst the pandemic has, and continues to, take its toll on our mental health, society pays for the rising mental health costs, but employers do so as well through lost productivity and increased demand for healthcare services by their employees. Mental health and employee wellbeing are interconnected topics on top of the priority list for business leaders everywhere. And they are keeping decision-makers awake at night during the months and years ahead, as the competition for talent and the need for employee retention will further increase
The private sector plays an important role in supporting universal access to high standards of physical health and mental well-being. It is no surprise that international organisations such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) are planning numerous initiatives, events and campaigns throughout 2023.
A central component of employee wellbeing, across the globe, is workforce nutrition. A healthier workforce with access to nutritious food brings many proven benefits. These include increased productivity and reduced absenteeism, as well as improved employee retention and staff loyalty, and better performance at work.
Moreover, it contributes to nurturing a company’s employer branding and helping corporations score better in sustainability-related rankings such as the “Food and Agricultural Benchmark” (World Benchmarking Alliance) and the “Global Access to Nutrition Index” (Access to Nutrition Initiative). Both organisations will publish their updated Indices in 2023.
At the Workforce Nutrition Alliance, we are now continuing our successful capacity-building programmes. Together with The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), we have created two one-hour webinars for business leaders in companies and organisations which intend to introduce and improve workforce nutrition at their worksites.
The webinars will be held in English. Since there is a great interest in workforce nutrition in Colombia and other Latin American countries, we will offer simultaneous translation into Spanish for both events.