There are a whole lot of companies employing 18-24 years old people in Finland. It has been quite rare to aim workplace wellness programs for young adults although supporting holistic wellness and lifestyle management for this age group offers highly profitable long term value. Small daily choices accompanied with professional coaching achieve lasting changes in thinking patterns and approaches in young adults’ lives. This has a remarkable role in the perspective of wellbeing on individual, workplace and society levels.
Young employers are highly motivated to take responsibility
The signs of burnout are clearly visible with the young employees already in the very early phase. Young adults face similar challenges in time and life management like senior employees do, but the young employers haven’t established deep-rooted behaviour and thinking patterns. Therefore, this age group is fruitful. Once the confidential connection is created with the young employee, hunger for new life skills awakens.
RAY’s pilot project for the young employers
Finland’s Slot Machine Association (RAY) invested in their 18-24-year-old employees and carried out a remote coaching pilot project for their workplace wellness. Four months’ coaching period was put into practice in spring 2016 and the results are substantial.
The coaching project was implemented in cooperation with Movendos Ltd, Firstbeat and holistic coaching company Pro-Energy. Individual coaching period lasted for four months. Each individual coaching module consisted of continuous coach support and personalised coaching content with Movendos mCoach coaching tool and three telephone sessions. Customized coaching programs were tailored in each individual’s needs aiming to promote mental and physical wellbeing. Concrete coaching tasks and exercises together with video material supported time management, recovering, self-esteem, self-knowledge and lowered stress levels.
Movendos wellbeing survey and Firstbeat stress analysis were carried out for the coachees in the beginning and in the end of the project. The results indicated significantly enhanced recovery land lowered stress levels. Among the measured outcomes the coachees’ personal experience regarding their positive lifestyle change was remarkable. The coaching was very necessary and useful for the young adults’ target group.
“The young employers are very important and fairly large target group in RAY. When we started the pilot we had about 400 under 25-year-old employees. Our target was to develop approaches for supporting young adults’ workplace wellness and allocating their resources in all sections of life. In addition, we wanted to raise the young employees’ awareness about the importance of their lifestyle for wellbeing.”, RAY’s workplace wellness director Johanna Agopov says.
The mental coach of the pilot project Pauliina Avola comments on coaching the young adults:” Coaching young adults is very rewarding, because they are ready and motivated to take responsibility on new thinking models and approaches in their lives. This enhances their awareness on their own lives and grows psychological flexibility, which works as a buffer against burnout, depression and other metal health problems.”
When young adults get early support and tools for managing their wellbeing, it prevents mental and physical illnesses during their whole later careers. In addition, they most likely communicate positive values and healthy lifestyle to their peers as well. Supporting young adults’ life management is significant workplace wellness action and socially effective preventive work.
Movendos Ltd: Movendos lisences a taylorable and holistic on-line coaching tool for coaching and healthcare professionals.
Firstbeat Technologies Ltd: Firstbeat is the leading provider of physiological analytics for sports and well-being. They transform heartbeat data into personalized information on exercise, stress and recovery. https://www.firstbeat.com/en/
