We recently heard from Jack Latus, who attended Hymers College from 1998 until 2007.  Since leaving Hymers College, Jack was a rugby playing for 3 years, playing for Hull KR, Harlequins RL and Leeds Carnegie.

In 2011, he started LATUS Training, set up to redefine the way you think about health and fitness.  Its aims are to avoid boring and predictable training and instead offers the standard of training, facilities and advice expected of professional athletes, regardless of level of ability.

In 2016, he went on to set up LATUS Health; a team of health and wellbeing experts passionate about helping businesses and their employees perform at their best.  Their mission is to improve the performance of every company they work with as a direct result of improving the mental and physical health of every employee.

He also co-founded Whey Box in 2016; a purveyor of convenient and tasty protein powder in single-serving sachets.  Their aim is to make protein mainstream by being more convenient, more accessible and more engaging than any other brand and they have created 10 delicious flavours keeping three things in mind: convenience, variety and taste.

As a result of his hard work, Jack was recently asked to speak to the British Health Alliance committee at the House of Commons, to give his views on the impact of the Cost-of-Living Crisis on the healthcare industry and what insights the NHS could perhaps take from the private sector.

After getting over a severe bout of ‘imposter syndrome’ due to the esteemed group of doctors, healthcare experts and MP’s, I was presenting to, I highlighted some of the major challenges healthcare is currently facing… and no surprise, it doesn’t make easy listening.

Whilst I wanted to highlight the issues, my main aim for the talk was to highlight the opportunity. Because I firmly believe that challenge is what creates change and develops resilience.

If we can build a resilient workforce and resilient organisations in this testing economy, then we will be flying when the tide turns, and life becomes a little easier.

So, my advice was clear… now is the time when you will get a greater return than ever on investing in your employee wellbeing programme to increase resilience. Here are four key areas I advised leaders to focus on to create a working environment to support overall well-being and performance:

1. Home energy education and resources
2. Increase financial well-being support
3. Stress awareness, sleep and nutrition advice (don’t assume your employees know how to look after themselves – even healthcare workers)
4. More robust remote well-being support system

All healthcare leaders, right now, are looking for operational and energy efficiencies to save costs and maintain budgets. Still, there are huge gains to be made in the short and long term by focusing on building the resilience of our people. Fundamentally, healthcare is a people business, so let’s keep focusing on supporting our people.