Figured the day after the RE+ Las Vegas convention (which we skipped) was a good time for a Wellness piece.
Burn out is a real thing in our high-growth sector of clean energy. No one ever said The Energy Transition would be easy. I suppose they call it a solar-coaster for a reason. The platforms in our industry are constantly pushing for more megawatts, more closings with tighter and tighter deadlines. Usually these targets are set in Board Rooms and Investor meetings w/o employee input. Of course there is a human element to this. The exhaustion can manifest itself in many ways; including lack of quality sleep, relationship issues, physical deterioration and more. No one is immune to these challenges.
ECA SOLAR works closely with a Wellness Company called HeyItsGolden (formerly Namaste NY) who emphasizes the four pillars of wellness: Nutrition, Stillness, Movement and Touch/Relationships. The Company pays for one-on-one counseling with these Wellness professionals. Employees that are interested in self-work and self-improvement tap into this resource (actually the majority of them do). Perhaps a team member wants to work on achieving some exercise goal; re-calibrating their diet, improving communications with a loved one or lasering in some positive sleeping habits. The sessions are completely confidential, the Company just pays for it without even knowing what specific individuals are using the Wellness service. We’ve also launched a number of all-hands master-classes for Wellness such as brain health, science of sleeping and fostering simple body movement habits.
The one thing that I am sure of is that people who are healthy will undoubtedly be more productive and more satisfied. We make a concerted effort to encourage this behavior. ECA SOLAR has a tradition of doing a lot of FitBit steps contest and paying for staff lunches each day; for the most part people tend to eat remarkably healthy.
The Wellness journey is long, constant and humbling. It is a priority for me. And Wellness will continue to be a priority for ECA SOLAR.