Empowering acoustic consultants through wellness initiatives
At Resonate Consultants, each undertaking is guided by our core values of being united, client-centric, distinctive, ingenious and responsible. These principles inform everything from how we interact with clients to how we collaborate as a team.
Helping to foster feelings of unity and, therefore, deeper collaboration is the Resonate Consultant wellbeing team. Driven by Isabel Munoz, Business Support, and with assistance from Lucy Torr, Principal Consultant and Chloe Nicholson, Business Support, the wellbeing team looks at implementing advantageous monthly wellness initiatives that take into consideration the wellness wheel in order to provide a full scope of support.
Image credit: Ginger
‘Resonate is a company where looking after staff is second nature,’ Isabel explained. ‘One of the ways we do this is by offering wellness strategies to provide tools our team require in order to “sharpen the saw”.’
Every month, encouraging everything from team bonding to individual wellbeing, a new wellness topic is introduced to each of our offices. From participating in STEPtember to teaching financial wellbeing, topics are vast and varied. This also includes providing healthy food and beverage options in the office to ensure the team are fuelled during their busy day moving between office and project site.
Having studied a Wellness, Mindfulness and Stress university subject on maternity leave, Isabel draws on this learning to craft the monthly topics and associated activities or exercises.
In the past year, the wellness team have encouraged their colleagues to look into elements of Flow, a state of being fully immersed in a task, which, from a workplace perspective, helps to promote focus and concentration. According to ‘…McKinsey researchers, if we could increase the time we spend in Flow by 15-20%, overall workplace productivity would almost double,’ reports Harvard Business Review.
Wellness topics also include further education on key lifestyle choices such as drinking water and promoting sleep hygiene, as ‘Sleep loss can make it more challenging to maintain focus, attention, and vigilance.’ By providing information and health prompts, the team are demonstrably cared about. Resonate Consultants also provides each employee access to the Headspace app, which many of our acoustic consultants currently utilise to aid sleep. 
In conjunction with the monthly topics, Resonate Consultants’ provide an annual wellness bonus to help team members function at their very best. Marc Schlüssel, Acoustic Consultant, used his wellness bonus to buy a stand-up paddle board, while Ray Sim, Principal Acoustic Consultant, directed his bonus towards his hobby, dragon boat racing, while Isabel enrolled in pre-natal pilates classes.
To celebrate the rich and diverse culture background of the team, the wellness committee also organised a monthly topic centred around food. During this month, the team were 
This team-first approach has seen Resonate Consultants recognised with accolades such as the Great Place to Work™ Certification. Using international benchmarking data and internal insights, Great Place to Work Australia is the global authority on workplace culture.
Through conducting the Great Place to Work survey, 87 per cent of those surveyed confirmed that our firm is a great place to work. Further data revealed that 91 per cent agreed that camaraderie is a focus. The aims of wellness initiatives also have their desired effect, with 93 per cent of people indicating that the statement— people care about each other here— was ‘almost always true’ or ‘often true’.
‘Even if they don’t interact with any or all of the activities, our people feel cared for, which shows that we are doing our job,’ Isabel said. ‘We aim to continue this program while providing more tools that can be applied to personal and professional lives.’ she added.
‘Acoustic consulting is varied and at times, demanding. They might require unusual hours on-site to take noise measurements at the quietest time of the day or spend hours modelling data on a computer. As a wellness team, we prioritise expanding and reminding staff to use the tools and work towards proactive balance.’
