The choice to go Alcohol free or to reduce intake is very much on the rise as society becomes increasingly aware of the negative impacts it has, both in our personal lives and on businesses.
At the same time, alcohol is entrenched in our culture, from family celebrations, and social connection, to work and corporate life. Exposing and challenging the cultural norms and supporting compelling alternatives is essential to bringing about change.
Many organisations in Australia are becoming more aware of the importance and impact of having the alcohol-free conversation to give their employees support, information and choice.
A large part of this is to demonstrate a culture where drinking alcohol is not expected, and where choosing not to drink alcohol is embraced and normalised. Providing adult alcohol-free alternatives for employees, staff and clients is a great place to start.
Robert Walters has been on a journey for a few years now to ensure that we are creating a strong, supportive and inclusive culture within our business. Being a reward driven sales culture has often meant that celebrations of success are conducted at end of month events. Although we recognise that many of our team are happy to celebrate with a few drinks on a Friday afternoon, we also recognise that many would be appreciative of alternate AF options so that they could join their colleagues with a beer or a glass of wine in their hands but without the alcohol content!
Sarah did a full AF event where the team got to test the AF options that were available to them. They were very surprised at the quality of the options and certainly appreciative of the business considering their needs. Sarah gave an excellent presentation, sharing some of her own story and really assisting the team in understanding that choosing AF is absolutely normal in our society and something that should be supported in any environment.
We now have an excellent AF supplier through Sarah’s introduction and ensure that both AF and alcoholic options are available to the team whenever we are having events in the office. We are also exploring how we can also ensure that these AF options are made available to our clients and candidates when we are hosting events out of the office and we are looking forward to the feedback from them as we continue our AF journey as a business.
Sinead Hourigan, Managing Director, QLD
QLD