Wellbeing - How employees feel about stress, pressure at work and life balance
The Wellbeing factor is closely linked with Fair Deal. If the scores for Fair Deal are low, the first place we’d recommend you look is Wellbeing.
If Wellbeing is also low, it may be that employees are being worked too hard and feel they are not being fairly remunerated for it.
Staff get three working days a year to spend on learning and development and last year this was expanded to include volunteering. Farewill also runs remote Friday 5s where people sign up to talk for five minutes about something they have learned that week.
Farewill has sent staff care packages with goodies including desk plants and exotic teas to make working from home a little more fun. A number of non-work social channels have also been introduced on topics from photography and video-games to food and meditation along with film and book clubs.
Farewill has introduced virtual coffee roulettes using an app so team members can have regular coffee meetings with people across the organisation and the Hallway chat app notifies staff to take breaks during the day to encourage water cooler conversations.
The organisation showed its work family it cared during the pandemic with paid days off to recognise the contribution they had made, thank you days focussed on fun and wellbeing plus treat bags accompanied by a note of appreciation from Chief Executive, Marcia Sinfield.
FHA has always invested significantly in training and development even in challenging periods and last year it introduced a Leading Change Programme, open to all while 30 staff took up the opportunity to increase their skills and qualifications through apprenticeship programmes.
Teams have had coffee mornings, quizzes and opportunities to just talk about how they are feeling with support from Time to Change Champions and they have been encouraged to take a walk during their breaks to appreciate nature with WhatsApp groups featuring different activities and beautiful views from across Wales.
After carrying out a project on collaboration within the business, in which every employee had their say, it launched multiple communication channels. It found some people preferred to listen at work and others to discuss, some to read and others to watch, and adapted its approach accordingly.
Mental and physical wellbeing have been at the centre of everything Everflow has done for its employees since the pandemic began. Mental health courses, informal virtual get-togethers and quizzes were supplemented by a cycle-to-work scheme and encouraging exercise during daylight hours for those working from home.
The company calculates that by being exclusively paperless, it avoids using 2 million pieces of paper a year on traditional billing and envelopes. It also helps the environment by providing smart meters and giving advice to customers on saving water and preventing blockages.
The Women at EngageTech group was launched to reflect the growing number of females in the business. As well as a chat channel for regular socials and catch-up calls the group meets once a month to discuss relevant issues and more women are consequently now involved in late stage interviews.
The new Mental Health & Wellbeing Committee organise activities including cooking, book clubs, yoga and strength classes and Strava running and cycling clubs with prizes as incentives. Employees are also encouraged to use their flexi-time to get away from their desks and go on walks and runs.
During the pandemic EngageTech staff were given time off to support the NHS volunteer scheme, delivering medicines and acting as a social point of contact for people shielding. For Mental Health Month employees picked a daily fitness challenge and secured sponsorship, raising more than £5,000 for various mental health charities.
Training has been ongoing throughout the pandemic and has included virtual continuing professional development sessions, seminars, Lessons Learnt and best practice workshops. EDGE has focussed on sharing short lessons delivered by different disciplines, sectors and individual team members and all employees have been actively encouraged to identify topics for training.
A 120 day free subscription to Peloton was offered during the national lockdown, giving staff access to online classes from yoga to boot camp. Social activities from WhatsApp office group chat/jokes, to virtual quizzes, running and cycling, virtual after work drinks and breakfast clubs have helped boost health and wellbeing.
In addition to fundraising, staff are involved in a range of community and volunteering activities. During the pandemic, one member of staff volunteered for night shifts as part of the team constructing The NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham and another served as a sergeant in The Special Constabulary.
Chief executive, Patrick Peal, started a social media #walkwithPatrick encouraging staff to post photos of themselves out in the fresh air getting exercise. Many internal briefing notes were written in the first person, with managers explaining how they were feeling and how the pandemic was impacting them personally.
EAAA organised daily activities ensuring everyone had at least one opportunity a day to socialise with colleagues and workmates. These included a film club, a weekly quiz, an art club and Desert Island Discs where a different person was in the hot seat every week being interviewed.
EAAA ran weekly wellbeing seminars on subjects including mindfulness, yoga and stress awareness and gave staff time off to get haircuts after the first lockdown ended. It also organised a challenge with staff and supporters competing in teams to run or walk the most miles during a week in September.
The Society held its annual awards night in May via Zoom and sent everyone a box of treats to enjoy during the evening and even roped in the partners of Employee of the Year and Manager of the Year to surprise them with champagne and flowers.
The Society launched a wellbeing campaign, challenging staff to doing 30 minutes of exercise for 30 days, creating some healthy competition and it also provided weekly open Tea and Talk sessions with an independent counsellor. Support is also available from 14 mental health first aiders.
Employees responded to the local NHS Heroes campaign by putting together care packages for their local hospital and each branch supported one care home locally sending a box of goodies to entertain and treat the residents. Employees have also been supporting the vulnerable in the community.
Staff can nominate colleagues who have been particularly helpful with a project or gone out of their way to provide a service for a Thank you Award with the recipient receiving a £25 voucher that can be redeemed against a wide range of retailers and leisure activities.
The Knowing Diabetes programme ensures staff continue to learn more about diabetes with a range of external speakers giving a talk every two months. New learning opportunities have included half-hour Five Things I Learnt About sessions and staff-led French and German speaking circles which ran over the summer.
The charity created virtual spaces for staff to talk about how they were doing, learn about wellbeing and keep in touch. It also held a Wellbeing Week and a virtual “at the coffee machine sessions” for people to “drop in” and talk about whatever they wanted.
Curtins promotes collaboration, encouraging virtual teams and engagement in central initiatives driven by staff working groups or forums, using social and digital platforms to create dynamic learning practices and knowledge transfer. Reverse mentoring is a pioneering initiative where junior staff partner with senior management.
The Strive Towards Excellence Programme (STEP Ahead) provides personal and behavioural development opportunities through collaborative learning in line with evolving managerial pathways. The programme is founded on the values, stories and people-focused culture of Curtins and how this is demonstrated through leadership.
A survey helped managers to understand where the teams were struggling during lockdown and how they felt they could get support. It also helped the business to develop a picture of what people were doing to promote good mental health, so that it could be shared and celebrated.
Managers have been supported throughout the pandemic with weekly teams meetings and by pairing up with colleagues for peer mentoring and support. In offices where support bubbles have been set up managers know they have colleagues to work alongside and to call upon for help and advice.
Monthly “Outstanding Awards” recognise staff going above and beyond. Employees can be nominated by their peers or by managers for demonstrating outstanding work in line with the charity's values. The winner receives a gift voucher and are celebrated in the staff monthly newsletter along with all nominees.
Staff placed on furlough have received regular “check-ins” from their line managers to keep them in touch with what's going on, give them updates on organisational changes and support their wellbeing. Staff also have access to an Employee Advice Programme which includes a 24/7 support line and online resources.
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