About New Charter Group

New Charter Group recently participated in the Global Corporate Challenge, a unique approach based on science and proven results, with the principle that any health programme should be done for and with employees. People have had to engage and participate willingly because ultimately only the individual can make the key lifestyle changes required to improve their physical and mental health. This year people taking part by tracking their exercise over a 100 day period to record their progress. The GCC doesn’t only track people’s physical fitness, but also measures improvements in sleep, eating healthier and mental health. This year participants swam, walked and rode a combined 109,323 miles. Additionally, New Charter Group are working with their local NHS Be Well service, providing drop in and appointment sessions for colleagues to receive weekly one to one sessions with health professionals regarding weight loss, smoking cessation, drinking less alcohol, reducing stress and exercising more. Furthermore New Charter Group recently teamed up with Healthy Minds, an NHS funded service delivering workplace advice sessions to colleagues, thereby normalising the topic of stress and mental health. The sessions discuss recognising the symptoms of stress and the range of techniques that people can use to deal with them straight away. The trainer provides details of the services that Healthy Minds offer, including counselling, mindfulness and CBT either online and/or face to face.

New Charter Group are committed to raising awareness of dementia within the community and have therefore adopted Dementia Friends and the Alzheimer’s Society as their corporate charities. They have pledged to create as many new Dementia Friends as possible within their local communities by allowing any employee to attend a Dementia Friend awareness session during working time. This is achieved by enabling two colleagues to train as Dementia Friend Champions, allowing them to deliver awareness sessions and create new Dementia Friends. Every employee is entitled to an extra two days leave per year on top of their annual entitlement to give time back to working with charities or community initiatives of their choice. New Charter Group assist adults to help them become work ready and move them into secure paid employment or volunteering by delivering weekly work clubs. This enables New Charter to best support vulnerable individuals who are at risk of homelessness, ex-offenders and/or people who are recovering from addiction. They deliver this employment support in partnership with the local authority’s Adult and Community Learning Programme and The Lifeline Project. Lifeline colleagues and volunteers accompany customers to the work club, offering one to one help and support with CV writing, job seeking and overcoming multiple barriers into employment.

As New Charter Group have responded to challenging times their teams have continued to go the extra mile, so they wanted to find a way to say thank you to each and every employee. In recognition of all the hard work, they decided their people deserved an extra day off work on their birthday. The Chief Executive was delighted to announce this new benefit at a recent people conference. Rewarding people in this way has allowed them to offer a unique benefit on a special occasion to make the celebration of their birthday even more memorable. There have been lots of stories about how people have been spending their time.