BEST STAFF SUPPORT / WELLBEING INITIATIVE DURING LOCKDOWN

Hotwire Global – Igniting Possibilities

The heart of our mission at Hotwire is to ensure we’re the best consultancy you’ll ever work with. We are constantly evolving and looking for new ways to Ignite Possibilities by challenging ourselves, our employees and our clients. In the wake of Covid-19, this mission became more important than ever. Covid-19 posed a number of challenges for Hotwire; with a new-found inability to bring everyone together in one place, we needed to keep morale levels high, support staff working from home, launch our new value proposition and bring everyone together at our annual Bootcamp, all virtually. We prioritised our staff’s health and safety and introduced new wellbeing initiatives to support colleagues in the ‘new’ normal. Everything we did was made possible by our own use of technology and by the fact we had a unique working culture already in place for our employees, which ensured full business continuity as the world locked down.

NHBC

NHBC has had a specific wellbeing strategy since 2019 so, when the pandemic hit, there were firm foundations to build upon. The HR team looked at what was in place already and came up with inventive ways to supplement that. Colleagues from across the business have been trained as Mental Health First Aiders and were deployed to offer support to colleagues in need. Resources from Mental Health First Aid England on ‘Supporting your mental health while working from home’ were shared widely. Colleagues were reminded about the company’s Employee Assistance Programme (and related app) which offers a range of services including fully-funded counselling. The HR team ran regular reflection sessions called ‘Who’s Looking After You?’ to encourage colleagues to make time to focus on their own health and wellbeing. And, once the main lockdowns were over and a phased return to work was back on the agenda, the focus on wellbeing remained. Colleagues have been encouraged to take small steps to return, even just popping into the office for a social catch up with their team first. ‘Welcome back’ packs have also been issued. The message throughout has been ‘we’re in this together and your wellbeing is of utmost importance’

Octopus Energy – Providing Business as Usual Service throughout the Covid-19 Crisis

By heavily investing in well-received health and wellbeing initiatives to support the mental and physical health of our expanding fully-virtual workforce in response to Covid, Octopus Energy is proud to showcase achievement of the highest levels of customer experience, employee engagement and positive impact on our communities. Just some of our standout results include: 385% increase in customer numbers since FYE19, into the New Big6 with 7% market share, ONLY energy supplier to provide Business-As-Usual Service during lockdown 1.0, lowest customer complaints per 100k customers of any energy provider and in downward trend Q1-3 2020, 102% team growth since FYE19 to 1200+, Top 5 Glassdoor ranking for work-life balance, and 2500+ hours donated to our meter engineers to deliver 8000+ medicine and food parcels to those in need. Further illustrating our positive impact is stakeholder feedback such as: “Thank you Octopus for realising that your customers are real people. Sometimes experiencing difficulties that are out of their control” ~ Customer. “Amazing culture, amazing management and the company is so empathetic to mental health issues” ~ Employee. “I can’t quantify this part, but in my opinion you (meter engineers) have definitely saved lives.” ~ Drayton Pharmacist.

Portman Dental Care

At the beginning of the pandemic, all our dental surgeries were shut with immediate effect. Portman dental put the patients, colleagues and clinicians front and centre in their response. Telephone and video triaging systems were set up, phone calls, letters and social media were used to communicate updates and information with our patients. Colleagues and clinicians were offered professional webinars (some also made available to the wider dental community) and continuous support from the Portman Team. Some of this, such as trained mental health first aiders, are innovations we will be taking on into the future with us.

Shaw Trust – Creation of an Internal Wellbeing Team

We are a charity committed to good employment as a pathway to a better life, our values are to care about people, make a difference, to be inclusive, collaborative and honest. In response to the COVID pandemic we changed the focus of our internal staff to provide wellbeing support our employees. This team was comprised of specialist clinicians who had been providing support to our participants on our work programmes. The change in focus allowed them to support 1558 employees (over half of our workforce) from March 2020 to April 2021 and furthermore they created a formal wellbeing concern escalation process to support those employees in crisis. Our employees have noted that this service has saved their lives. The team has continued to provide support individually, training courses and created an online bank of information for employees and line managers to access for guidance and signposting. The work this team has done over the past 15 months is the foundation for a work environment where everyone can take responsibility for their own wellbeing and thrive. Wellbeing will remain at the core of our organisational objectives, values and employee experience at Shaw Trust.

The Education and Training Foundation – Wellbeing Wednesdays

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) is committed to being a mentally healthy workplace, ensuring our employees have the space to have open and honest conversations about their mental health and wellbeing.

In response to Covid-19, our workforce had to adapt to a new routine and working style, which meant we had to look at ways to increase our existing wellbeing offer. Supported by our Senior Management Team, we implemented the initiative “Wellbeing Wednesdays”, as an additional activity through our organisational change programme. This initiative enabled us to support our own, and our colleague’s wellbeing remotely, in both formal and informal ways, through a variety of support mechanisms and activities – and to ensure that every Wednesday, we would collectively be responsible to check in on our wellbeing.

By introducing this company-wide initiative, through a period of significant change in both our employees’ professional, and personal lives, we have ensured that the value and importance of supporting mental health and wellbeing at work has created a culture change. This in turn has enabled us to stay connected, engaged, supported and that every Wednesday, is now, Wellbeing Wednesday.

The Ritz London – A Holistic Approach

César Ritz was a visionary who wished to create a hotel with character, elegance and an atmosphere where guests would be pampered and expectations surpassed. His vision materialised in May 1906 when The Ritz London opened its doors and immediately became
a huge success. Such was César Ritz’s triumph that he was dubbed “King of hoteliers, and hotelier to Kings” by the future King Edward VII. The hotel has since been host to royalty and thousands of discerning guests for over a century.