How effective is your employee wellbeing strategy?

Last week we hosted our latest HR Director’s Dinner in Birmingham, in partnership with Eversheds.

The topic of wellbeing has gained the spotlight in recent times and thankfully this is gaining more traction with employers. To coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, we brought together HR leaders from across the Midlands to discuss this further.

Les Wright (Assistant Director of HR, Workplace and Wellbeing at Birmingham University), opened as our first guest speaker with thoughts, examples and guidance around implementing a wellbeing strategy in a complex organisation.

Some great take-away points from the event included:

  • Don’t oversimplify your wellbeing offer. People will naturally react differently and there is no ‘one size fits all’.
  • You need to achieve impact at 3 levels: Individual, Team and Organisational. These feed into each other, for example for a team to support an individual there must be an organisational framework.
  • If you haven’t already, have a copy of the Stevenson Farmer report handy and use this as your starting point.

Usually wellbeing is talked about in relation to mental health (stress at work being a key point) and our physical fitness, but what about our financial wellbeing?

Steve Reay (Head of Corporate Employee Banking at HSBC) discussed the impact that finances can have on our wellbeing. One third of us have concerns over money and the stigma over admitting this is still very real. So, how do we include this in the wellbeing agenda? Being able to sign-post appropriate avenues for staff to gain support is key, but how do we move to proactive rather than reactive support?

We had a full house at the event and a lively discussion covering flexible working, how to help employees get more from their money, as well as supporting managers and HR as an enabler to wellbeing in the workplace.

Thank you to our guest speakers, attendees and to Eversheds for hosting. Please get in touch at AmySharp@oakleafpartnership.com if you’re interested in attending future HR Directors Dinners or HR networking events in Birmingham.

 

 

 

 

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