As you may have read in our Workplace Wellness Guide, Talent Insight Group have recently implemented a new wellness programme, tailored to the needs of our employees. This programme is based on input we received through an anonymous survey where we asked our team what they would like support on.
Below we will analyse the results of the survey, give examples of what our programme looks like today, and show how wellness has positively impacted internal engagement within the team.
For our anonymous survey, we used a site called SmartSurvey, which could anonymously capture the answers our colleagues entered. The website also created graphs and charts, giving us a visual breakdown of the results.
We asked 5 simple questions, with a comment section provided for each question:
1. Is TIG doing enough to support your wellbeing?
Comments included:
“I think TIG is a hugely supportive business, full of very well-intentioned and caring people. For this reason I nearly clicked "100% supported" - because that is how I feel and a better bunch of colleagues you couldn't find. However, I do recognise that as a small business of c4 years in age, there are more formal and robust ways that we can support everyone in this area, hence this programme and my "room for improvement" suggestion. Less improvement, and more "room for more", perhaps, which is starting with this survey!”
“I feel very supported by my organisation. I know that if I have any issues I can talk to management and they'll work with me on finding a solution that works both ways. I feel trusted to do what is right for me and the company.”
2. How does wellbeing at TIG compare to your previous employer?
Comments included:
“TIG already has a culture far superior to the one at my previous office. I feel supported and that if I wanted to raise any issues, they would be addressed quickly and effectively.”
“With my previous employer, I used to have to travel to the office even if I had no one to work with, just to have a presence in the office. I also didn't have much of a voice in my previous company. Here, I have flexible working hours, I fully work from remote and I have a voice in the business. I feel that I can make an impact and that is very important to me.”
“My previous employer wasn't very supportive of my wellbeing, whereas during my first week at TIG, they shown how supportive they are and actions speak louder than words.”
3. What areas would you like additional resources or support on?
Comments included:
“There are some great suggestions above and definite areas of interest that we can build on. Covid definitely lead to all of us working hard and delivering long hours - it was necessary and we were very lucky to be in that position, however we do need to keep an eye on everyone's work/life balance moving forward. Long days and early starts/late finishes when absolutely required are part of the job, but I'm also aware that burn out and exhaustion leads to poor quality work, loss of productivity and unhappiness. It is something we should be conscious of and work at on an ongoing basis."
4. On a scale of 1-10, how do you feel about the wellbeing support TIG provides?
5. Is there anything else wellness-related you’d like to mention or have included in a wellness programme?
Answers included:
“As a small company, TIG is doing great, but it would benefit from a wellness programme that includes areas such as diversity & inclusion, and some additional resources for mental and physical well-being. In time, we could also look into how to best support staff who "return to work", either from parental leave but also after a long absence due to sickness for instance.”
“Perhaps we could introduce something like "Wellness Wednesday" - we'd need to think about what to include in this, but it would be good to have this at the mid-point of each week. At its simplest, each of us may commit to have a coffee catch up with one other person, where we speak about anything in general - ideally non-work.”
“It will no doubt be 10/10 when we get the wellness programme up & running! 😊”
Based on the survey results above, we developed three tiers of priorities to focus on regarding the wellness of our team.
The first tier, our highest priority, was made up of:
Our second tier priority included:
And our third tier contained:
The survey was extremely useful in providing us with the full scope of what our colleagues needed support on, all while remaining anonymous.
We utilised some of the suggestions and have implemented a “Wellness Wednesday,” where each Wednesday morning we have a company-wide, informal virtual coffee break that anyone can join. This allows us to get to know each other outside of work projects, and also lets our team relax and have a chat halfway through the week.
As part of our Wellness Wednesday, we also have a monthly newsletter that goes out on the second Wednesday of each month. Our newsletter contains an article on one of the relevant topics above, recipes, links to mental health resources such as Mind and Samaritans), and upcoming calendar dates.
Also highlighted in our newsletter are the counselling and life-coaching sessions that senior management has arranged for the team. Each colleague can receive one life coaching session and 5 counselling sessions, for free, using a Life Coach and Therapist available. The invoices for these are all anonymised, so our team are able to utilise these services free from any perceived stigma, and without anyone at work knowing they need any additional support or guidance.
As our Wellness Wednesday and newsletter continues to grow, other areas we are looking at expanding on include the creation of a book club, having a spotlight interview on each teammate and hosting virtual pub quizzes.
Going forward we will also be highlighting certain days/months, such as World Mental Health Day (10th October), International Pronouns Day (20th October) and Black History Month (October). This ensures we are being inclusive and raising awareness without singling out members of our team.
For World Mental Health Day, we are also giving our team a half-day on Friday 8th October to allow for the team to enjoy an afternoon free from work, to rest, relax or do something to improve their mental health and resilience.
Given the response for work in the community, we have also implemented an additional paid day of leave for volunteering in our communities as a way to give back.
We are lucky to have a team that is very engaged in general, but since the implementation of this programme, we’ve seen an increase in conversation about mental health and wellness, as well as more comments and feedback on how the programme is going so far.
We’ve asked for our colleagues to join our “Wellbeing Committee”. Through this committee, we are able to create our newsletter and know that it will contain useful and needed resources.
In the weeks since our first newsletter went out, we’ve received comments on other apps and resources that we are looking at rolling out across the company, including Headspace, which has articles, guided meditations, and resources on stress, sleep and mindfulness.
All of this is possible because of the engagement and input of our team.
Going forward, we will be sending out secondary surveys to ensure the programme is successful. It is in these next surveys that we will gain a better understanding of what our employees think, and if there are any other areas on which we should be focusing.