First question: did you know that the biggest cause of long term staff absence from work in the UK now is mental ill health (like stress, anxiety and depression)?
Second question: what (if anything) is your business doing to help promote the mental and physical wellbeing of your team?
I'm asking because we have just launched an employee wellbeing programme at Critchleys. I thought you might be interested to find out what we're doing, and I'd really love to know what you are doing in your workplaces too.
Here's our journey so far.
First, we asked the team to suggest activities they'd like to have in the working day that would make our workplace healthier and happier. We got LOTS of ideas from them: from "puppy club" (!) to pilates!
Next, we got our whole team to vote on their top 3 choices. So, from this month, we're running:
- MONTHLY LUNCH CLUB: we go out together to try different eateries in Oxford. This is a great way to meet new people from other parts of the company (there are over 115 of us at Critchleys now)
- PILATES: a professional instructor comes to our office to get us streeeeeeetching!
- MEDITATION/MINDFULNESS: we turn our board room into a lovely relaxed space for a guided meditation session
We're just getting started so I'll definitely report back to let you know how it's all going. If you have an experience of effective ways to promote wellbeing in the workplace, I'd love to hear about it. Why not send me an email.