The team at Serco have been talking to Knowsley Chamber about what they have been doing to help their colleagues deal with their biggest challenges…
“In January of this year, we asked our colleagues to tell us what their three main challenges are at the moment, both in and out of work. The response we received was overwhelmingly highlighting financial issues and mental wellness. We felt that this was a useful insight, and it allowed us to really tailor our communications strategy for 2022 to fit in with the things our people want to see.
In April, we launched our Stress Awareness Month, which looked at signs and symptoms, triggers, combatting, and long-term stress over the course of the month. We developed a Stress Handbook, which contained easy to use exercises, hints and tips on how to recognise and combat stress. The response to this was positive.
Following on from this (and drawing on the success of our Winter Walk With Me campaigns), we introduced our Walking Challenge for May whereby our people could form teams in their own areas, and their miles were added up and we would see how far around the globe we could get in terms of where our worldwide sites were based, for example North America or Abu Dhabi. The response to this was way beyond our expectations. People have felt a sense of teamwork and comradery again, which is brilliant.
We have introduced several new rooms to our site. The first is The Den, where people can go to have fun. We have chill out spaces here, a chalk board for writing on, several table-top games, bean bags, a pool table, and a foosball table.
The second is The Snug, a chill out quiet space where people can get away from the hustle and bustle and take some time for themselves. The third is The Pantry, which is stocked with donations from the business and from our people, for those who have forgotten lunch or breakfast, or those who are working outside of the normal hours our canteen is open. There has been such a buzz on site about all of these rooms, and the feedback has been positive, and we are looking to role these rooms out across our estate.
We opened our Employee Assistance Programme and Thrive app access to all our colleagues. Previously, this had been only for Serco permanent colleagues, but we knew that our agency workers needed this access too.
We also have on site Wellness Rooms, where those who are experiencing particularly difficult times, whether at work or at home, can go and have some time to themselves. We have a sign to tell others whether the room is occupied or not so that privacy can be maintained. These rooms are used daily, not just by people who need it, but our people managers can take a member of their team in there should they need support. Serco continue to benefit from introductions, free wellbeing courses and events that Knowsley Chamber of Commerce and the Knowsley Working Well programme offer. We have had Workplace Health Champions in our business since 2018.”
If you are a Knowsley based business and would like to discuss your own health and wellbeing strategy in your workplace or to find out more about the Working Well programme and support available then please contact: lorna.marshall@knowsleychamber.org.uk