How the Wellbeing Team was initially set up
The self-selected team was formed from a cross-section of the company offering differing levels of business and personal experiences. The original intention was to put together a team who would become the ‘go-betweens’ for staff and the owners of the business. The team is able to keep an open eye, lend a listening ear and be there for anyone who has any issues whether personal or work related with the hope of offering support and hopefully ‘nipping in the bud’ anything that would become a bigger issue than it needed to be.
Why the Wellbeing Team has been set up
Our aim is to make the workplace a happier place to be by :
- Increasing team bonding and morale
- Praising good work and recognise all efforts made
- Showing that as a company, we care about our people and value them as part of the team
- Recognising that everyone at some time in their lives will struggle with their mental health encouraging an open transparent attitude to everyone’s sense of wellbeing
- Letting our colleagues know there is someone in the team they can talk to in confidence
- Improving our workplace culture and make people feel proud to work at Conscious
What the Wellbeing team do now and how they are used by the staff and company
In early 2018 we started with an anonymous staff survey and asked how everyone felt about working at Conscious. We gathered the comments and openly discussed the feedback and listened to everyone’s thoughts and suggestions. The last year has been a genuine attempt to improve how people feel about getting up in the morning and coming to work. We joined in with the National Mental Health Awareness Week with activities such as a 'curry and chaat' (see what we did there?) and a 'knit-a-thon' as well as decorating the office with colourful ‘Wellbeing’ posters containing celebrity quotes. The office environment is working towards being more ‘colourful’ with a wall mural in the kitchen and a healthier office full of plants. Just before Christmas everyone also voted for our ‘Conscious hero’ - that special person who we felt always went above and beyond. The current recipient of the award is Bryony Cole who has been with us almost 12 years and won by a landslide!
Changing the culture of our company is ongoing and is something that takes time and dedication. We find the more we do, the more signs we see that the atmosphere is changing for the good and that makes for a better place where people are more engaged, more creative and more productive.
