A robust wellbeing strategy, to drive performance and unity
“Leading retail chain seeks comprehensive wellbeing strategy to guide and support entire workforce.”
As a people-centric retail organisation with a portfolio of diverse brands, Greenlit Brands wanted to shift the dial on the perception of their leader’s care for employee wellbeing. In 2019, we designed and ran Greenlit Brands’ first Group-wide Employee Experience survey, uncovering this insight and the need to take action:
We set out with five objectives;
A clearly articulated strategy and shared language around mental health and wellbeing.
Reinforce Greenlit’s commitment to their people’s wellbeing and break away the stigma of mental health, while providing clarity on what was expected of leaders.
Ensure their people have a foundational understanding of mental health, physical safety and psychological safety.
Build awareness of the wellbeing resources available to them and encouraging them to engage.
Build a comprehensive activation roadmap that could engage and inspire their people, potentially from a distance.
We facilitated workshops with Greenlit Brands’ highly engaged group of representatives from a cross section of brands within the group. Through these robust sessions we unpacked our shared intent and existing initiatives, tools and resources that we could leverage to ensure we maximised our impact on the organisation's 3,500+ people.
The outcome of this process was; a documented wellbeing strategy consisting of:
A Strategy on a page, complete with mission statement, core principles, metrics and initiatives.
A comprehensive activation roadmap, including leadership buy-in, governance, policy, EAP provider review, digital hub for all tools and resources, funding, training initiatives and communications campaigns around key dates.
The next task was to connect their people to the mission statement, principles and the resources available to them. And the timing was perfect with R U OK? day on the horizon to use as our platform for awareness. We developed a narrative and visual identity for mental health and wellbeing at Greenlit Brands – Best of you, Best of us – to help direct and inform communications. Our Creative Team then worked alongside our in-house Psychologist to develop a suite of impactful, engaging and effective tools for activation, including:
A Wellbeing Toolkit – consolidating all of Greenlit Brands’ wellbeing resources, and providing the tools to embed that information into the employee journey.
An E-Learning Module – to ensure maximum visibility.
A Launch poster – to kickstart the initiative and raise awareness.
Practical activities for Leaders to land key messages about R U OK? Day and Psychological Safety – and help team members put these learnings into practice through role play and gamification.
The work now acts as a group-wide strategic framework and narrative that supports Greenlit Brands in proactively driving positive health and wellbeing (with enough flex to tweak and tailor to each individual brand). Success will be measured by tracking a number of metrics across time, including:
Difference in time lost to workplace injuries
Number of Mental health incidents
Employee Assistance Program usage
Wellbeing-focussed EX survey results.
Client testimonial:
"This work is of huge value to the wellbeing of our people. Having been in the business for 19 years, this is the initiative I’m most proud of.” - Christine Polson, Chief People Officer
"Thank you for assisting us with our Mental Health program design. The content you’ve developed has certainly made a strong impression on us. This work will be used to help our employees better understand mental health, clearly see how we are working together and will equip our leaders with confidence.” - Andrew, Group Head of Safety and Wellness
Our recently published ‘COVID-19: Crisis or Catalyst’ Report identified ‘Employee mental health, wellbeing and safety’ as the number one priority for CEOs moving forward. Understanding your responsibility to your employees’ wellbeing is about far more than meeting ‘what’s legally required’. To ensure both authenticity and efficacy in your wellbeing strategy, you must have a well-researched support offering grounded in the training, ongoing support and resources your company is offering. Determining where your focus should lie, and what initiatives should be included in your strategy requires a thoughtful analysis of the right data.
To find out more about how we work with our clients to develop and embed their employee wellbeing strategies why not get in touch with our Head of Strategic Communications nick@weareunity.com.
For more thought leadership on this topic you can also listen to The Chair and Commissioner of the National Mental Health Commission, Lucinda Brogden speak as part of Catalyst Conversation LIVE series.
