Following an increase in the stress absences of staff, Dawn Spencer, Group HR Manager was keen to launch a new Health and Wellbeing strategy to equip senior managers with mental health awareness. Feedback from employees flagged up the extent to which they wanted help to improve their own wellbeing which provided a clear opportunity to align employee engagement with a business need.
Central to Dawn’s strategy was a drive to make staff find ways to proactively prevent ill health and absence issues from arising. The Listening Centre ran a series of workshops, ranging from Stress Management for key staff, to Managing Stress for their H&S Committee. Dawn’s comments: “The Listening Centre had the right blend of skills required to encourage employees to look after themselves better and support them in making positive lifestyle changes.”
“Because of our incredibly diverse workforce, ranging from scientists to people who pull things off shelves to administrators it was important to focus on wellbeing issues common to everyone” says Dawn. She continues: “The Wellbeing Manual for Managers workshop provided by The Listening Centre was ideal. It went far beyond looking at stress management to get to the heart of what it meant to be mentally healthy as an organisation.”
Following the workshop and the introduction of our stress policy, a significant number of employees became aware of their stress levels. “In general, the health and wellbeing advice and support provided by The Listening Centre was so popular that we have commissioned them to deliver a second round of workshops to our Middle Management” says Dawn. “The event was very well attended and received lots of positive feedback.” She adds, “The Listening Centre has played a key role in enabling us to change the way employees look after their mental health, helping us reduce the annual sickness rate.”
