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Wellbeing within the workplace is not a new initiative, especially after the year we’ve all had. But what’s changed is that employee wellbeing has moved from being a ‘nice-to-have’ benefit to become an essential part of any business. In the US, the month of May is dedicated to raising awareness of Mental Health, and this week was the UK’s Mental Health Awareness Week. So we’re taking time to reflect. 

Why? Because we’re only as strong as our mental health, so it’s important that we are always looking after ourselves. If we’re not feeling 100%, this impacts both our personal and professional lives. As a company, we strongly believe that stars are made to sparkle and have always placed the wellbeing of our employees at the forefront of everything we do. It was built into our DNA.

There’s no denying that the pandemic has had a real and sustained impact on people’s lives. While working from home has offered flexibility, it’s also emphasised some of the existing challenges (loneliness, burnout, juggling homeschooling, childcare and work) and striking a perfect work-life balance. 

To help our colleagues on their well being journey, this month we’re gifting every team member personal wellbeing boxes - filled with exciting top-secret goodies to surprise and delight them. We’ve also set up exclusive speaker sessions with Kenton Cool to discuss mental resilence and working together in  high performing teams to achieve goals.

We have also sent our astronauts a gift to show we care about their health and wellbeing, which we hope they will enjoy.

At Deliverect, we strive to create a workplace that promotes mental, physical and emotional wellbeing every day. As a people-first business, the mental wellbeing of our team members is our number one priority. Here are some wellbeing initiatives we’re preparing to roll out this month... and beyond!

 

Working smarter, not harder

In the advent of the digital age, switching off from work can be a challenge. With work now being from home, switching off is much easier said than done - which can quickly lead to increased stress and burnout.

 

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One way we’ve sought to tackle this is by encouraging our employees to create and stick to concrete boundaries - for example, Wednesdays we are encouraging our team to have ‘no internal meetings’ days to help everyone focus on getting priority tasks ticked off of the to-do list.

To achieve this we quite simply worked with our team members to agree upon what constitutes a reasonable working practices. Having a flat company culture means everyone has their say on how to make Deliverect a better place to work. 

 

Getting physical

At the start of lockdown, we all had big ambitions of using our newly freed commuting time as our workout sessions. However, this was soon taken up by extra hours in front of the computer, meaning a lack of everyday exercise. Before the pandemic, most Deliverect employees were able to kill two birds with one stone by actually using their commute to fit exercise in - some walked while others cycled to the office daily.

 

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No matter how big or small, we all know the importance of being active and the role it plays in our overall well being, as well as combating mental health issues like anxiety and stress. In order to make exercise activities as accessible to our team members as possible, we implemented numerous initiatives to help get our teams moving again.

Knowing that we have some keen fitness enthusiasts (of all levels!) on the team, we set up a virtual running group on Strava to help us all stay connected during our daily exercise achievements and help boost morale. Last November we also hosted a fitness challenge month, holding a series of virtual Yoga, Tai-Chi and Zumba classes for team members to get stuck in!

Looking ahead, our new office will have a shower, perfect for anyone who wants to dedicate time to exercise during the working day; we’ll continue to offer healthy snacks and drinks to help them cool-off.

 

Staying connected

Sometimes it’s good to just talk. Consistent and clear communication in any business is the key to a happy and healthy workforce. As an organization, we’ve really doubled down on our approach to internal communications. For us keeping in touch with one another regularly helps to create a sense of cohesion for work projects and boosts the team’s spirit, particularly for those who may be living alone whilst also working from home.

 

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Since covid lockdown began, we’ve hosted biweekly ‘Donut’ calls, which are 30 minute Zoom chats between two randomly selected colleagues. They’ll grab a donut (or whatever sweet treat floats their boat) and chat about anything and everything for half an hour. When our business quadrupled from 50 to 200 across nine markets last year, our ‘Donut’ sessions proved to be a great way for everyone to meet and get to know each other - specifically our new joiners.

Fundamentally, employee wellbeing is all about listening to one another - a simple ‘no, how are you really doing?’ does wonders.

We’re not perfect, but we understand that mental health and wellbeing is important to everyone. We’re using our open and transparent company culture to the advantage of our employer’s mental wellbeing to understand exactly what work-life balance means for our team. We’re dedicated to this for the long term and plan to continue using the insights of the entire team to better enhance our business in how it supports staff members to be the best version of themselves.

Jennifer Gardner
May 29, 2021 by Jennifer Gardner

Head of People at Deliverect