Video: Tracey Newton director of colleague experience at YBS on engaging staff with wellbeing
The building society started their wellbeing journey in 2017 and Newton believes that there have been three key elements that have helped it to move the wellbeing forward.
“One was, we didn’t really call it wellbeing. We didn’t give it a name and we didn’t give it a badge, we just started to talk about different subjects around our primary focus – which in the beginning was mental wellbeing and resilience.
“The other thing we did was we made it quite relevant. It was connected to what people were feeling at that point in time,” explains Newton.
The final piece used to drive change was being able to start conversations from the top. She explains that one of their senior leaders did an internet story about their own mental health and what he did to manage it. And by having role models in place who were talking about these types of issues they were able to open up more conversations.
Newton attended REBA’s exclusive Next Generation Wellbeing breakfast in association with Mercer Marsh Benefits. It brought together employers and industry experts to discuss new approaches to employee wellbeing.
The themes raised in this interview, such as authenticity and senior leadership, will be among the topics discussed at the Employee Wellbeing Congress in September.
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