Our People Services department produced a virtual festival of health and wellbeing sessions supporting our staff through the changes and impacts of work and work-life balance since the pandemic and home working.
Background
The impact of COVID-19 and home working during the pandemic embedded a cultural shift in the way that people work moving forward. Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) recognised this period of significant change.
We needed to ensure that our people remained healthy, motivated and engaged in order to continue delivering high quality work which ultimately helps improve patient services.
Action
We ran a week-long virtual ‘wellbeing festival’ in support of staff. The festival hosted a variety of virtual sessions delivered by internal facilitators as well as industry experts and qualified professionals. Staff were encouraged to attend as may sessions as they felt would benefit them, but were under no pressure to engage.
The festival was designed to cover the three main topics of physical, mental and financial wellbeing. A mixture of delivery methods were employed (informative and participative), and there were some activities to undertake away from the planned sessions – for instance encouraging walks and placing resources on the staff intranet.
To ensure that the festival responded to the needs of our people, we reviewed workforce data including sickness figures and staff survey results. This enabled us to tailor events appropriately to support what was actually needed.
The festival provided the opportunity for staff to pause and reflect. It also demonstrated a strong commitment from MLCSU to its people and reinforced some key staff support themes.
Impact
The festival took place in October 2022, and saw 759 attendees at 42 sessions over the course of the week. Feedback was very positive, with an average of 4.7/5 scored for “Please rate how you feel the session has benefited your health and/or wellbeing” and 4.8/5 for “Please rate your overall experience of the session”.
A dedicated area on the staff intranet was developed and updated daily to promote our commitment to staff wellbeing. Virtual sessions were promoted daily. Positive feedback was received on the presentation of the events and the festival’s communication strategy. Many suggested that another festival takes place in the future, using the same approach.
We strived to record all sessions and share them on the intranet, so those unable to attend could view them at their leisure.
Feedback confirmed that staff were very appreciative of the festival, and they felt that wellbeing was still high on the agenda ‘post-COVID’.
“I just think that as staff we are so lucky to have had this festival available to us. I’m not sure I’m aware of another organisation that offers this level and breadth of support to staff? And even if others do it’s certainly not many? I want to add that it was exceptionally well organised as were the individual sessions themselves. I really think there should be some sort of award for what has been done here for staff wellbeing”
“A brilliant session and surpassed all of my expectations.”
“Fantastic session and really helped me to readjust my thoughts.”
Staff feedback on health and wellbeing festival sessions