With financial pressures here to stay…we need to think bigger.
Existing wellbeing provision that employees don’t have time to access and leadership programmes that don’t demonstrate lasting change are not the answer…
You have a lot to gain…
A relatively small investment in external support and coaching to improve staff wellbeing can help you move forward faster, save you money and improve your metrics for the longer term.
We can complement and support internal wellbeing programmes and L&D teams to work through challenges, help uncover different perspectives and get people on board while you’re all busy doing the day job.
Wellbeing offerings can only go so far without individual resilience and individual resilience needs to be supported by addressing systemic barriers.
What is stress-related absence costing your organisation?
How often have you felt you’re just trying to get through every day
How is stress impacting your relationships?
How often have you said, or heard others say ‘if I just get this week/presentation/meeting over, and I’ll be ok’…but you still feel the same afterwards?
How engaged are your employees?
Are you seeing lasting, sustained improvements from your current wellbeing and leadership programmes?
Get in touch and we can discuss your challenges, budget and overall needs and find a tailored, flexible solution to adapt to the new external climate.
What did we do?
Firstly, I prioritised wellbeing within the Service strategy and that drove my decision-making.
And…got creative.
I involved the whole team and was open and transparent about the challenges and restrictions we faced. No false or toxic positivity or alarm bells, just authentic, honest conversations.
We…
Set clear expectations
Co-created agreements for ways of working.
Established a cross functional ‘one team’ approach.
Reviewed priorities.
Listened and became open to accepting new ideas.
Reviewed workload planning.
Created a reward and recognition scheme.
Increased tolerance for risk.
Brought the ‘doing things differently’ vision to life to guide decision making and actions.
Curated curiosity and open, regular discussion.
Celebrated successes.
Provided autonomy, flexibility and choice for staff.
Reviewed our position of trust.
Sound familiar?
Sound familiar?
Within my service I led multiple teams and was building a positive culture which was starting to bear fruit. Until…
After the third institutional cost cutting exercise, I had lost 30% of my team and 40% of my non-pay budget and still needed to provide growth. I was not alone as all departments faced severe cuts.
My team was feeling the pressure, and lacking morale and motivation due to constant restructuring and financial pressures. They were picking up more and more work and stress for no monetary benefit and I had no funding to support them through it.
Staff survey results started to decline, sickness absence rose, retention became more difficult. This added even more pressure on those remaining due to recruitment freezes meaning roles were left vacant for significant periods of time.
The managers were overwhelmed, trying to support staff and the operations whilst also following and supporting direction from senior leadership.
With no light at the end of the tunnel regarding change and levels of pressure, something had to change.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” - Pete Drucker
The outcome?
Overall positive. We made mistakes, it wasn’t easy, quick or hassle-free but progress was made and we got through.
We made the best of what we had.
This intentional focus to improve staff wellbeing alone can create powerful change.
The changes I saw included:
Engagement & satisfaction improved.
Staff survey results improved.
Overall productivity improved.
Absence reduced.
New services and systems were launched saving thousands of pounds.