At ESS, staff and trustee wellbeing is central to how we work; we support them and help them develop, so they can fulfil their roles and feel valued!
To achieve this, we believe it is good practice to embed evaluation into all aspects of our organisation throughout the year. We do this by evaluating our workshops, tailored support and events; individually we add feedback from our work to our support and supervision notes; at team meetings we have an item to celebrate successes and another to focus on a particular piece of work to draw together the learning!
We want our team to be at their best, enjoy work and recognise each other’s stressors and energisers. We believe that it is important to recognise that everyone has ups and downs, in and outside of work and that we all have different needs to manage that.
We know that wellbeing is an ongoing process, and our wellbeing policy aims to reflect on how we can help each other as colleagues, and as an organisation, rather than just responding to crisis!
“Everyone I mention it to is so impressed by ESS’s wellbeing policy for staff. It works because the policy reflects our culture, and our culture reflects our policy.”
MaRtha Lester-Cribb, Deputy Director
Our wellbeing policy is about how we recognise and manage different needs so that we can all individually be at our best, and so that ESS can perform at its best!
The policy is co-created with the ESS team to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard.
“We aren’t complacent about having a positive culture – we often use staff away days to revisit the topic and check that we all know how best to support each other.
MaRtha Lester-Cribb, Deputy Director
ESS aims to have a positive and supportive culture that recognises:
- No-one is perfect and we will all have times when we are not at our best
- We need to look out for and support each other and that might look different for different people
Within the policy, both learning and wellbeing are promoted.
To support this, an allowance is provided for staff to do things like take a short course, or class to learn new skills, or go for a massage or spa day!
“Being able to choose how I use my wellbeing allowance makes me feel both valued and looked after.”
MaRtha Lester-Cribb, Deputy Director
“As a single parent who works full time it isn’t easy to prioritise my wellbeing, with my wellbeing allowance I chose to do Shiatsu to help me relax and focus on myself. I had 3 sessions with a therapist I already knew – so I could be sure it was going to be useful for me.”
– JESS MARTINEZ, TRAINING OFFICER
“I appreciate the encouragement to use the wellbeing allowance. I tried something new, learnt a new skill and had fun in the process!”
Marianne Kirsop, Communications Officer
It is important that we know that this policy is being used as intended and is meeting a need – so we measure the success of the policy in various ways, including keeping lines of communication open between managers and staff, and through our annual staff survey.
This allows our wellbeing policy to continue to be shaped by the needs of the team.
