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Hyde Housing: Staff Wellbeing Q&A

Hyde Housing: Staff Wellbeing Q&A

We interviewed Hyde Housing, one of the UK's leading housing providers, to find out more about their staff wellbeing initiative.

Can you tell us a bit about Hyde Housing?

We are one of the UK’s leading and award-winning providers of affordable housing in London, the south east of England and neighbouring areas. We have approximately 1,100 members of staff in the team.

How was your employee wellbeing initiative conceived?

We established a wide-ranging wellbeing programme in 2015. It provides support and resources for all aspects of workplace wellbeing - from physical and mental health to financial wellbeing, as well as a positive working environment for our employees.

Do you think employers have a responsibility to ensure that their staff are cared for from a wellbeing perspective?

We think employers do have a responsibility to support employee wellbeing at work and beyond. It’s really important for us to make sure we’re offering the best support that we can, especially given the challenges faced because of the Covid-19. Whether that’s in the form of benefits, information, activities or a video call to check in, we make sure that our employees know that support is available if they need it.

Can you tell us how your staff benefit from your wellbeing initiative?

Our staff benefit from our holistic approach to wellbeing and we have various initiatives and options that they can choose from. Including:

LiveWell: Promotes physical health and healthy lifestyle choices.

  • Flu vaccinations
  • Cash plan to claim back on health related appointments
  • Step challenges
  • Cycle-to-work scheme


CopeWell: Reassures employees about how we can support them during tough times and to enable them to be confident in knowing where to go for stress and how to deal with it effectively.

  • Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - provides staff and immediate family free and confidential advice 24/7, covering legal, financial, medical, work concerns and counselling.
  • Workplace massages.


WorkWell: Ensures employees have a sustainable work-life balance and a great working environment.

  • Information to clarify flexible working and sabbatical scheme.
  • Two days paid leave for volunteering.


SpendWell: Enables employees to be financially confident and raises awareness on support if in financial difficulty.

  • Our iSave platform provides an array of discounts, cashback and special offers.
  • Our technology scheme (through iSave) enables employees to purchase items from Currys PC World - they obtain a voucher and pay through their salary over 24 months.
  • Financial education programmes with onsite and online seminars for employees at different stages of their career.

        

Do you have plans to develop this initiative in the future?

Our wellbeing programme is constantly evolving mainly due to employee feedback and research. When introducing new benefits, we aim for them to be creative and inclusive. Everyone is different, as are their wellbeing needs – it’s important for our wellbeing programme to reflect that.

How do you support team members who may be struggling and have you made any changes due to Covid-19?

We have added a number of benefits and initiatives to our wellbeing programme to support employees during the pandemic. Along with continuing to promote current services such as EAP we introduced an online GP (Smart Health) as well as a mindfulness app (Headspace) which is available at no cost to employees.

In 2020 we set up a dedicated group made up of colleagues from across the business to focus on wellbeing activities and ensure employee engagement continued during the difficult period. We ran:

  • Resilience workshops
  • A phone a friend initiative
  • Wednesday wellbeing webinars focussing on subjects such as eating well and sleep
  • Online yoga lessons
  • Competitions to keep employees moving, such as Home marathon and our 100 Mile March (walking 100 miles during March).

We engage with employees using Workplace, a company-based social media platform. We use it to share ideas, promote a new benefit or activity and to keep in touch with colleagues. It’s a great way for staff to share pictures, stories, updates and more. It also provides a sense of community whilst most of our colleagues work from home.

Is there anything else you can tell us about your wellbeing initiative, such as any awards you have received?

Supporting colleagues - many of whom had been affected personally by the pandemic - and maintaining mental wellbeing in a virtual workplace has been a priority. We have recently won the award for ‘Best Inhouse Internal Communications Team’ at the ‘CovidComms Awards’ (run by CorpComms Magazine). The awards celebrate ‘brilliance in communication during the pandemic’.

Thank you to Hyde Housing for taking part in this Q&A. Find out more about Hyde Housing here.

Images courtesy of Hyde Housing.

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