People are our most important resource, without them, we couldn't bring you the excellent service and expertise we pride ourselves on. So here at DWF, we strive to ensure our people benefit from a wellbeing focused workplace.
It’s about whether our people feel well and happy. When looking at overall wellbeing, we take into account how someone feels about various aspects of their life, such as:
People spend a lot of time at work, up to 48 hours a week. This makes it an important area of wellbeing, which is why we're committed to promoting healthy workplace wellbeing.
Workplace wellbeing encapsulates the working life of our people and their overall wellbeing and satisfaction.
It relates to all aspects of working life, from the quality and safety of the physical environment, to how people feel about their work, their working environment, the climate at work and work organization.
Wellbeing is a measure of how someone feels about themselves and their life. We care about our people and want them to feel fulfilled at work.
Feelings of wellbeing are fundamental to the overall health of an individual, enabling them to successfully overcome difficulties and achieve what they want out of life.
If our people can overcome difficulties and achieve their goals, they can help you to do so as well.
To make sure we ensure the ongoing wellbeing of our people in the most holistic way, we focus on three core areas:
As a signatory to the Mindful Business Charter, we actively encourage a culture of openness to remove the avoidable stressors in the workplace and stigma surrounding mental health.
Throughout the year, we shine a spotlight on mental health to coincide with national and global campaigns, including Mental Health Awareness Week, World Mental Health Day and Time to Talk Day.
Through these campaigns, we deliver training, share resources and publish blogs. These campaigns normalise conversations about mental health, which we hope gives our people the confidence to speak up if they need help and empower others to spot when people might not be coping.
Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offers free confidential advice and counselling for all employees on a range of topics, both work-related and personal.
Additionally our wellbeing hub provides further access to resources, guides and a range of other support services to create a holistic support service.
We have introduced the role of the Wellbeing Champion to the business. These Champions have attended the Mental Health First Aid Course. The training allows them to be a first point of contact for their colleagues who may be experiencing a mental health issue, emotional distress or for managers/team members to voice their concerns regarding another colleague's wellbeing.
The Wellbeing Champion will be able to spot signs and symptoms of common mental health issues, provide preliminary support and reassurance, and guide the individual to seek the professional assistance they may require. This interaction could range from having an initial conversation through to supporting the person to get appropriate help.
The role will work in conjunction with the Group's Employee Assistance Programme.
We look to help improve our people's physical health and wellbeing. Physical health can have a massive effect on your overall wellbeing.
With office life being more sedentary than ever, there is a real risk of employees' physical health and wellbeing to suffer.
We take steps to have a positive impact on our people's physical wellbeing, so they can be healthy and happy for years to come.
With office life being more sedentary than ever, there is a real risk of employees' physical health and wellbeing to suffer.
We offer a number of contractual and voluntary benefits to help improve our people's physical wellbeing. This includes:
We design our workplaces with people's health and wellness in mind. We aim to take a holistic approach to health in the working environment addressing behavior, operations, and design.
We enhance the design process with focus on maximising conditions such as air quality, lighting and ergonomics as well as bringing the outside in, to include the use of aesthetic designs to reduce worker stress.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, our people have been working from home where the health and wellbeing of them is even more critical. To combat this we provided desk and screen equipment to all those working from home.
Work is an important part of anyone's life, but we realise that our people have many other demands in life besides their job. Just because someone's schedule may be different or they have varied demands, doesn't mean they can't produce stellar work.
We have a number of measures in place to support our people's different lifestyles and help them with changing situations in their life.
At DWF, flexible working is welcomed. It is important to our mental health to pursue both professional and personal interests but achieving this balance can be quite a challenge.
We openly talk about approaches to flexible working in all our job vacancies.
We encourage all our people to recognise the signs of an unhealthy life balance and identify ways of sustaining a positive work-life balance.
Evidence shows that helping others can also benefit our own wellbeing.
As a business, we understand we have the power to change the world around us. Helping people and communities thrive is good for everyone and good for business. Through our responsible business agenda, we aim to inspire, engage and challenge our people to tackle some of society’s biggest issues, while supporting their wellbeing.
Our people we enable all employees to volunteer during business hours for up to 15 hours per year.
Read more about our work in the community.