National Work Life Week 2021
Today marks the beginning of the UK’s National Work Life Week 2021, a week dedicated to focusing on – and prioritising – wellbeing in the workplace and helping staff teams gain a good work-life balance.
EPIC Risk Management realise the importance of promoting positive mental health and wellbeing both inside and outside the workplace and staff wellbeing is always a priority.
This is a focus that the global leaders in gambling harm minimisation take extremely seriously and is especially important since the global Covid-19 pandemic which has posed immediate threat to our mental health, with 53% of adults in Great Britain reporting in November 2020 that their wellbeing was being affected by the pandemic.
With the outbreak under more control, employees have returned to the workplace and to accompany this, EPIC recently launched a wellbeing working group, run by five staff members from across both the UK and US sides of the business, who are working on their vision to create a positive, inclusive, authentic workplace culture.
The group currently meet bi-weekly to collectively work on implementing a successful wellbeing strategy for the future which will be impactful in all areas of EPIC employees’ lives.
EPIC’s mission is to create a place where people are proud to work, be their true selves, are enabled to thrive, and are uniquely rewarded for doing so. Their new wellbeing working group is empowering team members to ensure that people are always put first.
We have asked Pippa Robson, US Operations Coordinator at EPIC and Leader of the Wellbeing Group, to outline the group’s overall aims. She explains:
“One of EPIC’s core values is ‘people’, with people always at the heart of everything we do. This group is here to help represent that and we’re made up of 20% of staff from all levels of the business.
“We aim to embed wellbeing into working practices across the whole business, create an encouraging environment and culture where employees can be themselves and are inspired to thrive and perform at their very best, ensure our leaders are visibly committed to wellbeing, and finally, we hope to provide our staff with flexibility and encouragement to take responsibility of their own work-life balance.”
EPIC believe that encouraging their employees to be the best version of themselves increases productivity and ensures staff teams can achieve a positive work-life balance whilst most importantly enjoying their time at work.
In the near future, the business will be implementing some exciting new initiatives covering several different categories to suit employees differing views on benefits. These will be from rewards and recognition within the workplace to mental health, featuring policy reviews to ensure employees are supported when life gets tough and financial education and advice to assist staff with their futures.
Back in lockdown, an Employee Assistance Programme was set up to support EPIC employees with stresses and anxiety by providing free access to a range of resources and counselling.
Additionally, EPIC’s Head of Training and Development Caty Illingworth also continues to support many employees in completing their Mental Health First Aid qualification which is fantastic for the business internally and proves how highly EPIC value mental health.
The globally leading gambling harm minimisation consultancy are extremely proud to have been recently shortlisted as finalists in two categories at the National Investors in People Awards 2021 – ‘UK Employer of the Year (Gold)’ and ‘Best Pivot’, one for overall people performance as an employer and the latter for the way the business has positively dealt with the global pandemic.
Paul Buck, Founder and CEO of EPIC Risk Management, commented on this:
“We are incredibly proud of these recognitions, and to be acknowledged on a national level as an employer that cares, puts their people first and works as a team.
“With people at the very heart of our company values, we now have 20% of our workforce in our new Wellbeing Committee and are currently working with professional wellbeing expert Cesar Gamio to keep the focus moving forward, unleash even more potential and deliver even better results.”
For more information on National Work Life Week visit: https://workingfamilies.org.uk/nationalworklifeweek/
