When Vitaco planned to launch a wellbeing programme in 2020, we did not want to “do” wellbeing to our people. After all, wellbeing means different things to each of us.
Even pre-Pandemic, we believed supporting our teams to have enhanced mental health could add the most value. Therefore we adopted the Six Ways to Wellbeing. Inspired by the well-researched “Five Ways of Wellbeing: Connect, Give, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Be Active”; Vitaco added a sixth way – Nourish.
Of course we did; nutrition is in our DNA.
Fast forward to the end of 2021, another year of lengthy lock-downs and significant challenges for our field, manufacturing and distribution teams. Who could have predicted the increased importance of mental health for our people?
Our Six Ways to Wellbeing Program has delivered educational webinars, fund-raisers, competitions and wellbeing packs. We’ve brought teams together on new digital platforms – ironically we’ve got to know each other better. We’ve found that connection is everything; true connection that demonstrates that someone is thinking about me; somebody cares about how I am coping (or notices that I’m not coping).
Wellbeing has indeed meant different things to our people. Those at the coal face largely want to feel safe while working and the measures we’ve taken to protect our people and our business has achieved that. Everyone has been kept informed and it’s reaped amazing engagement. Not only are our people confident that our business is making the right decisions, but they are reporting a greater sense of wellbeing.