Make A Difference Media has announced the winners of its first-ever workplace wellbeing awards.
Aldi, Infinity, British Red, Allen & Overy’s Client Services & Mental Health Ally, Christine Howarth, and Tobermore Concrete’s MD David Henderson scooped awards for their innovative workplace wellbeing efforts. The winners of the first-ever Make A Difference Awards demonstrated “the importance of wellbeing for everyone in the workplace after a year dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic”, confirmed the organiser. “Psychological safety, employee security and a whole person approach ensured wins in the new workplace mental health and wellbeing awards.”
WINNING WELLNESS PLATFORM
Sponsored by Royal Mail and Optima Health, the awards celebrate the individuals and employers who have led the way in improving work culture and mental health for colleagues and employees. UK supermarket chain Aldi was voted best Corporate Employer for supporting its employees both in and outside work. Its MyWellness platform, launched on the internal MyAldi app in 2020, takes a whole person approach focusing on five areas of health and wellbeing; mental, physical, financial, nutritional and social. The proof of its success is that since its launch it has been visited by all 45,000+ employees.
The family culture promoting psychological safety at leading call intelligence provider Infinity assured its place as winner of the SME Employer category; while British Red Cross’ new free Volunteer Support Line (VSL) won the charity top spot in the Public Sector/Charity category. The service was launched in specific response to the pandemic; in part to ensure volunteers maintained a healthy balance in their volunteer and personal lives.
UNSUNG HERO & TRUE LEADER
A mental health ambassador from a London law firm was declared Unsung Hero in the individual category of the awards. Christine Howarth, Client Services and Mental Health Ally at Allen & Overy has made a huge impact on colleagues by keeping in touch regularly and writing about the work of the allies, stress awareness and lockdown lifelines.
Knowing and understanding how financial stresses can impact employees’ mental health contributed to Tobermore Concrete’s Managing Director David Henderson being awarded the True Leader gong. His nomination stated: “David always thinks of his people first. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he went over and above to ensure his employees have felt as secure as possible in these difficult times.”
Amongst other initiatives, the MD of Tobermore Concrete saw to it that furloughed employees were paid a full salary at the beginning of the pandemic; and established a full pay Covid-19 sick pay scheme if people were self-isolating or off sick due to coronavirus. There were 136 submissions for the awards and judges announced a shortlist of 14 in May. The public was then invited to vote a winner in each of the five categories.
Almost 5,000 votes were cast and the winners were announced at the Make A Difference Insights & Awards webinar on 15 June; where judges and winners shared valuable tips on how to make a difference to workplace culture, mental health and wellbeing.
WORKPLACE MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
“Entries for the awards showed that companies big and small have really taken on board the importance of mental health and wellbeing, in a year that has been unlike any other,” stated Dr Shaun Davis, Royal Mail’s Global Director of Compliance & Sustainability. “The judges were particularly impressed to see so many organisations nominated that they haven’t seen embracing this agenda before; demonstrating that workplace mental health and wellbeing are fast moving mainstream.”
Adding to his comments, Simon Arnold, CEO of Optima Health, said: “Mental health and wellbeing jumped straight to the top of the business agenda when the pandemic first hit; and it was great to see so many organisations embracing new employee-centred initiatives.”
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
The Make A Difference Awards were “launched as an opportunity to stop, think and thank the individuals and employers who have really made a difference to workplace mental health and wellbeing, during what has been an incredibly tough year”, highlighted Claire Farrow, Partner & Global Director of Content at Make a Difference. “These organisations and individuals lead the way and inspire others to follow their example.”
Joining Davis, Arnold and Farrow on the judging panel were Dr Kamel Hothi OBE, Non-Executive Director of TLC Lions; Stacy Thomson, Founder of The Performance Club; and Louise Aston, Wellbeing Campaign Director, Business in the Community.
Read more about this year’s finalists here.
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