We’re incredibly proud to have won ‘Best Employee Network & Resource Group’ at the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards 2024! After bringing home the ‘Team of the Year’ prize in 2023, it’s fantastic to get even more recognition this time around – but what’s the secret to our award-winning Wellbeing programme?
Wellbeing is a core value at ITG that has been integral to what we are since the start of the business in 2009 – and has only grown and developed as we’ve become what we are today!
We appreciate the efforts of all team members for contributing to creating a happy and healthy environment to work in – but the work of our outstanding Wellbeing team truly cannot be understated, especially given our extensive recognition at this year’s Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards – where we picked up one award and were shortlisted in a further three categories.
Our Wellbeing team is behind some of our most impactful initiatives that directly improve the work experience of our employees in meaningful ways. Some of our favourites include:
- Annual paid Wellbeing Days – employees can choose a day with as little as 24 hours notice to have off and do whatever might improve their Wellbeing, whether it’s a chill day at home, relaxing at a spa or a day out with friends and family.
- The Westfield Health plan – making healthcare more accessible for all employees and ensuring that there are always resources available to them when needed.
- Flexible bank holidays – national bank holidays can be switched so employees can have the days off for other events at different times of the year to suit their needs.
- Enhanced sick pay – ensuring that employees aren’t missing out for the sake of their health
- Annual paid Volunteer Days – a day every year employees can organise on their own or with colleagues to volunteer for a cause important to them (with fundraising matched up to £1000 by the business thanks to our charity support scheme).
- Flexi-work approach – employees are able to work from a combination of home and office.
An extension of these initiatives is our Wellbeing Champions – a team of over 50 employees trained to provide extra support and to be easy to access for all team members, no matter where they’re based. This team of Champions are not only on hand to all staff, but they keep the team in touch with the rest of the company to see what initiatives could be pushed to further improve Wellbeing. Successful systems like this are why we’re so proud of winning the ‘Best Employee Network & Resource Group’ category.
We also provide access to independent and confidential advice for legal, bereavement, health-related, family or financial issues – a service that makes tackling such uncomfortable topics more digestible and manageable for our employees. It’s part of the reason we’re so pleased to have been shortlisted for ‘Best Financial Wellbeing Initiative’.
This is just a taste of what our Wellbeing team have worked towards to make sure all employees are receiving the extra support that genuinely improves wellbeing.
Our Together Groups are one of the most personal ways we are able to support our employees, giving unique camaraderie and companionship to our diverse pool of team members, often with shared backgrounds or experiences. These range from Working Parents Together to Men’s Health Together, and we’re adding new groups all the time!
Access to social support from like-minded colleagues is a massive reassurance to many of our members. These groups were not created as a cynical box-ticking exercise, but by genuine demand and led by the people who wanted them – facilitated by the Wellbeing team and wider business. Seeing the impact of our Together Groups and how helpful they’ve been to employees is why being shortlisted for the ‘Best DE&I Initiative’ Wellbeing award is so important to us.
Of course, every great team needs great leadership behind the scenes – like our brilliant People Director, Lisa Elrod, who made the shortlist for ‘Most Inspiring Senior Leader of the Year’. Lisa is a big part of what makes our Wellbeing programme tick – and this recognition comes off the back of our Head of Employee Wellbeing, Sarah Stead, also being shortlisted in the ‘Health & Wellbeing’ category of Campaign UK’s Inspiring Women Awards (with the winners announced next week)!
Thank you to the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards for recognising and appreciating the talent and impact of our team’s efforts! To find out more about our Wellbeing initiatives and to get in touch about our programme, visit our dedicated Wellbeing page.
