Magenta Living Scoops Coveted Health and Wellbeing Award
A dedicated two year programme focusing on the promotion of wellness in the workplace has resulted in a coveted Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Best Practice award for Magenta Living.
The not-for-profit housing association, which is the largest provider of social housing in Wirral and currently employs 535 staff mostly from the local area, has received the award in recognition of its investment into the health and wellbeing of its employees.
The award, which focuses on all aspects of wellbeing, including physical, psychological and social, comes following the implementation of a strategic project managed health and wellbeing approach at the organisation. Initiatives that have helped to secure the award and support the health and wellbeing of Magenta Living’s workforce include, sessions on smoking cessation and sleep support, the introduction of a dedicated and affordable on-site gym as well as the creation of a chill-out room, where employees can benefit from mindfulness, breathing and relaxation classes.
Magenta Living’s leadership team has taken an active role in the programme, hosting regular lunchtime walks for staff, where individuals can chat and socialise with colleagues, while stretching their legs.
Nutrition and healthy eating is another key theme of Magenta Living’s wellbeing approach. The business hosts a regular Foodie Friday event, which see members of the executive team serve up a nutritionally balanced meal to staff at a cost of just £2. The meals are provided by catering students from Wirral Metropolitan College, who use the occasion to sharpen their corporate hospitality skills. In addition to this, employees have been given access to nutritional advice and awareness sessions.
Magenta Living has also supported the health of its outdoor workers by raising awareness of sun safety and skin cancer. It was the the first business to sign up to the Outdoor Workers Pledge from Public Health Liverpool and North West Cancer Research, which encourages employers to promote the use of sun protection and provide protective clothing and sunscreen, as well as raise awareness of the symptoms of skin cancer and the importance of early diagnosis with employees.
Joanne Francom, Magenta Living’s Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development said, “The health and wellbeing of our employees is of paramount importance to our values as an employer. A healthy work/life balance comes high on the wish-list of many of today’s employees and we want to help people achieve this.
“We place equal importance on physical and mental wellbeing and are committed to tackling the modern workplace stress epidemic by ensuring a supportive culture where people are encouraged to be open and to look after each other. We’ve recently introduced a team of mental-health first-aiders, members of staff who are trained to recognise the triggers and signs of mental health issues, to step in and provide reassurance and non-judgemental listening to colleagues in distress and to sign-post individuals to further sources of support.”
“Achieving the Investors In People Health and Wellbeing Good Practice Award is a fantastic achievement for Magenta Living and we hope to build on our success even further in future but, more importantly, we want to nurture a culture that will support physical and mental well-being for all of our employees for a long time to come. We know that the continued provision of excellent services that we pride ourselves on at Magenta Living relies on having a healthy, happy workforce.
“In 2019 we’ll be working hard to improve on what we’ve delivered so far and have plans for more wellness-focused initiatives, including staff hiking trips to Snowdonia and the Lake District, additional sleep awareness sessions and a health and wellbeing themed annual staff conference with activities to suit all abilities, including an employee five-a-side tournament. Our five-a-side events have been a real success story in terms of participation, with around 10% of employees getting involved. We’re also thinking about how we can broaden the provision of some of our classes and advice sessions, to build them into the wide variety of initiatives we already deliver to help improve wellbeing for our tenants. We use wellbeing valuation to measure the social value of Magenta Living’s work in neighbourhoods, and this is a really important metric of success to us.”
Backed by the Department of Health, Investors in People worked with more than 400 organisations to develop and pilot the framework for the Health and Wellbeing Best Practice Award. To secure the award, businesses have to undergo a rigorous evidence-based review process. Magenta Living achieved an ‘advanced’ score against each of the key award criteria, the highest score possible during the assessment.
In addition to winning the Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Best Practice Award, Magenta Living also retained its Investors in People Gold standard. The Gold standard is awarded to less than a fifth of UK organisations and is widely recognised as an accomplishment of world-class best practice in people management and development. Following on from this achievement, Magenta Living now plans to pursue the Investors in People Platinum standard.