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31 Oct 2018
by Diane Rudge

Diane Rudge, head of health and wellbeing at DWP: employee wellbeing is a board-level discussion

Diane Rudge is head of the Wellbeing Team at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), winners of the REBA Employee Wellbeing Award 2018 for Mental Health. 

She explains why wellbeing is a board-level discussion, and what she'll be looking for as a judge in the Employee Wellbeing Awards 2019

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Why do you think that employee wellbeing is seen as an important discussion to be had at board level within employer organisations?

There is real power in getting wellbeing right. It makes such a positive difference to peoples’ lives, enabling them to be themselves and thrive both at work and at home and has real benefits for productivity, engagement, attendance and performance. 

What has winning an Employee Wellbeing Award meant for your team and for DWP?

We were very pleased and very proud to have been successful in REBA’s Employee Wellbeing Awards 2018. We think the factors that helped us win an Award were our innovation and passion, our ability to deliver with a very small budget and how we brought wellbeing considerations into our transformational change programmes.

Winning an Award was great external recognition for the progress we’ve made in DWP through our Working Well Together wellbeing strategy and the positive impacts it is having on our 83,000 employees. It helped us really drive forward wellbeing in DWP. 

The Award has meant not only helping us to convert people who may doubt the value and benefits of workplace wellbeing but also supporting and giving power to those who already believe to go on and do more. 

It’s also put us in demand for showcasing our work across wider industry, in particular our approach to measuring wellbeing.

You're a judge from the REBA Employee Wellbeing Awards 2019. What will you be looking for in the entries? 

The REBA Awards are a great exercise to engage in. They provide the opportunity to help improve the wellbeing of millions of people by sharing your story and celebrating your achievements and successes.

I will be looking for passion and creativity, as well as impact and evidence of real sustainable change.  I’ll also be looking at factors such as scale and complexity.

The Employee Wellbeing Awards 2019 are currently open for entries.