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17 May 2018
by Diane Rudge

How mental wellbeing is a priority at DWP

We are fully committed to improving workplace wellbeing and making the Department for Work and Pensions an even better place to work. Our aim is to be the most inclusive employer in the UK and a leader in workplace wellbeing.

 

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As DWP’s head of wellbeing, I believe that enhancing colleagues’ mental wellbeing is crucial in helping us to feel at our best, avoiding ill health, increasing our resilience and releasing the performance of all of us, in and out of work. Our wellbeing is with us 24/7 and employers have a crucial role to play.

Priorities

In late 2016, we set out our ‘whole-person’ approach to wellbeing through our “Working Well Together” strategy with education, prevention and early intervention at the core. We identified mental wellbeing as our top priority. 

This was based on evidence and data as mental health is our highest cause for sickness absence. We developed and implemented a range of innovative tools and services, including a mental wellbeing toolkit, improved EAP services, a dedicated wellbeing website and interactive guidance for leaders which focuses on changes we can all make to embed a supportive wellbeing culture in our teams.

Perceptions

To help break the taboo and stigma around mental health we hold regular mental wellbeing focused broadcasts, featuring inspirational personal stories and industry expertise, which engage thousands of DWP colleagues. Our Inclusion campaign encourages colleagues to talk about our differences and is helping to create an environment where everyone can be themselves at work.

In a department of about 85,000 employees undergoing significant transformational change, reaching colleagues nationwide and ensuring we all receive a strong baseline level of support has its challenges. DWP is already good at helping people who have mental health-related conditions and disabilities and we are experienced in supporting customers with complex needs. Through “Working Well Together” we are harnessing our expertise to support our workforce’s mental wellbeing.

Culture

To enhance the services we provide to the public, we have built mental wellbeing training into programmes for our customer-facing employees. We have developed a wellbeing capability programme, teaming up with our own professionals such as work psychologists to design and deliver broadcasts which support key business activity, offering colleagues additional wellbeing support through periods of change and uncertainty.

As the largest civil service department, we have had to be creative to influence culture and behaviour change to one where wellbeing is an integral part of what we do. We have an ever-growing network of over 800 voluntary wellbeing advocates who are crucial in helping us engage colleagues nationwide in wellbeing-related activities and to embed our “Working Well Together” strategy locally. In addition, we have 200 trained mental health first aiders and we have committed to increasing our mental health first aid community to reach parity with physical first aid by 2020. 

Technology

By using digital solutions we are engaging colleagues and connecting more widely. Our social intranet platform hosts an online mental health first aid community and all colleagues are encouraged to join our “Working Well Together” group which is now the second most popular in DWP.  The group enables colleagues to engage in thriving wellbeing conversations, share information and best practice, as well as helping to promote new services.

Whilst mental wellbeing is the golden thread running through all our activity, we are taking steps to build wellbeing principles into wider HR policies/processes. Our new stress, attendance and workplace adjustments policies align with our proactive approach, and wellbeing is now a key consideration/risk factor when developing wider HR policies and implementing change programmes.

Feedback

To secure buy-in from those who may doubt the value of wellbeing, we have been pioneering new ways of measuring workplace wellbeing in DWP, to ensure our actions are evidence based.  Whilst our absence data remains an important metric, it only tells us about employees who have taken time off work through ill-health, and not about colleagues in work or their wellbeing.

We therefore recently ran a wellness survey, the first of its kind among UK employers, developed with What Works Centre for Wellbeing. The survey measures health, relationships, security, environment and purpose, all essential to workplace wellbeing. We had an incredible response with 30,000 colleagues taking part, demonstrating the importance of wellbeing to our people. The findings are enabling us to be transparent about the impact of our initiatives and helping us identify areas where we are doing well and where we may need to take further action.

We are now turning our survey results into action through a series of recommendations endorsed by DWP’s Executive Team. The results are enabling us to further drive culture change and accountability for workplace wellbeing and have given us a baseline index to improve year-on-year.

In DWP we have made wellbeing a priority for all that’s received by all. By continuing to value it we are helping everyone to be themselves and thrive at work and home, taking us a step closer to fulfilling our aim.

This article is written by Diane Rudge, head of wellbeing, at DWP

The DWP won the Employee Wellbeing Award 2018 for Mental Health

 

Diane Rudge

 

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