WELLBEING
PICTURES BY TOM BANKS
MIND
Mindfulness – Thirteen head of HR business partners Liz Thompson ( right ) and senior business partner Lisa Whitfield ( left ) have been leading on an approach to the health and wellbeing of its 1,600-strong workforce .
MATTERS
Housing association has health and wellbeing built-in
“ It ’ s almost as if there ’ s been a perfect storm designed to blow people off course and really impact on their mental health over the past year . So many challenges , yet also so many ways for us to consider how we can help – it ’ s certainly not been a quiet time !”
So says Liz Thompson , head of HR business partners at housing association Thirteen .
Along with support from all levels of the organisation , Liz and senior business partner Lisa Whitfield have been leading on Thirteen ’ s approach to the health and wellbeing of its 1,600-strong workforce .
The past year has seen so much change for Thirteen , which manages 35,000 homes for 70,000 customers throughout the North-East and Yorkshire .
Along with almost every organisation in the world , Thirteen has had to consider how to tackle the challenges posed by the pandemic for its customers , while working hard to ensure that its greatest asset , its staff , can continue to provide the same level of service safely and effectively .
Liz continued : “ Even before the pandemic , there was a lot of focus within Thirteen on health and wellbeing , especially on our colleagues ’ mental health .
“ We have a responsibility to our workforce to provide them with practical tools to help them cope with the new pressures that have come their way while we ’ ve been asking them to work differently over the past year .
“ With the pressures of continuing to go out and work in our communities , provide the same level of service in different ways and , of course , the addition of home working for many colleagues , we ’ ve had to come up with new ways to support our people .”
100 | Tees Business