STRESS AWARENESS MONTH
Claire Brewerton, Virtual Business Centre www. virtualbusinesscentre. com
The Virtual Business Centre provides a professional remote telephone answering and reception service to companies. Claire has a staff of 25 who have often worked remotely during the past year.
“ The biggest learning for me over the past year has been the mental health impacts of not being with my team physically – and for them too. This, coupled with working while your family situation at home may have changed, has presented additional challenges.
“ Here are just three things we have done and learned as a team to help us all get through this together and still serve our clients in a professional, efficient and secure manner.”
Bonny Prim, Health and Wellness Coach www. healthcoachingwithbonny. co. uk
Prior to lockdown, Bonny had been supporting employees at Intel with yoga classes and has also recently supported teams at Catalent with nutrition advice.
“ I believe people stay with a company if they are looked after and appreciated. I do suggest you ask your employees what they want. If you deliver something they don’ t find useful, it won’ t have the impact you are hoping for. Also make the effort to understand what wellbeing challenges you have in your company and what areas need addressing. This can be done with a workplace assessment with employees.”
• Everyone feels better and brighter if they are dressed for work, even if working from home
• Look out for those who have gone from‘ we are fine and will get through this’ to‘ we are doing the best we can’, and take time to find out how they are
• Use technology like Teams to keep in touch even if it’ s just to say hello or send a silly cat picture. It’ s okay to be silly sometimes!
Throughout Stress Awareness Month, The Business Exchange website will be featuring tips from local practitioners for Swindon or Wiltshire employers seeking to support the mental wellbeing of their staff. Useful information can also be found here: www. stress. org. uk
Katie Bullock, HR Manager, Ntegra www. ntegra. com
Katie is based in Swindon with Ntegra’ s global team of around 60 employees. She says the senior team take the emotional health of staff very seriously.
“ We have various initiatives which work together to support employee wellbeing. We have facilitated emotional resilience and stress management workshops, we have weekly yoga sessions and we have employee feedback groups where individuals are invited to share any concerns or stressors without judgment.
“ We also have regular social events such as coffee mornings, games and‘ Wellbeing Wednesdays’ where we take it in turns to share tips.
“ It is important to build the psychological safety and trust for individuals to be open about how they are feeling, and to respond with empathy and support.”
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2021 17