Accredited Employers

Ridgeview is the first employer in East Sussex to be accredited with a Wellbeing at Work Small Business Bronze Award. Some of the successful projects they have launched as part of their wellbeing journey are implementing a cycle to work scheme, charity giving through payroll, a healthcare cashback scheme, mental health first aiders and becoming a disability confident employer. Due to the nature of their business, they take great care in promoting MSK injury prevention and provide manual handling training too.  As put by their employees, ‘The company embraces continuous improvement, is open to feedback from staff and is supportive of people across all stages of life. The CEO is very visible and approachable. It’s a great place to work.’

A challenge of having seasonal workers is ensuring everyone feels truly part of the organisation. Ridgeview ensures that all staff updates are filmed and available to rewatch, which ensures that all staff have access to communication channels and the ability to be involved in decision making.

ICS Roofing is the first construction company in East Sussex to be part of the scheme and be awarded with the Small Business Bronze Award.

As part of their award, the company has created a wellbeing folder in the shared drive, with wellbeing information and links for staff to seek information privately in their own time. They also run frequent Toolbox Talks on site for staff and sub-contractors, on particular topics such as mental health, musculoskeletal health and general wellbeing. Lunch and learn sessions are held regularly in the office, where staff come together to not only refresh their skills but also have wellbeing conversations.

Due to the various awareness training provided, managers feel confident to have wellbeing conversations when required and signpost staff to further information and support. The company wants to ensure everyone is supported. Undertaking the staff survey has allowed the opportunity for staff to feel that they are valued and that everyone has a voice.

All these initiatives have led ICS Roofing to create a truly open culture in a predominantly male industry, surrounded by a lot of stigma and stereotypes. An Impressive achievement! ‘Taking part in the awards scheme has given us the framework we needed to co-ordinate all our wellbeing initiatives’, summarized Chantalle Sullivan, the Wellbeing Lead and PA to Operations Manager.

Gradient Consultants, a company with six employees based in Eastbourne, was awarded with the Small Business Bronze Award in January 2023.

Through weekly pulse surveys, a WhatsApp group where they check-in on each other daily and Monday meetings where everyone shares their priorities and concerns for the week, and has the opportunity to ask for support, the company has created ways of having everyday conversations about wellbeing, keeping a sense of connection between colleagues and fostering an open culture. As building surveyors and asbestos consultants, the nature of their work can often see the team on site and coupled with their hybrid working policy, which allows the freedom to work from home, they regularly work independently, making those check-ins a great way to bring the team together and create a safety net for them to fall back onto and get support. The Friday Pulse surveys are a simple way to assess staff morale and act quickly if any issues arise. They also provide staff with the opportunity to express their gratitude to colleagues, which reinforces a sense of connection. Their Teams Wellbeing Channel is always kept fresh and updated, which is a great way to share information and reminders. With their awards journey, the company wants to ensure there is support available to everyone, and wellbeing conversations are kept current and at the forefront.

Care To You Healthcare is a small organisation based in Bexhill that provides home care services, which achieved the Wellbeing at Work Small Business Bronze award in January 2023.

One of the initiatives that had the greatest impact that the organisation undertook as part of their award was running a staff wellbeing survey. They felt that the survey has allowed them to recognise feedback and to involve staff in shaping the organisations wellbeing offer. It highlighted areas that the organisation was already doing well with, as well as areas for improvement. Mo McAdam, Deputy Manager and Wellbeing Lead, stated ‘’undertaking the Small Business Bronze award was a more useful exercise than expected, the programme framework provides a holistic approach to wellbeing which we hadn’t previously considered. It has been helpful for us to focus on our own wellbeing, not just that of our clients’’.

Havens Community Hub is a small Community Interest Company (CIC) based in Denton that provides support, engagement and community projects on the coastal stretch between Seaford and Saltdean. Havens Community Hub achieved the Wellbeing at Work Small Business Bronze award in January 2023.

One of the best initiatives that the organisation undertook as part of their award was running a staff health and wellbeing survey, as it is not something they had done before. The survey has provided excellent insight into which areas of health and wellbeing that staff would like support with. Dani McDonald, award lead and Project Support Administrator, said ‘’We have always been focussed on the needs of staff and volunteers as Havens Community Hub with wellbeing at the forefront of everything that we do. However taking part in the Wellbeing at Work programme, and running a staff survey in particular, has helped us to prioritise providing the support and information that would be most helpful to our staff. We are excited to continue with the Small Business Silver award’’.

The Village Shop and Café in Upper Dicker is the first hospitality and retail employer in East Sussex to be part of the programme and be awarded with the Small Business Bronze Award.

Taking part in the programme has given them the opportunity to think differently about wellbeing, and to review and change some of their practices and policies. As part of their award, they have promoted health and wellbeing through fun activities such as a laser tag game for staff, and an outdoor treasure hunt in the beautiful surrounding countryside for staff and local residents. The café has made the most of their privileged position in a small village to also provide wellbeing support to the community. A mental health signposting sheet has been produced and handed out not only to employees but also to regular customers. Their director Tess Flower recognises that investing in wellbeing is much more important these days, and she wants her café to be a space for people in the village to come together as a community and support each other. After shifts, staff have the opportunity to catch up about their days and how they are feeling. ‘It’s lovely to work here. Even though it’s a very busy environment, it’s a friendly one. There is a family feel and we are a close-knit group’.

Affinity Select Insurance Services Limited, a small business based in Uckfield, which achieved the Wellbeing at Work Small Business Bronze Award in January 2023. This follows on from their achievement of the Commitment Award in September 2022.

As part of their Bronze award, every member of staff has undertaken suicide prevention training which has been one of the initiatives that the organisation is most proud of. A number of staff have also completed Mental Health First Aid or Mental Health Awareness training. The organisation has a young workforce, and felt mental health and suicide prevention are important topics to address which would have a wider impact beyond the workplace. Implementing training on typically hard-to-talk about subjects has brought the workforce together, with more conversations about mental health taking place and colleagues talking more openly and confidently with one another.

Affinity Select Insurance Services Limited, a small business based in Uckfield, have been granted the Commitment Award in September 2022 – within 4 weeks of enrolling on the programme.

As part of their award application, the workplace has undertaken a staff health and wellbeing survey, which has been driven by two members of staff – Daisy Otway (general insurance clerk) and Naomi Penfold (trainee insurance clerk) who have taken on implementing the award criteria as a project.

Jenny Carter-Vaughan (Director) was motivated to undertake the award as it aligns with one of the company’s core values, to look after each other, however wanted to ensure that employees bought into the award as opposed to it being communicated from the top. The organisation has also been working to upskill staff by enrolling team members on mental health awareness and workplace wellbeing champion training, as well as rolling out suicide prevention training across the whole workforce.

Wealden Community Care are a domiciliary care provider with 53 members of staff, who achieved the Wellbeing at Work Commitment award in November 2022.

To achieve this award, they undertook a staff wellbeing survey – which generated the most responses the organisation has had for any staff survey. Wealden Community Care feel that running a holistic wellbeing survey and acting upon the results has allowed them to show their care for the workforce, and the staff themselves liked the survey responses being anonymous.

One of the key areas that staff indicated as an area of interest in the survey was getting more support with was sleep. As a result, a sleep fact sheet (including signposting) has been shared with staff, as well as fact sheets on menopause, anxiety and prostate cancer. Sharing fact sheets has seen an uptake in staff accessing support for wellbeing concerns, in particular the anxiety fact sheet has encouraged more staff to access the in-house Mental Health First Aiders for support. Sarah Ridley-Smith (Wellbeing lead) and Angela Wright (Director and Registered Manager) strongly feel that ‘‘a supported employee is a productive employee, and the process has helped them to nurture’’ staff, as well as helping them to consider and improve their approach to staff surveys by providing a structure and focus.

Fieldskill Ltd provides local Sussex businesses with business essentials across four main areas of expertise: Packaging, Janitorial, Stationery, & Office Furniture. They have 13 staff based in Eastbourne and achieved the Wellbeing at Work Commitment award in November 2022.

By undertaking the staff survey as part of the Commitment award, the organisation now feels more in touch with staff having provided this formal opportunity for them to provide feedback. Fieldskill has been able to use the feedback from the survey to inform their offering to staff and have started providing Westfield Health (a health cash plan), as well as free fruit in the office for all staff. When asked about their experience of the Wellbeing at Work programme, Sacha Bowles (Finance Manager and Wellbeing Lead) said ‘’It’s been a really supportive process, that I would encourage any workplace to take a look at. Our team is so important to us, if we can look after their wellbeing then in turn it will help our business. Wellbeing in the workplace is not a tick box exercise but a crucial area that must be addressed, which we feel very passionately about at Fieldskill.’’

Knill James LLP, a firm of Chartered Accountants based in Lewes with a team of over 60 people, achieved the Wellbeing at Work Commitment award in November 2022.

As part of the award, the firm ran a wellbeing survey to understand the needs of the workforce. One of the highlights was being able to present the results to the team, to demonstrate how the firm values each person’s individual views, and to discuss actions based on the survey results. Knill James ran two practical sessions following on from the survey – an introduction to mindfulness and a pilates session, which included exercises for good posture and ergonomics that could be done seated at a desk.

HR Manager, Tracey Tivey, has been working with colleagues who have completed Wellbeing at Work’s Workplace Wellbeing Champion training to plan the campaigns and activities the firm would like to run in 2023. When asked about Knill James’s experience of the programme, Tracey said, ‘’The framework provided has been great – we were already addressing our team’s wellbeing, but the framework has given us a great structure to work within and enables us to direct our wellbeing initiatives in the best way to support the team.’’

Spring Care are a domiciliary care provider based in Battle who achieved the Wellbeing at Work Commitment Award in January 2023 – an impressive achievement for a small company who has also been dealing with other challenges such as lack of time and the impacts of Covid-19.

This was the first time they implemented a formal wellbeing initiative and, as part of their award application, an anonymous staff health and wellbeing survey was conducted. Having a workforce largely made of lone and remote workers can be an extra challenge. This survey allowed them to not only have a good insight into their staff health and what support would be helpful for them, but also to bring them together as a team and show that the business care about their wellbeing. As a result, more information on sleep, healthy eating and other health topics has been shared with staff in their beautiful and carefully crafted newsletters. They have also promoted their in-house Mental Health First Aider Janet Mitchinson, which has led to a great response with more staff accessing this support. They are now thinking to expand on these successes and run a monthly drop-in session as an opportunity for their remote and lone workers to connect, increase their sense of belonging and support each other.

APAC (Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy), the largest training provider for play therapy based in Uckfield with 20 employees and 30 contractors non-office based, have achieved Commitment Award in January 2023. Running an anonymous employee health and wellbeing survey was very beneficial. It not only gave their staff the opportunity to say more openly what they wanted, but it gave the organisation a great idea of what to focus on in terms of wellbeing. In order to have a more strategic approach and keep the momentum going, they decided to put together a calendar of wellbeing activities for the year based on the survey results, being the first one a 10k challenge to encourage staff to be more physically active with different options of participation, from walking to running or just cheering colleagues. The organisation has gone beyond and is now finalising their new Wellbeing policy for the workplace. They are also thinking of ways to have a wider impact and include their many contractors in their wellbeing activities. 

To their Wellbeing Lead, HR and Office Manager Radek Kwietniewski, the training courses offered by the Wellbeing at Work Programme were really good and provided them with the confidence they needed to move forward their wellbeing initiatives. The support received from the programme has also been invaluable, ‘the team is very approachable and ready to answer any questions’.

Community Supporters, a small environmental education charity based in Bexhill with five members of staff and a few volunteers including young people, achieved Commitment Award in January 2023.

As part of the award, a health and wellbeing survey was conducted, and the results were discussed in an informal team meeting at the local pub. Being in a different environment outside work helped the team feel more relaxed and open to talk about their own wellbeing with colleagues, which was positive. CEO and Founder Lindsay White found that undertaking the survey gave them the opportunity to reflect on their own wellbeing and discuss it as a team. The process has been worthwhile because looking after people and promoting wellbeing is aligned with their aims and values as a charity. Off the back of the survey, one of the volunteers is organising a guided walk for staff and their volunteers in the surrounding countryside that will take place in March.

East Sussex Recovery Alliance is a small charity that provides drug and alcohol addiction recovery services at their two café hubs in Eastbourne and Hastings. They achieved the Commitment Award in January 2023.

Although they were already doing a lot in terms of staff wellbeing, all the activities were ad hoc. Undertaking the award has given them the opportunity to create a formal and continuous wellbeing offer in the workplace, with activities for staff during working hours e.g. yoga classes. As their role is to support people in recovery, which can be challenging at times, and with some employees in recovery themselves, the charity wanted to make sure all staff had the time and space to look after themselves and build their resilience. To their wellbeing lead Jacqui Skilton, overall taking part in the programme has been straightforward; the supporting documents provided have been useful and the Wellbeing at Work team have been very quick at replying to queries and providing support.

Adams & Remers are a law firm based in Lewes and London, with just over 100 members of staff, who achieved the Wellbeing at Work Commitment Award in January 2023.

As part of their award, Adams & Remers ran a staff wellbeing survey, which was very well received by staff with a 70% response rate. They have convened a group of wellbeing champions, who are leading on implementing a wellbeing calendar which focuses on engaging staff in monthly wellbeing campaigns, activities or challenges. They are currently holding a challenge throughout March, where staff are aiming to each walk 50miles (the distance between their two offices in Lewes and London!) over the course of the month. To support this they have been leading lunchtime walks, which have been well attended and have provided an opportunity for staff to connect socially as well as be more physically active.

Seaview Project is an award-winning charity based in St Leonards On Sea, who achieved the Wellbeing at Work Commitment Award in April 2023. Seaview Project offer a range of integrated support services from their Wellbeing Centre, as well as out in the wider community, for individuals who are marginalised and most at risk.

As part of their award, Seaview Project engaged with their staff through conducting a wellbeing survey, to gain a deeper understanding of staff needs. Based upon their staff survey results, Seaview Project have implemented monthly, open access, protected afternoons for staff to speak with management about wellbeing, in order to break down any barriers there may be in reaching out for support. There are also plans to implement a staff representation group, with wellbeing champions who will have responsibility for set topics (such as men’s mental health) to further increase the ownership that staff have over wellbeing in the organisation. Taking part in the Wellbeing at Work programme has helped Seaview Project to consolidate the support they already provide for staff too, such as further promoting the organisations Employee Assistance Programme, and sharing the organisations health and wellbeing policy.