Bristol architecture firm Stride Treglown has become the first organisation in the city to achieve the top award of excellence in a national scheme that recognises businesses committed to the health and well-being of their workforces.
The firm, which employs 270 people across nine offices in the UK and UAE, came top in all eight standards in the Workplace Wellbeing Charter. More than 30,000 people in Bristol now work for employers that have signed up to the charter.
It is based on work by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think tank, which resulted in a set of evidence-based actions that all employees can include in their day-to-day activities to improve personal well-being.
These are built on key findings of a state-of-the-art Government research project which looked at mental capital and wellbeing through life.
Stride Treglown blended them with the company’s own approach to sustainability to create its own charter to improve and support employee well-being.
After entering the award for the very first time, Stride Treglown’s comprehensive approach to employee well-being secured top accreditations across the board.
The firm’s HR & coaching adviser Nicola Rich said: “Architects often work under a lot of pressure, most of which comes from their own drive and intrinsic desire to exceed client expectations.
“Like most of us, they can easily feel at the mercy of their own emotions, and suffer self-doubt, anxiety and fatigue. Emotional Intelligence coaching teaches us how to recognise and label our own emotions, and those of others, and respond accordingly and appropriately.
“It provides us with a new and fresh approach to staff and their health and well-being: not by telling them what they ‘should do’ but equipping them with the right tools to take responsibility and be their unique selves, in order to flourish and reach their full potential.”
