Why a wellbeing strategy is important

The wellbeing of our people and partners is central to the way we do things at Burges Salmon. In order for us to maintain our position as an ambitious and inclusive firm we want and need our people to be happy, healthy and motivated. Our people are critical to our success. 

With this in mind we have created an authentic wellbeing action plan that aligns to our overall strategy and which takes our purpose, vision and values into account. It focuses on four main areas of health and wellbeing: 

Why is having a wellbeing strategy important?

• It articulates the commitments that the firm wants to make. This is a great recruitment and retention tool. 
• It helps gain the support of your senior leadership team, because clear links are made to the overall strategy. 
• It sets the direction and outlines the priorities for the strategy period.
• It helps develop the resource plan needed to deliver the strategy.

What are our key achievements?

Nearly 5% of our people are trained Mental Health First Aiders. Our MHFAiders work really hard to reduce the stigma attached to mental ill health, promote positive mental health, raise awareness of mental health conditions and check-in with our people on a regular basis, testing the 'mind health' of the organisation. 

We ensured that the wellbeing of our people was a key consideration when developing our hybrid working principles - developing principles (rather than rules) based on trust and collaboration. We used what we know about wellbeing in physical spaces to create new collaboration and social areas in our offices, introduce more plants and increase natural light. As a result 94% of our people think our hybrid principles strike the right balance and 89% of our people are positive about hybrid working at the firm.

How our people feel working at the firm is one of the biggest indicators of how we are performing. In our most recent people survey:

• 97% said that we responded well or very well to the Covid pandemic. 
• 98% believe that the firm has an open and inclusive culture.
• 94% feel they can be themselves at work.  

What next?

We are a signatory of the Mindful Business Charter and want to continue to raise awareness of this practical framework. We will be running workshops with our teams to embed this approach in the way we work. We will continue to engage with our people to make sure our wellbeing offer is meeting their wellbeing needs.

For further information about developing a wellbeing strategy, Business in the Community has a useful toolkit and Mental Health At Work, MHFA England and the CIPD has some great resources.

Written by Simone Reilly, Wellbeing lead at Burges Salmon

In order for us to maintain our position as an ambitious and inclusive firm we want and need our people to be happy, healthy and motivated. Our people are critical to our success.