A company’s most important asset is its people and today, supporting employees to be their best is front-of-mind for the business sector. Over the years, our understanding of workplace wellbeing has expanded. Originally encompassing healthcare checks and physical activity initiatives, the meaning of workplace wellbeing has since extended to cover the many elements of wellbeing, with companies looking for ways to support employees to be happier and healthier.
But how does an organisation go about implementing workplace wellbeing? And what do employees want and expect from their employer?
An initiative is underway in West Auckland to address this, developing a framework for organisations to prioritise workplace wellbeing. The Rosebank Wellbeing Collab is currently exploring workplace wellbeing, in partnership with businesses from the Rosebank Business Association and key stakeholders including Ministry of Social Development, Health Promotion Agency and Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development.
The initiative aims to support the Rosebank Business Association and its members to prioritise workplace wellbeing as a strategic organisational focus. Healthy Families Waitākere is co-facilitating the initiative with the Rosebank Business Association, Lead Systems Innovator Zaynel Sushil explains.
“Through this process we’ve worked with over 60 businesses around the Rosebank Road area, looking to understand different perspectives of what a thriving workplace and business community could look like. A core leadership group has been established, working towards the shared vision of ‘Rosebank Leading the Way in Workplace Wellbeing.’”
Through the design phase, the leadership group identified five key areas of focus to improve wellbeing: addressing traffic congestion, Business 2 Business wellbeing coaching, financial wellbeing (such as budgeting) and shared economic activities.
Each focus area now has a working group assigned, with members from a range of companies working together on collective solutions. Rosebank Business Association Membership Engagement Manager, Kim Watts, explains.
“The future of the Rosebank Wellbeing Collab is very exciting. I believe that with the help and enthusiasm of the co-deign leadership group, the working groups are well-placed and supported to achieve the Collective’s goals towards workplace wellbeing in the Rosebank BID area. We are already creating momentum through the working groups and are currently working on a business community event for early 2021.”
The process to identify the areas of focus was undertaken by an external partner, Business Lab, who have guided the workshops during this phase. Adding to the robustness of the workshop findings, Healthy Families Waitākere is leading the development of a business community wide survey to gather employee voices, to understand their aspirations for workplace wellbeing. Zaynel continues.
“Rosebank Road is made up of predominantly industrial workplaces – manufacturing, production, employing people from a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities. It was for these reasons we selected this area for the initiative, as it has a great opportunity to improve the health and wellbeing of West Aucklanders.”
The employee surveys will take place in February 2021 and will help to inform the next phase of the initiative.
