College retains Gold award for wellbeing initiatives
Gower College Swansea has had its Gold award in Corporate Health Standards reaccredited for a fourth year.
Following a recent Enhanced Status Check carried out by Healthy Working Wales, the College was commended for improving and increasing its award-winning wellbeing provision for staff.
Among the many initiatives the College was praised for were:
Two new appointments of a dedicated fitness coach and wellbeing adviser who have both initiated many new activities for staff, including an exercise referral system that assists individuals with long term health issues.
Launching several menopause friendly initiatives i.e., specialist management training, the setting up of Menopause Cafés with trained advisers, and consultations with Newson Health, a private specialist provider of menopause treatment.
A staff Wellbeing Day involving a wide range of information, activities, and tournaments etc.
The encouraging of staff to get involved in sport activities such as dodgeball tournaments, the Duathlon and Ironman Wales 2023 Championship.
The purchase of a licence for every employee to have free access to the Headspace app.
The launch of a new Wellbeing portal on the staff intranet.
The provision of art and crafts-based activities for those staff members who may not be able to take part in physical activities.
In the summary from the visiting assessor, it stated there was ‘clear evidence of wellbeing being totally integrated and embedded into the working practices of the College.’
“We are absolutely delighted to have had our Gold award status reaccredited,” says Director of HR, Sarah King.
“Looking after our physical and mental wellbeing is central to the College ethos, especially after such a difficult few years due to the global pandemic, and we’ve been delighted to see so many members of staff taking advantage of the wide range of free activities on offer. Their feedback has been extremely positive too, with many staff stating that the wellbeing offer provided by the College has been of an immense benefit to them.”
Run by the Welsh Government through Healthy Working Wales, the Corporate Health Standard (CHS) is the quality mark for workplace health promotion in Wales. The standard recognises good practice and targets key preventable ill-health issues and the Health Challenge Wales priorities.