Health and Wellbeing at Version 1 : The backbone of our happy workforce

Version 1 was recently named as a ‘Best Large Workplace’ in the UK – an accolade we are extremely proud to win, particularly because this ranking assesses our employees’ perspectives on workplace foundations such as leadership, innovation, inclusion, organisational culture and trust.

At Version 1, we believe that the backbone of our happy workforce is our company culture, which is solidified by a steadfast focus on trust and empowerment, and actively seeks to monitor and improve our employees’ health and happiness through a variety of wellbeing initiatives. Further, we believe that continuously improving our culture makes a real difference to the careers and work environment of our people, and our ultimate goal is to deliver a great workplace where our core values are truly visible throughout everything we do.

THE VERSION 1 ‘MY WELLBEING’ MODEL

“Version 1 is a Great Place to Work but not an Easy Place to Work”. This quote captures the realistic, fast and hard-working environment that we work in at Version 1. While there are many rewards for hard work, including being part of a strong culture with a positive atmosphere and lots of opportunities for growth and development, it also comes with its challenges. Therefore, to promote sustainable and consistent high performance we recognise the importance of prioritising our employee’s health, as our employees are our greatest asset. We accept responsibility to provide the resources to support our employees’ health, while our employees must commit to meeting us half way and availing of the resources we provide. This means our employees must prioritise their health, while we will do our best to support them where we can.The 5 pillars of our holistic Wellbeing model include Sense of Purpose, Financial Management, Physical Health, Mental Wellbeing and Social Connections.  Each segment of the wheel is explained in more detail below.

Sense of Purpose: Having a sense of purpose and being motivated to engage in meaningful work is a key aspect of an individual’s wellbeing. We want our employees to have a desire to grow and develop and reach their goals and targets in work and in life. Key areas of focus under the ‘sense of purpose’ pillar include motivation, self-awareness, goal-setting, productivity and core values.

Financial Management refers to having a healthy financial state. We want our employee to be financially healthy, happy and free from stress or worry, based on their view of their financial situation. To ensure our employees stay financially healthy, we promote financial wellbeing through teaching/educating on a range of financial matters including future planning, life assurance, budgeting, savings, mortgages and pension.

Physical Health refers to promoting proper care of one’s bodies for optimum health & functioning through balancing the areas of physical activity, hydration nutrition, sleep and rest. We aim to promote positive physical health through a variety of initiatives/activities and we also aim to ensure our employees are working in a healthy and safe work environment.

Mental Wellbeing refers to a state of well-being in which you realise your potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and are able to contribute to the organisation. Our mental wellbeing pillar focuses on mental health, mindfulness, self-confidence, stress management/ resilient and maintaining a growth mindset. We not only want our employees to be getting by we want them to have a positive and growth mindset as they strive to deliver excellence at work.

Social Connections refers to the quality of relationships at work including our employees’ sense of belonging and connection with their manager and peers within the organisation. We value the importance of our employees’ social connections and relationships at work to enhance their wellbeing.