Boosting Wellbeing for 10,000+ East Kent Hospital Staff

The challenge

With the cost-of-living crisis taking a profound toll on their workforce, and with higher levels of burnout and stress related illness reported, the Wellbeing function of the Staff Experience Team focused their efforts on developing a culture of wellbeing. 

This included establishing a dedicated Wellbeing Team with Wellbeing Champions, Mental Health First Aiders and TRiM Practitioners. 

In early 2023, in response to feedback from colleagues, the Staff Experience Team set out to find a new employee benefits and wellbeing platform that empowered staff to access all of their benefits and wellbeing support in one place, whenever they needed to. 

The goal was to make wellbeing support easy to access, visible and embedded within everyday working life. 

The solution

Following a successful roll out of the platform, the Staff Experience Team aimed to build on the benefits and wellbeing provision by focusing on compassionate leadership and combining this with wellbeing support available through the platform. 

The Trust now uses a range of solutions alongside their benefits provision, supporting their initiative of making wellbeing a central focus. This includes a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), which provides telephone support and access to expert counselling options. 

By bringing benefits and wellbeing support together, the Trust made it easier for colleagues to access help whenever they needed it. 

The result

The impact of this approach is reflected in the experience of one colleague. 

When Ollie found that issues he was facing in his personal life were beginning to impact him professionally, he went to his team to share that he was struggling. His team were human and compassionate and made Ollie feel that his wellbeing was their priority. 

Ollie was able to visit Occupational Health, where he was quickly signposted to a 24/7 EAP helpline. 

Speaking of his experience, Ollie said: 

“It was very quick and personalised to my needs. I had a chat with someone and was then allocated a counsellor who was able to be flexible around work. We had six sessions, which I found really helpful. My colleagues also noticed the difference it was making both with my work and with my confidence. 

The combination of counselling and support from my line manager really helped improve my mental health. I want others to feel able to access the support they need — and to feel supported at work. So many people spend their lives looking after other people, whether our patients or our own loved ones, and often we don’t look after ourselves.

But we are all human and it’s okay to need a little help sometimes. We should be able to be honest about that.” 

As a result of Ollie’s experience, many of his peers have reached out to discuss their own experiences. 

This demonstrates the hard work the Trust have done to create a workplace culture that prioritises wellbeing within its leadership approach and available support pathways. 

What’s next

Following the successful rollout, the Staff Experience Team aim to continue building on the benefits and wellbeing provision by embedding their culture of wellbeing, promoting peer-to-peer support and amplifying engagement. 

By combining compassionate leadership with accessible wellbeing support, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust continues to strengthen the employee experience across a large and diverse NHS workforce.