Holly Pennington is the HR manager at Parfetts
We officially activated our well-being strategy in April. As an employee-owned business, our people are at the heart of everything we do, and it was good to implement a formal structure. We had already delivered lots of elements of DE&I as part of our ongoing working practices, and the framework was there, but never anything as focused as what we have now.
Parfetts employees benefit from several welfare-enhancing initiatives. Bonuses and incentives throughout the year, a comprehensive programme of free food and events, birthdays off for all and additional holidays are just a handful of examples that make Parfetts an attractive and rewarding place to work.
Our well-being strategy is based on three pillars – financial, social and mental well-being. We’ve used our communications app to leverage the programme and make it fully interactive, so everyone within the organisation can have a say.
Being employee-owned has great benefits, and it means everyone can have their own individual input into the running of the business, making suggestions and proposing improvements to working practices that enhance well-being.
The app updates Parfetts staff on everything from financial performance to bonuses, company news and announcements. Around 90% of the Parfetts workforce has downloaded the app, and interaction levels are high.
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The app has been great for making our programme accessible to everyone, and everyone has responded positively to the fact that it is company-led. The senior management team has really bought into the well-being ethos, and this has filtered down throughout all levels of the business. As Parfetts is a 24-hour business, shift workers and regional sales managers, who are out on the road for most of the time, are also encouraged to get involved, and we’re immensely proud that nobody is missing out. We do everything we can to encourage inclusivity.
We have a busy events calendar, which each of our depots and head office gets fully involved with once a month. With other events and activities they can organise and deliver as individual depots. We regularly hold company-wide theme days, which often involve us partnering with trusted suppliers. Depots also have the freedom and flexibility to host their own theme days, which is happening with increased frequency. It’s great that the programme encourages different parts of the business to come together and have fun.
Other activities have been designed to encourage wellness, with stress-awareness campaigns designed to maintain good health in the workplace, events around World Laughter Day, which saw depot staff try to tell the funniest jokes, and a company-wide celebration of Employee Ownership Day, held recently to mark the fact that Parfetts is fully owned by its employees and that everyone has a voice.
I’m delighted with how everyone has embraced our well-being strategy. Depots are uniting, and team members are interacting with each other. Our Middlesbrough depot recently held a quiz evening, and workers from the Aintree depot travelled over to join in the fun with their colleagues in the north-east. This really illustrates how well the programme is working and how invested staff are. We’re looking at introducing inter-depot football tournaments next and I’m sure this will be a winner in terms of bringing employees even closer together.
In implementing a structured yet fully interactive and fun well-being programme, we’ve achieved a great work-life balance. And as staff get more involved, this can only improve further for everyone.
