Happy and fulfilled employees enjoy their work more, which means they attend and usually perform well at work and less likely to leave. Strategies for improving wellbeing at work are vital for keeping you and your team happy and performing at your peak.
Stress and other mental health conditions are now among the main causes of employee absence. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for ongoing health, happiness and wellbeing. With the everyday pressures generated by busy lives this can sometimes be difficult to achieve let alone maintain. Livewell provides comprehensive information and programmes that should help you explore positive lifestyle changes that you can make that assist in improving both your mental and physical health and wellbeing. These are specific to work but also include information and programmes on healthy eating, exercise, alcohol and drug use, obesity and weight loss, smoking cessation, mental wellbeing and importantly sleep
The University has various policies and benefits in place for staff to help improve staff wellbeing:
- The Managing Stress and Promoting Wellbeing policy provides a source of reference material for all staff dealing with stress at work. Managing stress presents a challenge to all those concerned — it can be difficult to identify and tackle, with an impact both on the stressed person and those around them, seriously affecting quality of working lives and effectiveness in the workplace. It is therefore important to take prompt action to prevent, minimise and take action to manage stress.
- The Flexible Working Policy sets out the procedure to be followed when staff ask to work flexibly to achieve a better work/life balance.
- The Sickness Absence Policy and the associated guidance aim to promote supportive and effective management of absence due to ill-health and that any support is considered as early as possible.
- Relax with a wander around the University’s Botanic Gardens offering all year-round interest and seasonal inspiration of plants to intrigue and enchant.
- The CAMbens Employee Benefits offer employees a wide range of competitive benefits from health care cash plans to child care, bicycle and car hire schemes, as well as shopping and insurance discounts.
- The Staff Counselling Service is available free of charge to all staff who hold a University contract of employment: academic, academic-related, assistant, research and technical.
- Equality and Diversity The University of Cambridge is committed to equality of opportunity and to a proactive and inclusive approach to equality, which supports and encourages all under-represented groups, promotes an inclusive culture, and values diversity.
- The Fitzwilliam Museum offers a rich permanent collection, as well as wide-ranging programme of temporary exhibitions, events, courses and activities for all ages.
- The Social Club has dance and club sport activities for all employees to enjoy
- The University Sports Centre on the West Cambridge site has state of the art equipment and classes ranging from Circuits to Pilates. To find out more about the membership option most suited to you click here.