Wellbeing Week at Chess

Tim Wilkinson-Hall, Head of Knowledge and Culture, summarises our plans and activities for Wellbeing Week.

As Christmas becomes a distanced memory and the reality of all those new year's resolutions sets in, January can be a pretty tough month. At Chess, we view the first month of the year as a time to hit the ground running, re-energise, and think about how we can all improve our wellbeing. To help with this, we hold a 'Wellbeing Week' at the end of January, and our people love it!

Why do our people love Wellbeing Week so much?

Because we offer something for everyone. A great culture needs excellent communication. During the months before Wellbeing Week, we empower our Cultural Ambassadors to ask our people what areas they really want to focus on.

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Energy

Participation in physical and non-physical activities reduces depression and anxiety and increases positive mood. As a result, we have chosen to provide lunchtime virtual Pilates and Clubbercise as well as relaunch our 5k running club.

Attitude

This year we are partnering with the mental health charity MIND. Our people chose MIND to be one of the 12 Chess Charites and this month we are raising money for them by donating £1 every time a Chess person praises a colleague on our platform Engage. Not only this, but MIND is hosting virtual sessions with our people to help them improve their mental health.

Our Chairman and founder, David Pollock, also is running his award winning Happiness Training. It teaches you to see the positive in everything life throws at you.

Knowledge

We also focus on financial wellbeing by holding pension workshops and explaining how to make the most of our excellent financial and health wellbeing benefits.

We don't limit wellbeing activities to one week in January. For example, in May, we will again be challenging our people to walk or run 10,000 steps per day, and for every day that we do this, Chess will donate money to the Cheshire Community Foundation.

Most organisations provide one or more wellbeing benefits to employees (CIPD2020). At Chess, we offer a benefits package with no less than 20 different wellbeing focused benefits and back this with a #FutureFit strategy all year round.

Would you like to introduce a Wellbeing week at your organisation? We are always happy to help if you want a chat about this. Contact our consultancy team through the form below, speak to your account manager or don't hesitate to get in touch with me directly at TimWilkinsonHall@chessict.co.uk.