Eighteen months since initial lockdowns and work from home restrictions were announced, countless sources are reporting high levels of employee burnout. While some seemed to welcome the newfound flexibility during the pandemic, a recent report found that one-third of workers feel disenchanted by their employer today. According to a survey, jobseeker numbers are especially high in the UK, with 46% of workers looking for new jobs (Workhuman, 2021) with more flexibility, better benefits, and more supportive company cultures.

This is creating huge opportunity for employers to meet these new employee desires and remain competitive amongst their industry peers by creating programmes and strategies dedicated to employee’s physical, emotional, mental, financial and social needs — which are well documented drivers of performance, fulfilment and engagement. (PWC, 2021)

For a long time, VG offered various benefits to help our staff look after their bodies, but we realised that it is equally important that we place as much emphasis on mental health as we do on physical. With this in mind, we worked with Mind Jersey to create a friendly, approachable, mature and diverse team trained to identify and support individuals in need of help – either in their professional or private life. Launched in 2018, we are thrilled with the impact that the team is having on promoting and helping employees maintain good mental health.

In addition to our focus on emotional and mental support for our team, this year we launched our wellbeing programme which offers employees across VG to get involved, either individually or by taking part in departmental challenges, in a variety of initiatives focussed on different dimensions of well-being. During our fitness initiative, employees took part in four-week PT bootcamp and competed interdepartmentally for the highest overall average of daily steps in the month (racking up an impressive 31,285,489 steps). Our sleep and stress initiative encouraged staff to better understand techniques to manage stress, sleep science to help support healthy sleep and a weekly yoga session focussed on relaxing, releasing and balancing out the tension that being seated for long periods can have on the body. We’re looking forward to our new year initiatives which will focus on financial and nutritional wellbeing!

Alongside our commitment to ensuring the physical, emotional, mental and financial wellbeing of our team, we believe that a team that genuinely cares for each other is far more likely to succeed and enjoy their work. Our Social Squad is forever organising nights out, team building activities and opportunities to let their hair down, get to know each other and socialise. 

At VG, we are free to adapt to our people. In fact, every employee that walks through our door enjoys the power to influence our culture and our business. We recognise that no two employees are ever the same. Each has a different set of priorities, motivations, needs and working patterns. Of course, it’s much easier to be sensitive to these when you’re independent.

If the last 18 months has made you re-evaluate what you want from your place of work and you’re thinking about a move, make VG your new year’s resolution.