At Carterwood, setting annual goals is a practice that drives us forward both as individual departments and as a cohesive company. This year, we’ve rallied around a central theme: “Becoming a Healthier Team in 2024.”
Here are just some of the initiatives we’re implementing to achieve this goal and why we believe fostering a healthy team is crucial for our success.
Why Being a Healthy Team Matters: We believe that a healthy team is about much more than the sum of its parts. When, collectively, our team members are physically, mentally, and emotionally well, we can bring our best selves to the table, driving innovation and achieving collective success.
1: January Wellness Challenge: To kickstart our journey towards a healthier team this year, we launched a January Wellness Challenge. Each team member received a 30-day bingo card, encouraging daily actions to improve various aspects of wellness, including social, mental, physical, and environmental health. Those who completed their bingo cards had trees planted in their name in our Ecologi forest, fostering both personal wellness and environmental feelgood-factor.
2: Mental Health Training and Support: Nine members of our team have undergone mental health first aider training, empowering them to provide support and resources to colleagues in need. Additionally, we’ve added a mental health statement in our company handbook, reinforcing our commitment to creating a supportive and understanding work environment.
3: Team Mealtimes: Building camaraderie and promoting healthy eating habits, we’ve introduced monthly team mealtimes. These potluck-style lunches, centred around culinary themes, provide the chance for team members to bond over food while nourishing our bodies and spirits. So far, we’ve got stuck into pasta, curry, tapas, and veggie-themed buffets, and up next is Greek.
4: Take 10 Initiative: Our newest endeavour is the Take 10 Initiative. Recognising the power of habit formation, we’re encouraged as a team to carve out 10 minutes each workday to focus on a habit that we’re striving to cultivate. Whether it’s meditation, reading, or simply taking a breather, these small yet intentional breaks add up to big wellbeing shifts – well, that’s the plan, anyway!
5: Tackling Physical Challenges: In August, a dedicated group from our team have signed up for a 50km challenge in support of Dementia UK. As they prepare for the event, the entire team are rallying behind Aishling, Bianca, Daisy, Emmie, and Katy, offering encouragement and support during their training miles. Click here to put some pennies in the sponsorship pot if you’re feeling generous.
6: Taking Mental Health in the Workplace Seriously: To further prioritise mental wellbeing, we encourage team members to use our employee assistance programme and workplace career coaching services. We’ve also got stuck in to Mental Health Awareness week by switching out sedentary meetings for walk-and-talks and circulating mental health resources through the week.
7: Measuring Success: As a data-driven team, it comes as no surprise that we’re collecting data on all this. Throughout the year, we’re conducting regular questionnaires to monitor our team’s health and wellness, and using the results to shape our plans moving forward.
As we continue our journey towards becoming a healthier team in 2024, we remain committed to prioritising the wellbeing of everyone who works at Carterwood.
We’d love to know what you do to stay healthy as a team – connect with us on LinkedIn and let’s have a conversation.
