Glenveagh

Glenveagh is one of Ireland’s leading homebuilders employing over 400 full time people in their head office, across multiple construction sites and manufacturing facilities.

At Glenveagh, we recognise the importance of taking a proactive approach to our employees’ health and wellbeing. We are committed to creating an open and inclusive workplace culture, through implementing initiatives and policies that are underpinned by workplace practices and support services for managers and their team members.

Our aim is to sustain and continuously develop our workplace environment as one which promotes and supports the physical and mental wellbeing of all employees.

Promoting Workplace Wellbeing – The Process

‘Our core values, one of which is Safety First, inform everything we do and how we do it at Glenveagh. The health and wellbeing of everyone we engage and work with is the most important thing to us. Our values are integral to building a Glenveagh that we are all proud to be part of’.

Over the last number of years, ongoing collaboration between departments has been a key driver in the development of workplace wellbeing at Glenveagh. Safety is at the centre of all Glenveagh do and after a series of interviews, surveys and workshops, ‘Safe in our Hands’, which focused on physical and psychological safety, was identified as a key pillar in the development of our Employer Value Proposition (EVP).

Glenveagh has taken a number of steps to promote workplace wellbeing, including:

• Senior management team commitment and embedding of the health, safety, wellbeing, and development of our employees within our new business strategy, Building Better.
• A review of existing initiatives that were already in place by individual departments.
• Utilised the feedback from the Great Place to Work survey, wellbeing survey and other surveys that had been internally conducted previously.
• A HR Business Partner was formally assigned the role of leading the development and delivery of the wellbeing strategy, which is based upon four themes: physical environment, psychosocial, personal health, and community.
• Improved flexibility through the introduction of a formal hybrid working policy and flexible start/ finish times.
• Training of mental health first aiders.
• Mindful and purposeful development of new office facilities including a quiet room, multi faith room, mother’s room, ergonomic workspaces, collaborative spaces, and fully serviced canteen.

Challenges

• Employee engagement and involvement. Recognising the different working environments of office and site-based staff when planning events and initiatives.
• Changing perceptions. These events/ initiatives are part of a wellbeing strategy that is embedded in the culture of Glenveagh rather than a once off.
• Wellbeing survey identified a key reason for low engagement as being, ‘don’t have the time’ or ‘the time doesn’t suit’. Resulted in most initiatives being recorded so they could be watched on demand.
• Lack of opportunity and facilities to interact and socialise due to multiple work locations. Resulted in the new office design including an ‘All Hands’ space that could be used for larger gatherings, Town Halls, training, and events.

Cost

• Costs varied. Main costs incurred included training e.g., Mental Health First Aiders, supplies for EHS Week, social events etc.
• Worked with our existing providers and business partners for support. Used local businesses near our locations.
• Using the free/ low cost supports and programmes offered by national organisations e.g. CIF, HSA, AsIAm, Shout Out etc.

Outcomes

• Improved range of media used, and diverse offerings made available following feedback that factored in financial wellbeing, physical and mental health, diversity & inclusion, social events, community engagement & volunteering opportunities, employee assistance programme- with several offerings available to family members also. Resulting in increased personal awareness and knowledge.
• Strong EVP underpinned by our commitment to wellbeing and psychological safety which supports talent attraction and retention.
• Greater uptake in pension and healthcare benefits.
• Great Place to Work for 2023 with increases noted under several headings including career & development (+7%); recognition (+8%); work environment & processes (+4%); wellbeing (+3%) and engagement (+3%).
• Attained Silver Investors in Diversity Mark awarded by Irish Centre for Diversity
• Healthy Workplace award in addition to NISO President’s Award Construction 2022

Key Learnings

• Wellbeing strategy must align with overall organisational strategy and core values and become part of your organisations culture.
• Early engagement with managers and teams to ensure there is time to participate and opportunity to engage.
• Conduct wellbeing survey to find out what supports employees want and need.
• Use available data from various offerings such as pension, healthcare, financial clinics, and EAP to identify areas that need additional focus.
• It is not always about developing new programmes. Use what is already there and create the awareness through effective communication. There is a lot of free information and initiatives available also.