Clare County Council

Clare County Council is the authority responsible for Local Government in County Clare. Headquarters is located at Áras Contae an Chláir, Ennis, Co Clare and there are four Municipal Districts (MDs).

Services provided include planning, Local Enterprise Office, community development, transportation, motor tax, water, environment, emergency services, housing, libraries, sport and recreation. Clare County Council has a long-established culture of Employee Wellbeing and Employee Welfare in the organisation.

Promoting Workplace Wellbeing – The Process

Clare county Council took a number of steps to promote workplace wellbeing:

• Management set out to introduce and build a culture of wellbeing in Clare County Council. An Employee Welfare Officer has been employed by Clare County Council since 2004, there has been a committed support for wellbeing, at present two fulltime permanent staff are allocated to wellbeing and welfare
• An annual budget is allocated to workplace wellbeing initiatives.
• A calendar of wellbeing events as well as supports is available.
• Each bespoke initiative empowers and enables staff to manage their physical, mental, social, financial wellbeing.
• Staff input and involvement in initiatives is actively encouraged and facilitated by line managers.
• Evaluations were built into most initiatives where feedback is gathered and evaluated.

Challenges

• Workplace wellbeing initiatives have been built up over the years and some initiatives work and some don’t, changing trends also change wellbeing initiatives.
• Gaining staff participation is challenging at times, however the wellbeing plan is a responsive document and is changing on an ongoing basis depending on staff needs and challenges at the time.

Cost

• Annual Budget allocated and augmented if required, costs per initiative vary.
• Availing of the numerous free supports through national organisations is also useful e.g. Healthy Ireland, Health Service Executive (HSE), Irish Heart Foundation, Irish Cancer Society.

Outcomes

• Culture of health and wellbeing embedded in the organisation.
• Staff are given the opportunity to raise personal awareness and knowledge in health-related areas as part of their working environment.
• Staff see workplace wellbeing as part of the culture of Clare County Council and are proud if it.
• Reputation of the organisation as a positive working environment and an employer of choice is promoted.
• The wellbeing plan is a responsive document.

Key Learnings

• Ensure senior management are committed to workplace wellbeing and dedicated staff and budget is allocated to support wellbeing initiatives.
• Clare County Councils aims to keep our staff well, empowering them with take home skills from talks/workshops/resources to manage their own health.
• Each bespoke initiative meets a need identified from staff engagement surveys or through Welfare support.
• Each bespoke initiative empowers and enables staff to manage their physical, mental, social, financial wellbeing.
• Initiatives should be evidenced based, and outcome driven.
• Continually evaluate, review and improve the wellbeing programme.