Stress Awareness Month is held every April by the Stress Management Society (SMS) to increase public awareness and knowledge about our modern stress epidemic, and how it impacts many of us daily.
According to the Mental Health Foundation, 74% of adults in the UK have felt so stressed at some point over the last year that they have felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
At develop, we’re always introducing new health and wellness initiatives to the team as our needs change.
It’s important that businesses work closely with employees to reduce the stigma associated with stress by talking freely and by implementing initiatives that look after employee wellbeing. Here are some of the initiatives that develop has implemented to reduce stress and help our employees wellbeing.
Private Healthcare and Wellness Discounts
Recently, we made private healthcare available to our employers through Ben.
This benefit offers private medical insurance provided by Freedom Health Insurance. We understand how important it is to have a health insurance plan that you can rely on. Ben also offers mental wellbeing discounts such as 50% off Better Help, and 30% off Ten Percent Happier, as well as discounts for 1000s of other brands.
Plumm Health
develop are proud to give all employees access to Plumm, an online platform that provides mental health and wellbeing support to anyone at whatever time suits them. You can read more about Plumm and how great of an initiative it is for employee wellbeing here.
TicTrac
Last year, we gave our employees access to TicTrac, a health and wellness app that encourages our team to live a healthier lifestyle and boost motivation! We love to partner with companies that enable healthier outcomes for our employees, and TicTrac does exactly that.
Recharge Days
Sometimes you just need to take a day to recover and refresh. Our employees have the option of taking a couple of days off to recharge. This does not affect their annual leave and is there to allow the team to take practical steps to maintain their own physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
Longer Lunches
Longer lunch breaks lead to more awesome employees. That’s a fact. develop offer longer lunch breaks for wellness purposes and to encourage healthier habits. Our team has the option to take an hour and a half to workout and recharge, reducing stress and increasing productivity!
60% Remote Working
Let’s face it, the morning commute isn’t much fun; trains, traffic and being crammed in the tube is not the ideal way to start the day. Getting out of bed, having a cup of coffee and heading into your cosy home office sounds much better right? Well, at develop, we aren’t thinking of scrapping remote working anytime soon. Our employees have the option of 60% remote work to help reduce stress and give the team back that commute time each day if they’d like. Despite Monday being our only compulsory day in the office, develop HQ is open everyday for people who prefer an office environment.
Mental Health First-Aider
We believe it’s a requirement to have mental well-being support in the office. Employers need to treat mental health in a similar way to physical health, and so our Marketing Manager, Amy Moore has a Mental Health First Aid certification. By being more informed we are more aware of the early signs of mental illness which enables us to signpost to support earlier on, instead of waiting until things may escalate.
If you’re looking for a work space that prioritises your mental health and wellbeing, get in touch to join our journey.