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Rising cost of living and concerns over the financial and mental impact on staff has led The Eden Hotel Collection to launch a new wellbeing strategy to coincide with World Mental Health Day.
The Eden Hotel Collection’s Employee Wellbeing Strategy launches on Monday, October 10, and has been shaped by the “biggest response to a staff survey in its history”.
It found that 81% of respondents are negatively affected by the current financial situation, 62% of respondents reported to suffer from stress and anxiety as a result, and more than half (59%) feared they could not meet monthly expenses as energy prices soar.
Among the key changes include the creation of new Wellbeing Champions at every hotel, altering the distribution of gratuities to monthly to offer a more regular cash boost, and introducing a new benefits portal Wagestream – a financial wellbeing platform to give employees instant access to track and manage their earnings.
It said the strategy is based on four key support themes – “money, mind, body and heart” – and is the latest step the hotel group has taken to support its staff after announcing two pay rises totalling up to 14% earlier this year, and launching a new employee wellbeing website with support and resources, highlighting self-help books and podcasts.
A launch event on World Mental Health Day will see a team of the Wellbeing Champions and HR team and a general manager from Eden’s hotels take part in a 10,000km charity walk in Stratford-upon-Avon, where its head office is based. The Walk for Wellbeing event will raise money for Hospitality Action
Lisa Redding, head of Human Resources at Eden Hotel Collection, which has hotels in Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Devon, said: “One of our core values as a company is caring for our people and we are more focused on this now than ever before.
“The lasting impact of the pandemic coupled with the cost-of-living crisis can leave you feeling helpless as an employer, but doing nothing just isn’t an option. We can’t control the external factors and so it’s about asking ourselves what else we can do to help.”
She added: “When we sent our wellbeing survey, we did not envisage it would have the biggest response to any survey we have ever had, but that really re-affirmed our desire to respond to the current climate and needs of our teams.
“It was really important that our support was not about increasing pay any further but being creative by helping in other ways, supporting their financial and mental wellbeing by making changes to the way we work, making wellbeing a key part of our culture and providing teams with the relevant advice and resources.”
Other measures in the strategy include new health plans for employees, free flu vaccinations and discounted gym memberships, training staff as mental health first aiders, adopting new family-friendly policies, introducing support around menopause, domestic violence and promoting men’s health, as well as improving free staff meals to provide more nutritional food.
