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Transparency and Flexibility key to supporting wellbeing

​Lockdown has undoubtedly been a long and difficult road, taking its toll on people from all walks of life. As a Recruitment agency, we know that an organisations ‘people’ are the key to success, so looking after them during such a trying period became a priority.

At Hewett Recruitment, we are long-term advocates of flexible working, but with lockdown restrictions and home working continuously blurring the line between employees work-life balance, flexibility is more crucial than ever to ensure we truly enhance the power of our people.

At the beginning of the third lockdown, we started to notice a sense of paranoia had developed amongst staff, with individuals feeling guilty for leaving their desks. If we think back to pre-Covid times at the office, people would chat, leave to make drinks or use the photo copier etc. so why should working from home be any different? We encouraged staff to pick up the phone for a catch up with colleagues and complete miniscule tasks, such as unloading the dishwasher, without any creeping guilt.

At Hewett Recruitment, we also introduced ‘wellness hours’, offering employees three hours of additional time they could take for themselves to ensure they weren’t ‘stuck’ to their desks. These hours could be used at once, or by taking an extra hour here and there, offering staff the flexibility to get out for a walk, take some time in the garden or however they choose to spend their ‘wellness’ time.

More recently, we worked closely with Lucy Barkas at Whatwhenwhyhow Ltd on personality profiles for each staff member. An informal webinar was held delving deeper into what everybody enjoys and how we connect, highlighting activities suitable for each persona. Not only did this offer our team a better understanding of one another’s interests, but now we have a list of engaging team building activities, chosen by the team, that we can get booked in the diary to look forward to.

These are just some examples of how here at Hewett we have built relationships of trust and transparency with our team members, putting the power in their hands in a sense, helping build a happy, successful workforce.