5 key ways to embed a wellbeing culture at your school

It’s no secret that working in education comes with challenges that can impact the wellbeing of employees.

Wellbeing is about feeling healthy, content and satisfied with your quality of life. It can encompass physical health, mental and emotional health and even finances.

We know that poor wellbeing has costs to employers in terms of sickness absence, poor performance and staff turnover.

However, promoting wellbeing leads to many benefits including better employee morale and engagement, a healthier, more inclusive culture and lower sickness absence levels. It can also have an impact on productivity and performance, motivation, retention and pupil wellbeing.

Given the ongoing recruitment and retention challenges being felt across the sector and the debates over workloads and resource pressures, it has never been more important to ensure that you are doing what you can to promote the wellbeing of your workforce.

We know that resources, both in time and money, are tight for leadership teams, but there are some simple and effective actions you can take to embed a wellbeing culture in your school. Here are 5 key ways you can ensure that wellbeing is at the very centre of your school.

Be explicit about your commitment to promoting employee wellbeing

Listen to the views of employees, do they have ideas about what you could do as a school to make their work lives easier and happier? Are there practices within schools that could be reviewed to assess their impact on wellbeing? Asking underlines your commitment to improving wellbeing, although employees need to be realistic about what you can and can’t do. However, if you find a few areas to focus on and take action, you can show that you are serious about promoting their wellbeing.

It’s useful to have a wellbeing policy or statement of intent and EPM provide models of these for our customers to adapt.

Promoting wellbeing for all employees

We all know the old saying, “prevention is better than cure” and this is particularly important when it comes to wellbeing.

There are all sorts of other ways you can promote wellbeing. For example, it’s well known that physical activity is hugely beneficial for the mind as well as the body. Schools are in the enviable position of having easy access to playing fields and sports facilities. Employees may be interested in fun sports tournaments or walking meetings.

Tackle work-related stress

People experience stress when they perceive the demands being made on them to outweigh the resources they have to cope with those demands. It’s well-recognised that work-related stress is prevalent in schools. Apart from workload issues, employees can feel the pressure of accountability and managing challenging behaviour. A bit of pressure is sometimes what we need to give us motivation and focus but if it is too much and goes on for too long, people can become unwell and it can be difficult to recover.

Employees need to know how to recognise when stress is becoming a problem both for themselves and other colleagues, so they can find strategies for dealing with it early on. Warning signs may be: thinking about school-work all the time; difficulty sleeping; being snappy and irritable; fatigue; having difficulty concentrating; headaches and stomach upsets. You may have noticed a colleague who suddenly becomes more agitated than usual and seems to overreact to small inconveniences, such as a jammed photocopier. They might just be having a bad day, but it could be a sign that there is an underlying problem.

It is important for employees to feel they can be open about feelings of stress as this will mean that you will be able to offer support earlier and reduce the likelihood of issues escalating.

Stress is usually best managed using a two-pronged approach. Firstly, by finding ways of reducing the stressors, and secondly, increasing the capacity of the person to use healthy coping strategies such as relaxation, mindfulness or changing thought patterns.

With this in mind, it is advised that you have a Stress Management Policy to reduce work-related stress. We provide our customers with access to our comprehensive model policy on stress management, which can be downloaded and tailored to your specific requirements.

Support employees who are experiencing mental health problems

1 in 4 people within the general population are experiencing a mental health problem at any one time, so you will inevitably have employees who fall into this category.

It can sometimes feel daunting to initiate a conversation with someone about their mental health. People often feel that they require special skills to talk about this area. However, you can approach conversations in the same way that you would daily in your role as a people manager. For example, by listening effectively, using your common sense and being approachable.

We often speak to customers who are unsure about whether to remain in contact with an employee who is off work due to mental health issues, but it’s important to keep those channels of communication open. It can be very isolating being off work, especially if the reason is due to a mental health problem. The best strategy is to ask them what they would find helpful in terms of contact. This can give you confidence in getting the balance right between making someone feel forgotten about or unduly pressurised.

Most people who develop mental health problems recover well with the right support from the people around them. “Recovery” isn’t the same as “cure” and for many people, what they will need is to learn strategies to cope with mental distress and stay well.

Identify your wellbeing champions

It will have a huge impact if the senior leaders in your school speak out about the importance of wellbeing and act as supportive role models. Ensure that all employees are aware of what is being done to promote a well-being culture throughout the school, so that during these busy periods they have no doubt that their concerns are being heard and wherever possible, promptly acted upon by leadership.

Our "Wellbeing" and "Managing Workplace Stress" webinars are available on our website, and a certificate confirming attendance will be issued. You are also welcome to contact your dedicated EPM team with any questions you have about employee wellbeing.

If you’re looking for advice about employee health and wellbeing, or would like to learn more about our policies, letters and training, please talk to us.