1. The organisation, which employs
230 people, is “very socially
minded,” according to Charlotte
Dymock, who is Benefits Lead at
SBHG. “Our company ethos is
‘social heart, business head, local
impact’ so one of the key elements
in our business strategy is how
the wellbeing of our staff can have
wider benefits for the country as a
whole,” she adds.
So the need for a business case
for workforce health and wellbeing
fits closely with organisations’
overall aims: “Organisations that
commit to wellbeing can expect
improved business outcomes,”
says Dymock.
But equally, funding remains
the biggest challenge that HR
professionals face in building a
business case. “They need to know
that it’s an investment that will have
business benefits,” Dymock adds.
So when Dymock began collating
information for her business case
to SBHG’s senior management
a year ago, she needed to
demonstrate why investing in
health and wellbeing would have a
demonstrable business impact on
the organisation’s operations.
Her analysis of the staff absence
figures revealed that in the year to
30 September 2015, absenteeism
cost SBHG £233,125.
Case study: Shepherd’s Bush Housing Group
Shepherd’s Bush Housing Group (SBHG) owns and manages more than 5,000 affordable
homes across west London, available to key workers, the elderly and people on low
incomes. The housing association invests £4.5 million in supporting community projects
and boasts turnover figures in the region of £40 million.
Charlotte Dymock
Benefits Lead
Shepherd’s Bush Housing Group
“Absence was relatively high,
but not in every department,”
Dymock says. “If absence levels
were consistent throughout the
organisation then we might assume
that they reflect what the general
level of health is, but it was very
clear that this was not the case.”
SBHG ran the main annual
employee engagement survey
in September 2015, and had a
77% response rate. Dymock also
organised a special wellbeing and
benefits survey separately and got
feedback from an Employee Forum
Wellbeing subgroup, because she
was also looking to refresh the
organisation’s benefits package,
which “hadn’t changed in years”.
“One thing that particularly stood
out from the staff survey results
was the finding that communication
across different departments
wasn’t working effectively,” Dymock
says. “That’s why building stronger
working relationships was a real
priority.”
The wellbeing survey revealed that
employees prioritised provision for
healthy eating and fitness at work
such as exercise classes, gym
membership and diet clubs.
As well as surveying her own
workforce, Dymock undertook
research into current trends
and best practice in health and
wellbeing, noting, among other
things, that stress and other mental
health conditions are now among
the main causes of employee
absence, obesity has quadrupled
in adults and there is a productivity
loss for smokers.
At that time, SBHG’s wellbeing
budget was set at £20,000 for
the 2015 to 2016 year, and was
allocated to a range of exercise
classes for employees – yoga,
zumba, boot camp – and
massages for staff.
This research into the current
health and wellbeing of the SBHG
workforce, wider trends and HR
metrics and spend informed the
first part of Dymock’s business
case to the organisation’s
leadership.
“Organisations that
commit to wellbeing
can expect improved
business outcomes”

2. 1606048-EMP-Health-Workplace-CASE-0816
But it was also vital for her to
link it to the organisation’s wider
objectives, and spell out the cost of
poor health and wellbeing.
“Health and wellbeing
has a two-way causality
and the healthier and
more mentally fit people
are, the more engaged
they are likely to be as
employees as well,”
“I could say to the senior
management team, ‘here’s what
poor health can cost us, so we
need to make it a priority and
address it quickly.”
Dealing with health and wellbeing
meant acknowledging the diversity
of the SBHG workforce, which
encompasses a range of ages
and backgrounds and includes
manual workers and office-based
employees.
“There is no ‘one size fits all’
approach to wellbeing,” the
business case reads. “Policies
need to be flexible, relevant
and understood by the whole
organisation, and most importantly,
communicated so that the
benefits are translated for different
audiences.”
So the health and wellbeing
initiatives for consideration were
grouped into ‘Health and Fitness’,
‘Relaxation and Wellbeing’ and
‘Lifestyle’, and encompassed a
three-branch approach to health
and wellbeing – physical health,
mental health and social wellness.
They included many of the
suggestions that had been made
in the employee wellbeing benefits
survey, such as programmes to
promote awareness around mental
health issues, ‘micro-socials’ at
lunchtime, and cultural activities, all
of which cost very little, other than
staff time.
“Our senior management team
came back with a ‘yes’ to all the
new free initiatives.” Dymock says.
“And they agreed to continue
with the existing programme of
wellbeing and its associated costs,
keeping it under regular review to
ensure it continues to represent
value for money.”
Employees also continue to
have access to level one of
Simplyhealth’s Simply Cash plan
as a core benefit, through which
they can claim costs back towards
a variety of everyday healthcare
benefits, including optical or
dental treatment. It also provides
employees with 24/7 GP telephone
access and up to 6 face to face
counselling sessions.
What’s more, SBHG has
implemented a series of small
initiatives aimed at improving health
and wellbeing. It has created a
healthy recipe sharing forum and
makes sure healthier options are
available from vending machines;
it holds weekly TED talks that
employees can attend along with
the provision of free fruit and
healthy snacks; and it organises
trips for free museums in London
for staff to attend. “It’s a pick
and mix wellness strategy really,”
Dymock says.
Many of the initiatives are free
and encourage employees to
build relationships with each
other and interact socially, in
order to counteract the shortage
of communication between
departments that was identified
during Dymock’s research.
Communication has also been
crucial in encouraging take-up,
and Dymock has ensured that
the health and wellbeing strategy
is publicised via SBHG’s well-
established communications
channels for employees not sitting
at a desk all day. Line manager
briefings and ‘toolbox talks’ which
take place every two weeks are
co-opted by the benefits team to
discuss health and wellbeing where
necessary.
The success of the programme is
beginning to emerge.
“Our benefits take-up has
increased dramatically
– up 15% on last year”
“Our next employee survey is
in September so what we’re
anticipating is that some of these
impacts will be reflected in that,
particularly my pet priority of
improving working relationships
and communication.”
SBHG is now reviewing its work-life
balance policies, working on how it
can measure productivity levels to
link them to wellbeing and looking
at how employer brand links to
engagement.
Its business case for health and
wellbeing has been a success
so far, and through continually
measuring return on investment
through reduced absence figures
and other key metrics, Dymock
is hoping to drive health and
wellbeing even further up the senior
management team’s agenda.