Staff wellbeing ideas

[QueenArnica]

Hi all,

Have posted this in The Staffroom but thought I’d be cheeky and post for traffic here too.
Have a zoom meeting on Monday as am
part of a group at school (primary) tasked with staff wellbeing. Minuscule budget and need to make it meaningful. Does anyone have any best practice/tips/ideas of things that work in their school. Need to cover current times (lockdown) and when we’re all back in school.

Alternatively anyone work in a business that has inexpensive ideas to promote staff wellbeing that I could adapt for school?

Thanks so much in advance.

Hopping on as need the same....!!

How miniscule are you talking for budget? Could you offer free subscriptions to Calm/Headspace/Audible?

We once received thank you postcards from the kids- arranged by a member of staff. It was such a boost! Really lovely. Tricky to do at the moment though.

Hot chocolate cream and marshmallows?? Our wellbeing team do it every half term. Always work well as gets staff to the staff rooms taking a break at break time rather than working through. Wellbeing team will be doing it tomorrow and every Friday now for staff in school in paper cups and delivering to class bubbles rather than staff room meet up.

Set times to finish the work day and no pressure to work during this time.

Just a little treat can mean a lot. Eg special cakes/biscuits or a special coffee delivered from a coffee shop with a little card of encouragement.

One hour out every two weeks for all staff to concentrate on well being. So could do a walk or bake a cake basically some me time. No work to be done in this hour

You could start a 'bag of happiness' a you'll need a nice, cloth bag. Fill it with nice things, choice, bath stuff, tea a candle - up to a set amount (we do £5).

You leave the bag on someone's desk, that you think needs it/deserves it. That person can choose to take the items and refill the bag, or just pass it on with the original items inside if they don't wish to join in or spend money.

It works wonderfully in our school, it really brightens the day of the recipient 😊

I’d hate all these material things.

I just want to work at work, then go home and not think about work. To be with my family. That’s the best ‘well-being gift' that I could ever get.

Secondary but one of team has set a distance challenge to all including families

Challenge is for staff to walk/run every day and stack up their distances to nearest city/nearish posh Beach and St Ives..... tallied how far each one was per day until half term....

It has gone down really well. Point being it is time away from the keyboard and exercise

I work in ICU.

Stuff that works for well-being is: acknowledgment of extra effort (comes with a coffee voucher and a card), clear effort to make rostering more fair, recognition of the effects of constant rolling night shift, serious efforts to minimize fatigue.

Stuff that is an insult: posters about yoga, meditation apps/classes that imply working 70% nights with dying people is a matter that can be fixed with increasing our own personal resilience.

We definitely could not pass a bag between staff in these times!

@switchitup99 We did one of those years ago. It was shit. Including families seems even worse, why would you even do that? In my job we never even get time to go to the loo. I do a lot of walking in my spare time, feel no need to register it at work.

These wellbeing drives seem so tokenistic, I'd never be able to put my name to one. What really means something? Reduced workload, real 'time' to stop work and less work encroac on home life.

Encroachment

@justsayso

These wellbeing drives seem so tokenistic, I'd never be able to put my name to one. What really means something? Reduced workload, real 'time' to stop work and less work encroac on home life.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

One thing our school does is star award/ for the staff nominated by the children. Bunch of flowers or other little gift plus certificate ( and photo on the wall)

As a bit of fun at Christmas but could be any time we had ginger bread house kits delivered sort of bake off challenge we judged photos and voted for the winner. We had hot chocolate and cookies delivered. We also have had coffee (and cake) vouchers. We do have healthy stuff too fruit subscriptions.

@Slackarse I know that motivation comes from different strokes for different folks....
It was pitched as a team effort as to how far can we collectively get with the sole aim to pitch in because when you do, you step away from the keyboard.

Don't be a martyr to the keyboard..... this is the entire point of the wellbeing

That’s a lovely idea op. What we do is ask the staff what they feel would perk them up, could be confidential response (with the staff understanding there aren’t unlimited funds, brace yourself for some home truths). I agree that while a nice idea, anything involving passing around of stuff at the moment wouldn’t be a great idea. Certainly, it would have to be something that requires zero effort on their part and shouldn’t encroach on their downtime/private lives.

Also, when you say “minuscule” it would help to quantify that a little.

@Fairyfalls

One hour out every two weeks for all staff to concentrate on well being. So could do a walk or bake a cake basically some me time. No work to be done in this hour

Didn’t there used to be an hour a day for that? We used to call it a lunch hour.

It’s ALLLL about appreciation and acknowledgement. Handwritten notes at appropriate moments. Genuine thanks for their hard work. Let them know that you’ve seen their efforts.
Show them you’re interested in how they are. Ask them. Share some of your own struggles and frustrations - they will then feel safe enough to share in return.
If staff feel listened to and appreciated, you’re 99% there.

I’m going to be honest and say that I would hate most of the ideas on this thread (sorry)
Having a cake and a hot drink together with colleagues should be the norm not a wellness activity and making it a treat just acts as a reminder that we don’t get a decent break as a rule.
As much as it’s lovely to have things like star of the week not everybody gets recognition with such awards and often the people who are just quietly getting on with things get overlooked for such awards.
To improve well-being the work life balance needs to be addressed. An hour or so of inset given over to staff to allow them to individually plan rather then being forced to spend ten hours in a hall all together or the odd after school meeting being cancelled and information emailed out instead for example

Nothing that eats up your own time.
Most 'well being' is simplistic lip service that ignores the basic fact that people are stressed/run down/over worked/over tired. So no a hot chocolate or baking isnt going to fix it.
I've tried to think of what actually provided a boost to staff when I was teaching and thought of one thing that perked us up ( in 16 years). The staff meeting (2hours long) was a surprise buffet instead.

I've recently participated in two things that were truly well received. Vidhug and Kudoboard. Really sweet, personal and free.

Our head's PA has signed up to a few freebie places who send in stuff regularly, from cosmetics to food and drink. We've just had boxes with goodies in which were fab.

However, we also have public well done's and thanks to staff; suggestions actually taken on board and acted upon; students (secondary) nominated staff last term as well as the other way round and then those lovely comments / reasons were forwarded to everyone.

So not just freebies but proper communication and recognition too. It goes a very, very long way to creating a solid team.

A week or two with no meetings. No extra shit. Anything that was going to be a meeting just email the ppt. You'll give everyone a few hours back.