Pierce works with YOLO Wellbeing

Pierce is a business advisory and accountancy group based in Blackburn, Lancashire. In business for over 90 years, Pierce offers a ‘one-stop-shop’ business service that covers all areas of business management. With a reputation for combining high standards of service, pro-active advice and a wide range of expertise.

People are recognised as the core of Pierce business; which is why the company has a robust health and wellbeing policy in place. This is clearly reflected in the average length of service, which is currently 15years, with 53% of their employees having over ten years service, This is particularly impressive when 36% of employees only have between 0-4years service.

They chose to work with YOLO Wellbeing, to deliver Healthy Home Working Consultations because the online service provided 1-2-1 information of home working set-ups; an understanding if they were impacting staff health and advice on healthy home working. HR Director, Lisa Kennery, believed that the online service would empower the employees to be better able to look after their own health.

Objectives

The Management Team at Pierce wanted to:

Ensure that their employees were working from home safely, and not at risk of musculoskeletal injury. Understand if home working arrangements were affecting the health of their staff. Meet their duty of care to their home working teams and demonstrate to their teams that they are invested in their health; and where necessary intervene to help employees who were struggling. Raise awareness amongst the team of their posture in relation to their health and provide them with the tools and knowledge to look after their own health..

How did YOLO Wellbeing meet the objectives?

YOLO Wellbeing shared a home working questionnaire to the staff at Pierce, to help us understand how employees were working and if it was impacting their health. Following the results of the survey we carried out a series of Consultations in groups of 6 to enable us to reviewed each employee’s work station; providing advice for improvement and reasonable adjustment.

Within the Consultations we identified a small number of employees whose home working set-up put them at a higher risk of musculoskeletal injury. We were able to highlight this to the client, recommending that they may need further intervention, or an early return to the office. This was raised privately as part of the evaluation report, to enable the company to respond confidentially with the individual members of the team.

As part of the delivery of the sessions we provided tips to work safely from home and manage their musculoskeletal and mental health.

The attendees then took part in a 12minute stretch, mobilisation and breathing session, which targets all the freely moveable joints in the body.

After the sessions all the participants were invited to complete a review questionnaire; which was then used to provide feedback in the evaluation report.

Benefits to the Attendees:

We received feedback from 64% of respondents following the consultations; which was very positive:

100% Said they were more aware of their posture and how to improve it 82% Said they felt better equipped to avoid aches and pains 65% Said they felt some improvements in their health after the session The employees rated the session:

Some of the attendee’s comments included:

‘Doing the movements highlighted how rigid my body has become! So I will certainly be moving/stretching more!!’

‘Helpful low impact stretches especially for the neck that is generally forgotten.’

‘Good session, using towel to improve spine posture.’

This benefited Pierce in the following ways:

Provided a better understanding of how their employees are working from home, the evaluation report showed the majority of workers are well; but it also highlighted a small number of employees who are at risk. This has enabled the Pierce HR Team to take preventative action to manage the health and safety of their staff and avoid absences. The Consultations have provided the awareness, information and tools their employees need to take responsibility for their own health, whilst working remotely. This meets and exceeds their legal requirement to risk assess their home workers DSE set-up, provide holistic support and intervene where required. Pierce employees recognise their employer is invested in their health and welfare. The level of participation in the questionnaire, consultations and feedback survey demonstrates high engagement amongst staff. The tools supplied to Pierce following the Consultations will allow them to keep employees more mindful of their posture and health as working from home continues.

Testimonial from Pierce:

“The YOLO Wellbeing Consultations have been a great success; going beyond just health and safety assessment. Our staff were not just reminded about good posture, it has motivated them to move more and improve their health whilst working from home. It’s also identified some areas where we can help our employees.” Lisa Kennery, HR Director, Pierce Business Advisory & Accountants