From initiative to culture: the success of a holistic wellbeing policy

Company profile

The company is an engineering and consultancy firm that is part of an international group with its roots in Europe. The Belgian branch was formed a few years ago through the merger of several companies and brings together a rich history of expertise and innovation. Although it was founded relatively recently, many employees have decades of experience, which adds to the deep knowledge base and the continuity of its services.

The company is active in a range of sectors, such as construction, architecture, civil engineering, petrochemicals and pharma. With a broad range of specialisms, it offers holistic solutions to complex challenges. Besides its activities in Belgium, it is also active in neighbouring European countries and in Asia. The company's mission rests on a commitment to building the cities and societies of tomorrow through sustainable and innovative solutions.

Challenges

Within the organization, HR has evolved from a more reactive to a proactive stance. That change went hand in hand with a move towards more specialization, with attention to talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, and talent development. Despite that differentiation, collaboration within HR has remained essential. The employee is always at the centre of their approach.

The growing organization, partly through acquisitions within the group, challenged HR to become more efficient. This was made possible by introducing tools and professionalizing the department. Although you might expect this to lead to a less personal approach, the opposite is true: the focus on a personal approach stayed strong. One sign of this is that a large share of recruitment happens internally. For other aspects, such as mental wellbeing, they work with external partners such as BloomUp.

Process & implementation

The wellbeing project started with separate initiatives, but it soon became clear that these efforts had to be bundled into an overarching programme, which was named BOOST. This programme was set up to provide a coherent and organized approach to all wellbeing initiatives, from healthy food at work to the layout of meeting rooms and the role of confidential advisers.

During this process, the team realized that although they worked hard to answer employees' questions with their own expertise, they often ran into limits. That is why the company decided to work with BloomUp. The partnership allowed the organization to bring in external expertise that can better support and develop employees. It was essential to offer more than reactive help and also to proactively prevent employees from ending up in difficult situations.

The implementation happened in phases. The organization started with a pilot in which the collaboration and shared values were tested through individual programmes with 3 employees. The feedback was extremely positive and showed strong synergy between the internal projects and BloomUp's services. After positive experiences within HR, the team decided to develop a business case for implementation across the whole organization. Management quickly agreed because of the clear benefits and the attractive ROI, taking both direct and indirect costs into account. BloomUp was then integrated into the Health & Safety training.

Impact

As part of the BOOST programme, the journey does not stop at guiding employees to the right professionals through BloomUp. Afterwards, the organization also helps them put the insights and lessons discussed into practice where needed. This helps employees apply the knowledge and skills they have gained in their work environment and improve their relationships with colleagues and managers, and it makes sure the professional help actually delivers results.

An important aspect of the programme is normalizing mental wellbeing and creating an open culture around the subject. The fact that BloomUp is known within the organization lowers the threshold to talk about it. It is a positive signal that the organization cares about its people, both at work and beyond.

Every month, the organization meets with a diverse group, including HR, prevention services and other stakeholders, to discuss the progress and effectiveness of the wellbeing initiatives. BloomUp's dashboards are used heavily here to gather information, so the organization can work more preventively and keep improving.

Although the direct impact on revenue or retention is not easy to quantify, the team stresses that the real success of BloomUp shows in the improved individual wellbeing experience and in the changes in the feedback culture around themes such as mental wellbeing.