A funding award of £2,000 has enabled Forth Valley College to provide an additional programme of wellbeing support sessions for their staff.
The funding was made available from the Spirit of 2012 Grantee Wellbeing Fund and was designed to support the staff of organisations who had been in receipt of a Spirit 2012 grant.
The grants were made available by Spirit as a way to support organisations and their staff cope with the stresses, worries and burdens brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Like many staff in workplaces across the UK, staff at FVC have had to deal with rapid changes in the work environment including working from home, adapting to life on-line and the impact of furlough.
To complement the support already offered by the College, Karina Buchanan, HR Business Manager, considered this a great opportunity and was delighted to be awarded the full £2,000 towards wellbeing activities taking take place between April and June.
A range of sessions were planned and covered topics including:
- Managing Change
- Coping under Pressure
- Cancer in the Workplace
- Inclusive Management – Overcoming the Challenges of COVID
- How to support a co-worker friend who is under stress
- How to cope with anxiety returning to work after a long period of furlough
Staff feedback from the sessions has been very positive. One staff member commenting on the overall wellbeing learning on offer, said: “I feel the various courses available are very relevant and fitting to the current climate. There is something for everyone to participate in.”
A member of the College’s Hospitality Team, who has been on furlough throughout the pandemic, attended a session on Coping with Anxiety Returning to Working. They explained how useful to them it was, adding: “Knowing that there is help in our organisation to get us through our anxiety and stress, is very important.”
The College’s HR Department are currently developing a staff wellbeing framework, which is intended to be a strategic and preventative approach, in line with an overall commitment to developing FVC’s approach to the provision of education and awareness learning for the workforce around health and wellbeing.
FVC recognises that health and wellbeing is a key catalyst of effective individual and organisation performance; fostering innovation, creativity, productivity and engagement. By devising action plans with key activities from staff feedback, focus groups and statistics, this results in the creation of appropriate wellbeing and resilience strategies to offer support to staff.
Karina Buchanan, FVC’s HR Business Manager, said: “We are driven by a goal to make Forth Valley College a place where staff can both live and work well and I am excited to see what can be achieved. We have been focusing hard this last year on health and wellbeing for our staff and planning is taking place now to grow and develop our offerings even further in the next academic term.”
Pauline Barnaby, Development and Fundraising Manager added: “As a Spirit of 2012 grant holder, the College was delighted to have an opportunity to provide additional wellbeing support for our staff. This was a great initiative by Spirit which recognised the stresses of the pandemic and the importance of wellbeing in the workplace.”
Gaetano Ianetta, Grant and Learning Officer, Spirit of 2012, said: “Wellbeing is very important to Spirit of 2012, not just for the people who benefit from our funded projects but for those who deliver them and make such a big difference to other people’s lives. Their commitment, creativity and resilience since March 2020 has been remarkable, but the pandemic and lockdowns have taken their toll. This grant will go some way to supporting the wellbeing of the team at Forth Valley College and acknowledge the great work they’ve been doing over the last 16 months."