Wellbeing at work
Wellbeing week: a delicious salad bar lunch to raise money for Mind, the mental health charity
As a practice we put people at the heart of what we do and we take the wellbeing of our team very seriously. We are proud holders of IIP (Investors in People), Gold level, have recently been shortlisted for the AJ100 Employer of the Year award and have worked hard to create an inspiring and collaborative studio environment; a place our staff are proud to call home. So what exactly does wellbeing mean to the practice and what initiatives are we working on? We spoke to HR Director Sophie Tait and HR Assistant Eleanore Smith to find out more.
What does wellness mean to PDP London?
Wellness is an integral part of our culture here; we have long been advocates of flexible working and we strive to achieve a good work/life balance. Since the pandemic, staff wellbeing has become an even more important topic, as we consider the negative impact that isolation, anxiety about health, being separated from loved ones and uncertainty about the future can have. People now have very different needs. When considering topics such as stress and burnout, not only do we seek to provide our staff with the tools to recognise and manage this but we additionally look at prevention methods. Policies that we have in place such as flexible working and actively discouraging long hours and overtime have started to address these matters. We are also proud members of the Architects’ Mental Wellbeing Forum, and meet regularly with the other 11 founding practices, to discuss new ideas for nurturing mental wellbeing.
What do you think architecture practices can do to help combat the rise in mental health problems?
Creating avenues of support is really important. This can be achieved by providing forums for individuals to talk in, and signposting to support channels. Avenues we have here are: an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP); Vitality health services including talking therapies and online GP support; and our in-house mental health first aiders. We have also considered how we can provide peer to peer support, and have recently offered a mental health workshop for all our staff.
Wellbeing week: gong bath meditation in the London studio
The practice recently held a wellness week, can you tell us a bit more about it and the activities that took place?
After working remotely on and off over the past two years – and with new staff starting during the pandemic without being able to experience our usual office cultural and social activities - we felt that a wellbeing week was a great way to reconnect and reintroduce our wellbeing values to the team.
We started each morning with delicious smoothies and breakfasts made by our Office Manager, Julie Blake; we held a mental health workshop and a presentation about mental health resilience, as well as sessions to introduce our Vitality health services. There were badminton and tennis sessions, a gong bath meditation in the studio and plenty of fantastic chair massages throughout the week. On Thursday there was a homecooked lunch to fundraise for Mind, the mental health charity and we rounded off the week by taking part in the Architects Benevolent Society ‘Chicken Run’ – a 5km fun run to raise money for the charity.
This week is just the start, as we look forward to restarting our various sports teams, creative talks and social events calendar.
Finally, what’s next for the practice?
After the success of the wellbeing week we are looking to hold regular events where mental wellbeing is discussed, along with other health matters, such as the menopause. The last two years have shown us all the true benefits of agile working - something that is here to stay – so we will be increasing the number of mental health first aiders that we have in-house from 5 to 8 (our total headcount is 100), to provide a greater reach of support in today’s hybrid working environment.
