Gazprom Energy is a specialist gas and electricity provider based in Manchester. It places the happiness and health of its 270 employees at the core of its organisational strategy, founded on a belief that this leads to healthy customer relationships.
As part of this approach, Gazprom Energy trialled the introduction of a health and wellbeing week in 2016.
A total of 15 sessions were held overall, each highlighting various aspects of health and happiness, and all staff were encouraged to participate. The sessions included wellbeing talks from internal and external motivational speakers and experts, as well as physical activities, such as group running and swimming. Where possible, these were led by employees, to ensure that the initiative was seen to be run by staff, for staff.
To measure the level of engagement and the effect on employees’ happiness, participation numbers were logged at each event and a voluntary survey was circulated among staff at the Manchester offices.
Out of the 270 employees within the organisation overall, 217 attended the wellbeing week; positive feedback was gained from 100% of the staff members who joined in.
Following the success of this trial, Gazprom Energy developed the initiative into a regular programme, with various themed sessions, including one-to-one career mentoring, workshops, mindfulness and motivation.
An extended programme, dubbed the ‘summer of learning’, was delivered over July and August 2018. This consisted of a number of sessions centring on a different topic each week, including mentoring, personal development, wellbeing and networking.
Daria Tishchenko, HR analyst at Gazprom Energy, says: “We are also doing more work on the equality, inclusion and diversity side. One of the steps we have taken so far is a partnership with organisations across the industry by joining the POWERful Women group. It has a mentoring service and offers other advice and hosts events.”
The organisation is also focusing on mental health, with plans for 30 employees, including members of the senior management team, to attend a two-day course on mental health first aid.
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