Ciphr has always offered an extensive range of health benefits including life insurance, employer-paid private medical insurance and annual health assessments for its 230 employees. However, until a couple of years ago, it had not promoted these benefits fully.
Claire Williams, chief people officer at Ciphr, says: “The pandemic made us focus on employee health and wellbeing, bringing in providers to talk about the benefits they offered. Products such as the employee assistance programme and virtual GP were important during the pandemic but we saw usage across all of the health benefits increase.”
While supporting staff during the pandemic was the initial impetus to do more, the importance of looking after employees’ health and wellbeing was really brought home when two members of staff were diagnosed with cancer and another had a life-changing accident. “It was hard to see them go through this but so positive that our benefits could support them,” says Williams. “The cancer treatment they received through the medical insurance has been brilliant and the employee involved in an accident has the reassurance of an income until retirement through our [group] income protection scheme. Life can be challenging so it’s good to offer support where we can.”
Williams has also built on the work undertaken during the pandemic, introducing Ciphr’s Healthy Organisation programme. This focuses on employee health and wellbeing, providing tips and advice across areas such as nutrition, sleep, and stress. “We’re promoting lots of preventative benefits such as our annual health assessment and the dental plan,” she adds. “We want to help employees be as healthy as they can be. It’s great to see how engaged they are and it’s also been reflected in our absence level, which has fallen below 1.5%.”