EXCLUSIVE: Lily's Kitchen enhances its reward and wellbeing strategy

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Employee Benefits Reset 2020: Lily's Kitchen enhanced its reward and wellbeing strategy to support its employees during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

During her online session titled 'Reward and benefits to enhance health and wellbeing', Georgina Cameron, HR director at Lily's Kitchen, discussed how the organisation created an effective framework for a reward and wellbeing strategy to empower employees.

Cameron explained that employees are now looking to work for an employer that supports their health and wellbeing. She said: "If organisations can address what employees want, the framework can help them feel supported, respected, and engaged. For us at Lily's Kitchen, supporting employees help them grow and feel enriched, it is important to produce a wide range of support for the whole workforce through wellbeing benefits and further opportunity."

To support the development of employees at Lilly's Kitchen, Cameron explained how crucial a training strategy is to aid staff to progress in their careers. She said: "This development can be important to help employees feel that they can work their way up while still working at the organisation. It is not just about training modules, but it is about understanding what employees need and what they are interested in. There is no point offering courses where employees do not pay attention to. They need to be engaged, inspired and [feel] challenged to grow as an individual."

Community and environment can improve workplace culture, collaboration, and overall staff happiness. Cameron said: "Having people to talk to in the office is something that many employees are missing during the pandemic. Recognising individuals and rewarding them for their efforts has been affective in making employees feel part of the business."

Cameron explained that although pay is a key aspect of work, it is becoming less of a driver metric. Offering the likes of healthcare, ethical pension funds, flexible working, and free food can relieve the stress that many employees might be going through. She said: "We try to make sure that employees can feel that they are benefitting from being a part of the team. Our package has gone above and beyond to offer employees more than just pay progression. Our strategy is employee-led and this has been impressive to witness the improving culture and the exciting collaboration."

In terms of adapting benefits due to the pandemic, Cameron explained that Coronavirus has forced employers to reconsider their health and reward strategies. She discussed how Lily's Kitchen adjusted to unforeseen circumstances: "Due to already having a remote-working policy, we were set up with all the tools that we needed to adapt when lockdown restrictions were put in place. Despite this, we did not take it for granted. We started sending employees health and safety guidelines to ensure that they are following the right procedures. We enhanced this advice to offer working from home guidance to help our people manage their work-life balance. This support was further branched out to employees that were struggling with isolation while working remotely.

"Keeping these lines of communication went a long way to maintain that sense of community and transparency for us. We found that this was a significant benefit to our teams where they were encouraged to share their concerns, look after each other, and go through acts of kindness. Our employees have been working tirelessly to get the organisation through this period. That goes hand in hand with having a happy and fulfilled team."

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