At FutureLearn, we have a duty of care to our staff to ensure they are able to work in a healthy environment that promotes work-life balance, flexibility and self care. This is to ensure our employees are able to thrive and bring their best selves to work, whilst maintaining their wellbeing.
We currently have three mental health champions in the business who are also trained as mental health first aiders. The purpose of our champions is to offer space for staff to have an informal and confidential chat about how they’re feeling and get advice and support in the area of mental health. Our mental health champions also work closely with the People team to provide feedback and ideas for how we can continually improve wellbeing in the workplace and support the roll out of key initiatives.
We have benefits that we offer to staff to support their wellbeing. These include:
We’re always looking for new ways to improve our wellbeing offering and as such, we’re pleased to be working with the mental health charity, Mind, on their annual wellbeing index. The index is a survey that collects staff feedback on how they feel their wellbeing is supported in the workplace, and helps us to identify where we can improve policies and processes.
Be it through insightful talks from external experts or staff sharing their mental health stories and experiences at our monthly lightning talks. we’re passionate about making space to talk about and demonstrate the importance of wellness and wellbeing. Our brilliant mental health champions also coordinate activities and events around Mental Health Awareness week, where we encourage staff to look after their general wellness and hold a fun annual auction to help raise donations for Mind.
Our commitment to wellbeing is also reflected in our everyday policies and practices. In the past we’ve given staff an extra day off to focus on their wellbeing, set up a permanent relaxation room in the office and organised onsite yoga class (led by our own FutureLearners) and massage sessions.
We’re proud to offer flexible working hours to enable staff to maintain their work-life balance, as well as offer the option of remote working.
We also understand that everyone is human, and there are some days where we may not feel able to show up to work because we need time to recharge. Staff can take a break if they need it through our offering of ‘personal days’.
