True North: Northern Star — Essentialise

Essentialise is an award-winning workplace wellbeing and inclusion agency based in Lancashire that has supported businesses such as PwC, Transport for the North and Anytime Fitness to put employee happiness first and build a thriving workforce.

The company helps organisations to build effective, sustainable and tailored strategies that help to empower and engage employees, improve staff retention and cut through the noise to attract top talent. 

Here, Essentialise’s founder and CEO, Lee Chambers — a member of our True North network and our latest ‘Northern Star’ — explains why putting people first matters for any business, the connection between inclusion and wellness and how to leverage technology to achieve your wellbeing aims.

Connecting wellness and inclusion

Although our clients' needs vary, what never changes is Essentialise’s end goal — to empower organisations with the confidence, ability and autonomy to build a thriving workforce. 

The first thing that we do with any client is to establish their starting point, benchmarking the current health and wellbeing outcomes of their workforce. From there, we develop a strategy that helps to boost KPIs, improve staff retention, gain competitive advantage, attract top talent and deliver improved wellbeing outcomes in the future. 

When it comes to honing this strategy, there are three crucial things to consider. 

Firstly, there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ model that works for every business. We live in a very personalised world — whether it’s the adverts on our social media feeds, recommendations on our streaming services or offers in our supermarkets. Wellbeing should work in the same way, where employers recognise that different people are receptive to different things and deliver bespoke support that meets individual needs. 

Following on from this, the strategy and its outcomes need to be person-centric, business-sensible, quantifiable and embedded in the values of the company. 

Thirdly and finally, wellbeing strategies must be interlinked with inclusion strategies because the two are intrinsically connected. When people feel included, they're more likely to be well and happier at work. Yet more than that, a happy and healthy workforce is more likely to be mindful about being inclusive and ensuring that colleagues feel supported.

Businesses are putting employees first

It’s safe to say that there’s a lot of uncertainty in today’s world. As a result, employee health and wellbeing needs to be a priority for businesses now more than ever.

Essentialise emerged shortly before one of the biggest causes of uncertainty in recent times — the COVID-19 pandemic. We feared that among the tough decisions many companies made at that time, investment in wellbeing would be the first to be cut. However, businesses have realised the importance of employee wellbeing to support wider business objectives, including talent retention, employee engagement and other ESG objectives. 

In fact, around 75% of our inbound queries come from organisations that are looking to improve staff retention, with the other reasons centred around engagement (15%) and addressing acute mental health or wellbeing challenges (10%). 

It’s a good time to be investing in your people. This is reflected in how we’ve grown over the last four years — something we’ve aimed to do organically. We continue to be proudly bootstrapped, which gives us the flexibility to scale sustainably, at our own pace and do what we think is right at every stage of the journey. 

Alongside our corporate consulting, we've set up a social enterprise — Male Allies UK — which champions allyship skills in the workplace. 

Learning from mistakes and leveraging technology

As a leader, it’s important to me to be a proactive role model. That’s why I set clear boundaries and communicate my non-negotiables. I make sure to take regular breaks and I take the time to check in and see how everyone's doing. My hope is that this will encourage my colleagues to do the same.

It goes without saying that the wellbeing of our workforce is our top priority at Essentialise — not least because it’s crucial to show our clients that we practice what we preach. We’ve prioritised a culture where people feel psychologically safe, empowered to open up and encouraged to challenge things. 

Another priority of ours is exploring how emerging technologies can be harnessed to drive behavioural change in the workplace to create a more inclusive, accessible and wellbeing-focused culture. The best example is our 360° virtual reality video, which puts you in the shoes of someone who's struggling with their mental health at work, witnessing a day in their life first-hand. With this, we aim to foster a more empathetic way of interacting with people and start more conversations around wellbeing. 

When I take a step back and reflect on the magnitude of all this work, I find it hard to believe that we’re working with global businesses when we started as a little company in Lancashire. Yet the reality is that we’re making a real difference. I love the work that I do, the people I do it with and the positive impact we’re all having together.

Advice for purpose-led organisations

Although it can be a real challenge for organisations, my take-home message for any business would be to have the courage to assess where you're currently at with health and wellbeing versus where you want to be. This approach is essential to take steps forward in a measurable and evidential way. 

Perfecting your workplace wellbeing strategy is a journey, but it’s not one that you have to navigate alone. Essentialise is here to support you on that journey, offering expert insight and holistic support. 

Get in touch with Lee and Essentialise and join them in the True North network. Here, you’ll meet like-minded leaders who are co-creating a path forward with a view to unlocking the true potential of the Northern economy.