RSPCA

Praised by the awards judges as “really inspiring”, the RSPCA’s three-year Wellbeing Plan was launched after a 2019 staff survey found that only 37 per cent believed the organisation cared about employee wellbeing (and only 39 per cent agreed that the RSPCA helped colleagues achieve a good work-life balance). 

These findings – together with the fact that the organisation lost more than 11,000 working days to sickness in 2020, at a cost of more than £1.3m, and that 40 per cent of occupational health referrals were mental-health related – were evidence that change was desperately needed. The team was aware that a large number of staff were not only lone workers but worked on the front line of animal welfare, regularly dealing with neglected, abused, sick and injured animals. It was vital that the correct training and support was made available for people working in these trauma-exposed roles. 

In 2021, the Wellbeing Plan was launched to try to shift the dial. As part of its mental health focus, the RSPCA partnered the charity Mind to deliver two bespoke training programmes. The first, Managing Mental Health at Work, supported managers and volunteer coordinators to look after their own mental health and that of their teams. The organisation trained 80 per cent of managers in 12 months and continues to deliver the training to new managers.

The second programme, Inspectorate Mental Health Training, gives the RSPCA’s inspectorate the skills to look after their mental health and includes support for mental-health issues they may encounter in their public-facing role. Trauma Risk Management (TRiM), a peer support system helping colleagues who had experienced a traumatic event, was also introduced. It is now a network of 16 accredited practitioners and managers, and has supported more than 140 colleagues.

Twelve internal accredited mediators were trained to help colleagues empathise with each other’s emotions and situations, resolving workplace conflict and preventing situations from escalating. A confidential platform, Work in Confidence, was also introduced to enable staff to share feedback anonymously. In a follow-up colleague survey in 2023, 64 per cent agreed that the organisation cared about employee wellbeing, and 73 per cent said they felt engaged to work for the RSPCA. An improved focus on wellbeing also led to a significant reduction in staff turnover – from 14 per cent in 2019 to nine per cent in 2023.