June 2022

My Health and Wellbeing team at CGI are passionate about supporting CGI members in a holistic way to make their work lives as positive as possible. We come with an NHS background (our team lead is a trained psychotherapist) and many of us have personal stories that make our roles even more resonant.

As company Health and Wellbeing consultants, we’re a key part of CGI Oxygen, a programme focusing on member wellbeing through global, regional and local initiatives. Our goal is simply to help our members better understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle and it’s great to be part of such a proactive and preventative approach to that.

Our member’s wellbeing is priority number one

We’re very mindful of promoting physical health and activity in our offices, as well as mental health. We see members struggling with decreased motivation and increased levels of stress and anxiety when they aren’t moving away from their screens regularly, so that’s something we continually raise awareness about.

Further to that, the evolution to hybrid working has made our robust DSE assessment process a priority, ensuring people have what they need to work comfortably and healthily. Hybrid working has lent itself to increased screen time, poor work/life boundaries and an increase in sedentary lifestyles. Our DSE assessment supports members with specialist workplace adjustments for both their home and office environment and has the added benefit of providing data that tells us what support is required in our business across the board.

Another big focus for us is digital fatigue. We recently shared an article on it that was very popular with members, and our HR team is really concentrating on helping members combat digital exhaustion and the effects of working long hours staring at a device. 

Engaging health initiatives

I love our Step To It initiative that we just launched on the 16 May. It’s a five-week, UK-wide challenge for CGI members that aims to encourage and highlight opportunities for regular movement breaks every day. It’s also introduced some healthy competition!

Taking part is as easy as downloading a purpose-built member app, then syncing it to a fitness tracker. Each person/team sets themselves a daily goal, all while contributing to our collective target of 100 million steps. All movement counts, so the app keeps everyone accountable and motivated. We’ve incentivised the challenge with prizes to encourage participants to share stories, and we’ve also ensured Step To It ties in with various other areas of the business.

Then we have all the things we’re introducing with our partners at No Planet B, promoting physical activity at the same time as encouraging sustainable practices. Among others, this includes our CGI Cycle to Work scheme, which is starting to take off. 

A supportive environment underpins everything

A healthy workplace doesn’t just rely on specific initiatives. We also have various support mechanisms in place for members to turn to at any time.

For instance, our member assistance programme (MAP) provides free, spontaneous phone counselling – people can get advice on anything from personal to professional matters and the service is accessible 24/7. We also have our Cigna wellbeing app, which allows members who have opted for private medical cover access to a Digital GP, prescriptions and specialist referrals. They can do a short assessment with instant feedback too, which helps the user take control of their own health and wellbeing and access a library of resources with recipes, articles and exercise programmes.

Beyond that, we continue to facilitate flexible working and cultivate a kind and modern culture. CGI has a host of DE&I networks which members can join and find valuable encouragement and support. Everyone at CGI has an opportunity to contribute to our success.

As members start returning to offices across the UK, a lot of the initiatives we’ve been conducting virtually will soon switch to face-to-face. I’m really looking forward to doing wellbeing workshops back in person!

If you’d like to learn more about career opportunities at CGI, head to our website.