Finalist, CUF Hospitals and Clinics, Lisbon (Portugal) for its Employees Well-Being Promoting Initiatives
As CUF has increased its activities and expanded into new geographical areas in recent years, it has become essential to continue to be a caring company that continually promotes a healthy environment where employees have access to measures that promote physical and mental well-being.
What makes your project so special?
Social is the most relevant pillar of the CUF Strategy – we are a company of people, with people that cares for people. And caring for our own has been in our DNA for several decades. In recent years we have been strengthening our action towards employee wellbeing and we don’t want to stop there. CUF’s intention is to have a robust and flexible support programme that adapts to new needs and expectations, which is key to continue cultivating an even healthier working environment.
What does this award mean to you and your teams?
Being able to look after our employees in the best way is also our purpose, without which we cannot provide an excellent service and receiving this award highlights that we are on a good path.
CUF has taken a step forward in this area by strengthening the prevention and wellbeing component of employees’ mental health, by developing an internal social responsibility programme in which 3 areas of intervention have been developed:
- Impact for the organisation – with the reinforcement of structural measures in global terms for CUF, such as the revalidation of the certification of Family Responsible Company;
- Impact for awareness and promotion of wellbeing – in which CUF takes a leadership position promoting mental health with a particular focus on the work context;
- Impact with benefits for employees who promote wellbeing and health.
Within these 3 main areas of intervention, in 2022 CUF promoted several cross-cutting initiatives accessible to every employee, of which we can highlight the following:
- Free psychological appointments for employees and their families, in which the number of possible free appointments was increased in 2022 (Around 600 meetings were organised in 2022 by more than 350 employees;
- Free coaching for employees and their families;
- Cycle of webinars with CUF specialists on various health topics with an average of 100 participants for each session (The importance of self-awareness in mental health and The importance of sleep);
- Training in “Leadership promoting mental health” for CUF employees in leadership roles, to raise awareness of the importance of mental health in the workplace for company directors and managers, organised by the NGO Manicómio, whose organisational objectives are to reduce stigma, change culture and promote mental health in companies and in the public system;
- CUF has joined the “Aliança para a Saúde Mental”, which aims to help organisations invest in the development of people and their mental well-being, by creating healthy and prosperous workplaces;
- As part of CUF Tejo, CUF also promoted a session in July with Mysha Byrne, a renowned speaker and neuroscientist specialising in behavioural transformation.
The initiatives, according to a subjective assessment, have contributed to a new vision of mental health within the organisation and to the fight against the associated stigma.
The innovation lies in the vision of the responsibility of the organisation and, in particular, of its leaders, in promoting a healthy environment and knowledge that enables risk situations to be prevented, detected, supported and guided.
We believe it is our responsibility to raise awareness of this issue internally, but also with the rest of society, and in 2022 we have been working with two different audiences:
- Within GRACE, an association of over 200 companies that promotes corporate social responsibility, CUF coordinates the health cluster which has developed a “mental health toolkit for business”, which has also been shared with our human resources, in addition to the impact it has had among GRACE associate companies ;
- In schools, thanks to the partnership we have with SPOTGames, a social innovation project that has developed content on health to be integrated into games in 2nd and 3rd cycle schools, in 2022 we developed a special game on mental health, with the aim of breaking down prejudices and promoting a healthy relationship between self and mental health.
Our concern and action on this subject will continue in the years to come. One concrete example is an e-learning course that will be available to every employee in 2023 on the subject of burnout.
For additional information, consult CUF’s Integrated Report
