Well-being is integral to maintaining a health, engaged, energized and productive workforce. ERM's approach to well-being builds on our company values, in particular caring for each other: we look out for everyone's safety, well-being and development.
We treat each other with respect and share information globally on managing stress and supporting colleagues in the workplace.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, work-from-home orders impacted ERM employees around the world. We offered several new and expanded initiatives to help promote well-being during this extraordinary and stressful time.
- Staying healthy and active, both physically and mentally, is extremely important. The self-isolation regime could not stop our employees from virtual yoga classes, coffee chats, exercise challenges and other ways of staying connected.
- With most of our employees working from home for an extended period, ERM’s ergonomics experts communicated widely on proper workstation set up at home and conducted virtual assessments of home offices and workstations. Employees continue to share tips for using readily available materials to provide proper equipment positioning at home, the importance of taking regular breaks and exercise, and effectively using online technology for communicating with clients and each other.
- Mental health affects our emotional, psychological and social well-being. ERM provides support with grief, anxiety and mental well-being, and where available, employees can access support through an Employee Assistance Program, which is a confidential support service available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
- Our ERM Academy provides additional resources to support a healthy working from home routine, with training sessions on mindfulness, freedom from anxious thoughts and feelings, and boosting your energy, among others.
When a lockdown in Belgium began, employees from ERM’s office who enjoy running started to register their runs to see how far they could go during the lockdown and also motivate each other to keep moving within the limits of the governmental restrictions.
Euros Jones, Partner, used a running app to spell out "ERM" during a run.
Traditionally, our business may demand long hours, frequent or extended travel, and deadline pressures. Within this context, ERM strives to maintain an appropriate work-life balance for our employees:
- For years, we have provided flexible working arrangements where feasible, supported by technology. We leveraged this experience during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our employees – and clients – when people were required to work from home.
- We will continue to ensure we are meeting the needs of our employees in the years ahead. Flexibility is often cited as an attractive reason for working at ERM, based on the results of employee and new hire surveys as well as anecdotal comments.
- We encourage wellness activities, with many of our offices have implementing initiatives, such as gym memberships, team sports, recognition of special family days and fresh fruit supplies. Due to COVID-19, many of these activities continued online.
During FY20, ERM worked toward a new global target: to improve the Employee Engagement Survey well-being question score from the baseline by 10%. For more information, see our targets and goals section.
June 21 is International Day for Yoga, and the theme for 2019 was Yoga for Climate Action. ERM's office in Gurgaon, India, held a 1-hour yoga session delivered by Kuldeep Rana, manager, to promote fitness and discuss how yoga can help address climate change.