Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University

Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan demonstrates the value of a ‘one organisation’ approach to health and wellbeing; maximising the organisation’s resources for the benefit of staff, students and the wider community.

Leeds Metropolitan University is one of the largest universities in the UK, teaching over 30,000 students in a range of subjects across health, sport, education, arts, engineering, technology, business and law.  Our 3,000 employees are based at two campus sites in Leeds city centre and at Headingley.

From the outset this programme looked to take a pioneering approach of maximising our resources for the benefit of our staff and students. A cornerstone of this has been the wide range of wellbeing-related academic expertise located in our faculties of health & social sciences and sport & education.

The programme features a range of interventions and promotional initiatives targeted at staff and student wellbeing. The programme has been designed to meet the specific needs of different groups, for instance a new approach to managing stress was delivered through face-to-face training for every one of our 450 managers.

A central feature of our programme is the award-winning wellbeing website we have developed. It provides a broad range of advice and guidance across over 200 topics; from stress to childcare, healthy eating to coping with grief, exercise to personal debt. The website gets over 2000 hits per month and is a focal point for our monthly wellbeing campaigns.

Impact

  • 17% reduction in stress-related absence in the first year, saving us over £75,000 in lost wages.
  • Staff and student satisfaction scores have risen significantly
  • 90% Satisfaction achieved from attendees of The Managing Stress training provided to 450 Managers
  • Over two thirds of our staff said they felt we were interested in their wellbeing
  • 92% of staff that had accessed our occupational health service found it useful
  • Over 300 participants in a low cost bike hire scheme for staff and students
  • Recorded their lowest ever accident incidence rate of 64.7 compared with a sector rate of 325

Top tips

  • Create a wellbeing brand and include within it some the things you might already have in place, such as childcare vouchers or cycle to work schemes.
  • Engage your staff, get their ideas on what they want.
  • Look for free resources available to employers, such as smoking cessation packs from the NHS.
  • Celebrate the success at all levels, from the directors for supporting it, to staff for getting involved.

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