Free fruit, gym sessions and pay rises as Newark employer Bakkavor champions wellbeing in the workplace

A major Newark employer is promoting and supporting wellbeing in the workplace.

Bakkavor Desserts is having a wellbeing drive in the workplace this summer.

The business has run a programme of free workplace health checks in collaboration with Active4Today and colleagues have also gained free gym sessions.

Fresh fruit has also been offered on the house, encouraging staff to top-up on their five-a-day.

The initiatives are the work of the Newark site’s Employee Forum, which organises a wide range of colleague engagement, wellbeing and charitable events through the year.

Shona Beresford, site coordinator for Bakkavor’s Employee Forum at Newark said: "I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of our wellbeing week, seeing colleagues engaged and curious about improving their physical health and mental health was really rewarding.

"We received some great feedback from our external visitors from Active4Today, they really enjoyed visiting our site and providing information and advice to our colleagues."

Supporting health and mental wellbeing comes hand-in-hand with Bakkavor supporting its employees’ financial wellbeing.

Despite the challenging economic climate for the sector, it implemented two rounds of pay rises in the last nine months and earlier this year ran a long service awards programme, recognising and celebrating more than 70 colleagues that have supported the business for between 10 and 25 years.

Caron Varney, senior HR partner, said: "I am really proud of our Employee Forum in Newark and, particularly, the great work that they’ve done recently to support colleague wellbeing. As a business, we recognise how tough it is at the moment, particularly with the cost of living increases and the stresses that this can cause.“We recognise the importance of all aspects of wellbeing from a healthy mind, body and wallet.

"We have offered our people two pay rises in the last year and we have enhanced our benefits such as increased life assurance, staff discounts, providing a colleague bus service, and loyalty awards. At challenging times, we are doing our very best to look after our colleagues."