Professional Services Development Day – Live Well, Work Well – Wednesday, 26th March 2025

This year our annual Professional Services Development Day focussed on wellbeing and self-care with the aim to motivate and inspire colleagues to recharge their mental, physical, financial, social and emotional health. 

We invested in a wide range of speakers covering issues such as Mental Health, Neurodiversity, Men’s Health, Menopause, Cyber Wellbeing, Financial Wellbeing and Social Media Detox to raise awareness and equip staff with the tools to support their own wellbeing.

Flip-it Thinking was a very popular session and was delivered by Victoria Maitland from Laughology. The session aimed to increase workplace motivation, resilience and engagement and help us to find the positives in situations, embrace challenges and deal with change and transformation. 

In addition to this, we provided some hands-on activities to help colleagues have some fun and try something new with animal encounters, bath bomb workshops, a bubble workshop, junk drumming and Lego for Wellbeing.

There were a number of workshops to learn techniques for relaxation, including the Immersive Sound Journey, Acupressure and Breathwork, and these were very well received. 

Colleagues could choose up to seven activities to try throughout the day, and some of those who attended the Animal Encounters session told us that they enjoyed handling cockroaches, a millipede, a stick insect and a blue-tongued skink (lizard). The highlight for many was handling a python experience.

Colleagues who attended the Lego for Wellbeing session explained that one of the activities required them to build their current mood with 5 pieces of Lego. Casey, an Assessor in Electrical Installation, said: “I enjoyed the task. I made the sea bottom, a castle with a flag on top and a glass front. I used the Lego figurine to represent my work colleague because of his blonde hair and put him in the castle. I would say it represented my mood being quite relaxed."

He added: “I also attended the Men’s Focus group, and it was interesting thinking about how they said men don’t often express how they feel well.”

Jayne Courtney, Head of Organisational Development was responsible for the day and said: “We were thrilled with the success of the day. The enthusiasm and engagement levels were inspiring, and the initial feedback has been extremely positive.  We look forward to building on this momentum and continuing to support all our of our colleagues’ health and wellbeing.”