Racing’s Workforce Wellbeing Programme Wins Prestigious Award
The Racing Welfare team were celebrating last night after its Workforce Wellbeing Programme (WWP) won the Wellbeing Initiative of the Year at the WSB Awards. The awards were announced yesterday evening, 6th October 2021, at a gala dinner at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane in London by comedian Naomi Cooper.
“I just want to say a huge congratulations and thank you to everyone who has made this happen, which in reality is the whole Racing Welfare team. It’s been a long journey growing the Workforce Wellbeing Programme from small seed funded projects to the full service it is today and it relies on a massive team effort. To have seen first hand the benefits of the WWP, particularly during the pandemic, has been incredibly rewarding and to gain this recognition from outside the industry is the icing on the cake.”
Thanks must also go as well to the Racing Foundation for their generous funding which has enabled the transformation of the WWP into the top class service that it is today.
Simone Sear, Racing Welfare's Director of Welfare
The Workplace Savings and Benefits Awards, which are now in their ninth year, aim to find and recognise employers and providers who have the best benefits teams and offerings to staff and have done the most to improve these over the past 12 months.
Racing Welfare’s Workforce Wellbeing Programme is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work and dedication from everyone at Racing Welfare to provide a bespoke support service for the entire racing industry. The programme started as four individual seed-funded projects (Racing’s Support Line, the Career’s Advice and Training Service, Racing’s Occupational Health Service and Mental Health Services) and has been transformed, with the generous support of the Racing Foundation, into a full programme that enables anyone working in the horseracing industry to access a broad range of support 24/7.
The benefit of the WWP was particularly emphasised when Covid hit as, similar to other industries, horseracing faced challenging times, and the programme provided a resource for employers to support their employees that in a lot of cases wouldn’t have otherwise existed. The programme has supported employees by providing them with a safe space outside their workplace to access support for a whole range of issues, some of which were either exacerbated by, or as a result of, the pandemic. For some that meant financial advice, for others emotional support for stress and anxiety and for others the need to have some career support. During 2020 over 2,700 people accessed the programme’s services, with the self-support pages receiving over 48,000 views.
It was wonderful to see the horseracing industry recognised for the first time in the well-being sector. The WWP was facing strong opposition from some large employers and employee assistance programme providers and to gain this outside recognition is a huge achievement and a great showcase for our industry.
You can find out more about the Workforce Wellbeing Programme and the support services it offers here.
