The team at West Sussex Fire & Rescue work around the clock to keep their community of almost one million people safe. But the daily pressure to perform in high-risk, high-pressure situations is a constant challenge.
“We do risk-critical work, day in day out and we see tragic and significant things every day,” explains Peter Rickard, Assistant Chief Fire Officer.
“There’s very little margin for error. We need to do the right thing at the right time, because the situation can be an emergency,” adds firefighter Chris Harrison.
That’s why prioritising the wellbeing of first responders – and the team at the station supporting them – is critical.
“If you can’t look after your own staff, you can’t look after your community. It starts with looking after your workforce, showing them that you value them, showing them that you care about them. If you make their lives better, they can serve the public better.
“My first and foremost worry is always my own staff’s health and wellbeing,” adds Peter.
To provide this care, the team at West Sussex needed a route to effectively support high-priority wellbeing needs across diverse departments.
They also needed to proactively spot wellbeing challenges before they became crises. This required moving beyond absence statistics to generating data on the specific wellbeing needs of their people.
To support their people, West Sussex Fire & Rescue needed Champion Health.
Personalised for first responders
West Sussex Fire & Rescue needed to roll out a wellbeing strategy that supported the needs of their 700+ cross-functional colleagues.
“We’ve got operational and non-operational staff and we need to make sure that we offer a service that will suit both roles,” explains Wendy Carey, Health and Wellbeing Manager.
The Champion Health platform is rich with personalisation, reacting to the unique needs of each colleague. So, after lauching Champion Health, the team at West Sussex were now discovering their own personalised health reports, identifying potential health issues, and learning how to proactively support their wellbeing.
For the colleagues at West Sussex, personalisation means:
- First responders struggling with mental health get signposted to urgent support
- Operational staff experiencing back pain are nudged towards low-impact workouts
- Those struggling to sleep will find content to help them get a good night’s rest
Meanwhile, colleagues were also now supporting their own wellbeing proactively through access to an extensive library of wellbeing content, known as the ‘Netflix of Wellbeing’.
“Champion Health is used by many different people in many different ways. From personal trainers using the Champion Health workouts in their sessions, to line managers accessing resources in the Leadership Hub,” reports Wendy.
Data, insight and action
While their colleagues explored personal wellbeing action plans, the people team dived into the data.
“Before Champion Health, my biggest challenge was understanding the health of the organisation. Similar to other organisations, we had sickness absence data. But this didn’t tell me what the service wanted and needed,” Wendy explains.
After partnering with Champion Health this approach changed dramatically.
Using Champion Health’s expansive leadership dashboards – filled with anonymised and aggregated data – the team at West Sussex gained comprehensive oversight across all areas of their people’s wellbeing. This includes data across mental health, stress, sleep, physical health, and more.
West Sussex’s leaders used their Company Health Report to:
- Understand the health needs of the organisation
- Filter between firefighters and operational staff to gain granular wellbeing insight
- Measure the impact of their workplace health strategy over time using data
“It’s gold dust”
Champion Health has transformed the way West Sussex Fire & Rescue support their people.
“We knew why we needed to support our staff. The Champion Health platform showed us how,” summarises Wendy.
With personalised wellbeing support available to everyone in the organisation – and more data-driven workplace health initiatives on the horizon – West Sussex Fire & Rescue will continue to provide an excellent quality of care for their first responders.
“If you price the return on investment of Champion Health per head…you get a huge return. It’s gold dust really,” concludes Wendy.
