Operational efficiency Case study
Energise, Connect
and Balance
Three UK’s award-winning wellbeing strategy is based
around three pillars to ensure initiatives cover every aspect
of employee health. RACHEL SHARP explores
The organisation
Since its launch in 2003 Three UK has celebrated
a number of firsts, including being the first
mobile network to offer unlimited data. In July
2019 it launched the world’s first 5G-ready,
fully-integrated, Cloud core network with Nokia.
Today it has more than 20 million customers,
with its network covering around 99% of the
UK population.
The problem
“The telecoms industry is going through a period
of fundamental change with the introduction of
5G, which is going to completely revolutionise
what mobile telecoms technology is capable of,”
says Alan Millbrow, Three UK’s head of wellbeing
and recognition. “To get this right we’re asking a
lot from our people, and we’re not going to
deliver our goals as a business if our people don’t
love coming to work every day.”
Out of this realisation came the company goal
to ‘be the UK’s best-loved brand by our people by
2021’. And supporting employee wellbeing
will be key to achieving this. So it was
based on insights from employee
feedback (via the employee forum,
The Connect Pillar is about giving staff time engagement surveys and eNPS employee
net promoter score), sickness absence
data, as well as external market data, that
Three UK made the call back in 2016 that
it was time to go on a wellbeing journey.
The method
Wellness initiatives have been created
around three key pillars: Energise,
Connect and Balance. Energise focuses on
helping people eat healthily, sleep well and
keep moving. Connect is about giving staff
time for things that are important to them,
such as family or personal causes. Balance
supports people with the ups and downs
of life.
Under the Energise pillar sit things like
There is a Wellness Fund Mental health is a large focus of the wellbeing free flu jabs for all employees and an
initiative called Wellness Wednesdays. On
Wellness Wednesdays no meetings are permitted
to take place between 12pm and 2pm, with
everyone encouraged to take the time to
participate in activities.
“Some people do boot camp, the Reading site
has formed a cycling club, some people meet up
with friends, one person runs a meditation
course, and someone else is using the time to
write a book,” says Millbrow.
This is led from the top, with the CEO often
walking the floors of the head office to ensure no
meetings are taking place.
Millbrow concedes that this part of the
wellbeing offering is only available to office
employees. But it’s a challenge the organisation is
working to address.
“The biggest group of people are customer
advisors in retail stores where it’s a very different
environment to the head office,” he explains.
“So we have to think carefully about all the
Alan Millbrow, head of wellbeing and recognition
46 HR October 2019 hrmagazine.co.uk
/hrmagazine.co.uk