Health and wellbeing service success supported by BHSF

Employee benefits provider BHSF has successfully helped a not-for-profit organisation achieve success in staff health and wellbeing.

Gateway Family Service is a non-profit organisation that provides a range of preventative health and wellbeing services across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands.

Founded in 2006, the company supports families and individuals to manage their own health, maximise the opportunities of the workplace, building and reinforcing social and family bonds.

Gateway has been working with BHSF since 2008 when the company first introduced an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to its employees.

Since then, Gateway has gone on to introduce an employee discount programme and RISE; an on-demand advice and support service that offers mental health, financial and legal advice.

Gateway also uses BHSF to support, when needed, on occupational health matters.

Jo Harper (pictured), chief executive at Gateway, said: “Our relationship with BHSF is built on personal relationships, it doesn’t have a corporate feel to it at all.

“As a local business, they feel very aligned to us ethically and that really helps us to build a strong partnership.

“They are always very responsive to our needs and are happy to come along and attend our staff briefings and wellbeing days.

“Our team appreciates this and we always see an uplift in the use of the services when BHSF has visited to speak to us face to face.”

Gateway values the services provided by BHSF as it is becoming increasingly important in a competitive recruitment market to provide additional benefits to staff.

 “Having these benefits in place gives us another selling point for our potential candidates,” said Jo.

“As a social enterprise we can’t always compete with the private sector on pay but what we can do is really support our team.

“We are an organisation that prides itself on looking after the wellbeing of our service users so it’s really important that we do the same for the wellbeing of our team too and BHSF helps us to do that.”

Staff feedback has also been very positive with feedback speaking to ease of use and beneficial outcomes. Managers are also encouraged to use the services to provide independent guidance on HR issues outside of our own HR support.

““It’s great to know that the services are being used whether it’s just for someone to talk to or to give people access to services such as GPs outside of standard working hours,” comments Jo.

“The knowledge that the service has access to is helpful for staff and it is great to know that when they do need it, the service that they get is excellent.”

Courtney Marsh, chief pricing and underwriting officer at BHSF said, “The relationship we have with Gateway really is a blueprint for success.

“Having two organisations that are ethically very aligned helps us to understand the type of support they need.

“The proof of the success of the on-going relationship is how it has grown and developed over time. We look forward to continuing to support Gateway and its employees over the years ahead.”