Turning Blue Monday on its head: Publica Staff Wellbeing Campaign

Creating impact through engagement with a staff wellbeing campaign

Publica achieved the Enhanced Level of the Healthy Workplace Award in Autumn 2022. They have worked hard to develop a workplace culture where people can thrive and feel that their work needs are met, whilst staying physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy.

“We provide a flexible/agile working approach that seeks to support staff to manage their work/life balance as well on online training in subjects such as stress management.”

“During the pandemic a focus on employee engagement supported the home working, responding to organisational and individual needs and concerns.”

Publica have also trained and established mental health first aiders across all of their sites.  

Here is an example of one of their engagement campaigns on mental wellbeing...

This year we took Blue Monday (the most depressing day of the year) and turned it on its head. We managed to create a positive, feel-good interactive story for staff which went on you have a high impact.

On average our internal news content gets anywhere between 200 and 500 views. When we asked staff to share their ‘happy snaps’ on Blue Monday we were pleased to see that staff felt comfortable to share their personal pictures with colleagues, and the story went on to reach almost 1200 views, brightening everyone’s day.

Below is the wording from the internal news story on our staff intranet, followed by some of the images and responses we received. 

Share your happy snaps

Just for fun, share a photo from your camera roll that makes you feel happy.

If you’re on social media, you might have seen your friends taking part in the ‘My life is good challenge’ or perhaps you’ve joined in yourself?

The idea is to share a picture that brings you joy, because we all need a little joy now and then.

Today, Monday 16, is the third Monday in January and it’s sometimes called Blue Monday. It’s thought, by some, to be the most depressing day of the year based on weather conditions, debt level, time since Christmas, time since new year’s resolutions have been broken, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action.

So, just for fun, we’re asking you to share a photo with your colleagues in the comments below.

It could be a family snap, a picture from a day out or a special place, a team photo, your best friend, a tasty meal you’ve eaten or your beloved pet. Whatever brings you joy.

Don’t forget to keep checking back on this story during the week and ‘like’ the pictures your colleagues share. We’ll pop the photo with the most likes in this Friday’s Keeping You Connected.

If you have more ideas for ways we could mark Blue Monday in the future, add them to the comments as well.

Why not recreate Publica's 'Share your happy snaps' campaign to boost employee engagement and wellbeing.

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