Responsibility 1: Broadcasting

Arguably the most important responsibility of an ambassador is to broadcast and share information. Our ambassadors essentially act as a point of contact for us within their team, making you key in our ability to communicate with colleagues.

In some areas, we know that a colleague’s ability to learn about new developments in health and wellbeing might be highly limited due to the day-to-day pressure of the role. The role of an ambassador is to essentially resolve that issue by using your knowledge of what works best for your team and providing updates that way.

Doing this could look any number of ways, but some of the most common ways our ambassadors have helped us to tackle the problem include:

• Starting and regularly updating a dedicated health and wellbeing noticeboard in their area
• Leading a five-minute slot in regular team meetings to provide updates around anything new
• Acting as a ‘filter’ by only forwarding on information about support, events and opportunities that are likely to be relevant to those in the team
• Developing an internal team newsletter that features health and wellbeing matters prominently
• Printing bulletins or newsletters and leaving them in staff rooms

Because of the importance of this responsibility, those that aren’t quite sure how to best communicate with their team or who do not feel that they’d realistically have time to share information are asked to refrain from applying to be an ambassador.

Responsibility 2: Listening

Those with a good intuition and feeling for morale in their area, with a determination and intent to try constantly work to better this are well-suited to being ambassadors.

To this end, listening is a key skill and responsibility for our ambassadors, whether that be directly in conversations with colleagues or simply keeping an eye on the atmosphere within your team.

Many of our ambassadors go above and beyond to better wellbeing in their team. Again, this could look any number of ways, but has previously included:

• The organisation of events such as a team meal, sports days or trips
• The organisation of competitions such as a bake-off
• The organisation of team gatherings in areas such as our Listening Space
• Lobbying for changes within their area, potentially acting as a representative of the team in discussion with managers
• Arranging ‘showcase’ boards for colleagues to display positivity such as pet pictures, quotes or similar
• Rallying of the troops to participate in Trust-wide initiatives like our annual step count challenge
• The ‘localisation’ of Trust-wide wellbeing initiatives to better suit your team – such as a walking club at times that work for you

As a health and wellbeing ambassador, it’s also likely that some colleagues within your team will see you as a first port of call for information around any related queries they may have.

While we don’t always expect you to have the answer, you’ll need to be confident in signposting and/or know where to turn to when you don’t know the answer. To that end, regularly checking our website or getting in touch with the Occupational Health and Wellbeing team will likely be a part of this role.

Responsibility 3: Sharing

The final responsibility of our health and wellbeing ambassadors is all about sharing. Our ambassadors are invited to monthly catch-ups where you will have not only the opportunity to hear about any new support or opportunities from a wellbeing perspective that you can then pass on to your team, but will also be given a chance to provide feedback directly to the team responsible for delivering the organisation’s health and wellbeing strategy.

Elsewhere, ambassadors might be asked for their thoughts on a certain project from time to time, helping inform how we might roll it out or how we might adapt the presentation of an offer to better suit more colleagues. Playing an active role in the ‘bigger picture’ work where possible really helps us build our understanding of your needs, and the organisation deliver a more effective offer for yourself and your colleagues.

Finally, ambassadors will also be asked to share what you’ve been up to in your own area to try boost wellbeing, engagement and morale. We’ll look to use the best of these examples to build out a case study area on our website – showcasing some of the fantastic work you do as an ambassador and hopefully inspiring others. The hope is that will in-turn drive others to become an ambassador for their team, or drive ambassadors to embrace your idea in their own team and hopefully spread the success.

How we support you

Broadcasting:

As mentioned above, all ambassadors are invited to a monthly catch-up with the health and wellbeing team where they’ll receive an update on the latest developments to the health and wellbeing offer, designed to make it easy for you to spread the word. In a similar vein, ambassadors also receive regular direct emails from the wellbeing team which will include information about any developments, and often contain posters which can be quickly printed and displayed on your noticeboards to help you spread the word.

Listening:

All ambassadors will be asked to attend our 1-hour ‘Health & Wellbeing Awareness’ training session, there to provide you with an understanding of what is available to yourself and colleagues and give you a foundation-level understanding of our support. Ambassadors are also eligible to access monthly national training sessions across a variety of topics, while ambassadors are also offered relevant internal training opportunities such as mental health first aider training as and when they pop up.

Sharing:

In addition to our monthly catch-ups, all ambassadors are welcome to join the health and wellbeing ambassadors WhatsApp group – a community where all of our ambassadors are free to interact, ask questions, request support, post ideas and share support. We’ll also contact ambassadors regularly to canvas your opinion on new offers and how we might best tailor them to meet the needs of yourself and your colleagues.

Apply to become a health & wellbeing ambassador

If reading the above has piqued your interest and you’re interested in becoming a health and wellbeing ambassador your team, please complete our online application form via the button below.

Remember, we now ask all ambassadors to attend the one-hour Health & Wellbeing Awareness training session as part of their commitment to becoming an ambassador. This session provides you with a better understanding of the width and breadth of our offer, creating a foundation-level understanding of the support available to colleagues and helping you in effective signposting.

You can wait for us to get in touch to arrange attendance on an upcoming course after your application, or book yourself onto an upcoming course logging-in to ESR and finding the Learning & Development Catalogue. Once selected, click ‘Face to Face’ and find the ‘Health & Wellbeing Awarness’ session. Select the best date for you and book – we’ll see you there!