A good record on Wellbeing at the Archives

On 4 March 2013 The National Archives held its annual Wellbeing Day.  Our aim was to encourage and inspire staff to take responsibility for their own wellbeing, both inside and outside of the workplace. Wellbeing Day was a showcase for different ways of achieving this and covered both physical and mental health, supporting people to make positive choices, developing resilience and sustaining good health.

The day was organised on a minimal budget by staff from across The National Archives and this year we were delighted to have support from many external organisations including Asthma UK, NHS Stop Smoking, Volunteer Richmond, Richmond Adult Community College, Civil Service Sports and Social Club, Nordic Walking, Cycle to Me, West4Harriers, Fusion, Fit Club, CS Healthcare and Roko Gym.

This year around a third of our staff dropped in to Wellbeing Day to receive health checks and advice or to experience different techniques for boosting their physical or mental wellbeing. Many of our staff have commented on how much more positive and healthy they feel since attending wellbeing events. The events have helped staff to make changes both small and large – one colleague even discovered through their health check that they had high blood pressure, which could have had serious consequences if it had continued to go undetected.

The feedback we’ve received includes: ‘I love this day – this is one of the things I really like about working at The National Archives’, ‘Very enjoyable and informative’, ‘Very engaging, lots of information and the health check showed what areas I need to work on’.