We deeply value our employees’ mental, social, and financial well-being. Our commitment is fostering a workplace where they feel engaged, truly valued, and cared for.
We listen to our colleagues to understand what is important to them and how we can support their overall well-being. How we recognise their value, reward their efforts and ensure their well-being, together with how they can be supported to learn and grow at work, are each key parts of the long term relationship we seek to build with each and every colleague.
The mental, financial and physical wellbeing of our colleagues is always our first priority. That’s why we’re working hard to make sure that wellbeing in the workplace is a big part of our culture. Because everyone has a part to play in keeping us all engaged, healthy, happy and feeling rewarded.
We’ve lots of family friendly policies which provide support for our people through life changes, including enhanced Maternity & Adoption, Paternity, Bereavement, Dependents and Emergency leave to support colleagues when they need it most.
We also have a range of benefits built to suit everyone. Because we’re all different. That’s why we’ve put a lot of effort into creating a wide range of financial, lifestyle and health benefits to suit everyone, whatever stage of life they’re in, including:
Financial well-being
And we’ll do this through things like:
- Life Assurance for every colleague 2x salary
- Wagestream: financial wellbeing app
- Financial education support: provided by independent experts
- Financial coaching
- Your Share. Free shares for colleagues when ZIGUP succeeds
- Mortgage advice: provided by independent experts
- Exclusive high street discounts & savings
- Save As Your Earn: discounted shares
- Discounted electric car leasing schemes
Mental well-being
And we’ll do this through things like:
- Employee Assistance Programme: confidential wellbeing support
- Help@Hand: online GP support
- Bereavement counselling
- Specialist cancer assistance
Physical well-being
And we’ll do this through things like:
- Cycle 2 Work scheme
- Health Cash Plan: opt in to claim cash back on routine healthcare
- Physiotherapy
- Lifestyle Coaching
- Discounted gym membership
We’ve invested in a number of support tools, initiatives and benefits to empower our colleagues to take control of their own needs and to access the support they want, including:
- EAP: A funded, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offering:
- Help@hand.
- Remote GP; Second Opinion; Mental Health Support; Physiotherapy Support; Life, Money & Wellbeing Support.
- Cancer assist – offers in-the-moment cancer guidance.
- Flexible Life Assurance, allowing colleagues to increase cover to 10x salary
- BUPA Dental Plans & Westfield Health Cash plans, even free flu jabs ahead of the winter months!
- GymFlex membership schemes offering discounts of up to 40% across over 3,300 sites nationwide.
- Improved Family Friendly policies.
We’ve made positive changes to our Family Friendly policies too, ensuring our colleagues have clearer (and better) support through life changes, with increases in our Maternity & Adoption, Paternity, Bereavement, Dependants and Emergency leave entitlements to ensure that colleagues can put themselves and their families first, when the time comes.
There is work still to do but we make a commitment to all colleagues to consistently seek to improve our ability and increase our capacity to support colleagues, both physically and mentally, by putting more of the right tools in place.
Financial wellbeing
We have made larger pay increases to colleagues at lower salary levels (between 3% and 9%) and a capped 3% rise at mid- to senior-level levels.
This is testament to our commitment to supporting our employees in investing in our Group.
We continued to make awards under our SAYE and Free Shares programmes for the second consecutive year. The SAYE encourages share ownership at no financial risk and under the Free Share scheme we awarded £500 worth of shares to all eligible employees. Both schemes provide a tangible financial benefit to our colleagues.
Hear from Harry on what being a shareholder in ZIGUP means to him
Fair financial services
We have also introduced a platform which helps colleagues track their earnings in real-time to understand how much they will get paid, helping them plan and budget better and supporting flexible access to fair financial services.
This is supported by online learning modules available to colleagues including on topics such as ‘Coping with the Cost of Living’ and ‘Making the Most of Your Money’.
Case study: Colleague financial services
We have introduced a range of services and support to enable greater financial inclusion, ranging from free shares, financial education sessions and ways to plan and budget better.
Financial inclusion and wellbeing
We introduced a new Save As You Earn Scheme in 2023 alongside the Free Shares program, which we have continued in 2024. This program ensures that all our colleagues receive £500 worth of free shares, providing a tangible benefit to their financial security and future.
In partnership with HSBC, we have delivered face-to-face and online sessions educating colleagues on ‘Making the Most of Your Money’, covering understanding credit reports, budget planning, savings, protection, debt management, and fraud. We launched a new partnership with Charles Cameron, which provides independent, free mortgage advice to all colleagues, family, and friends.
Financial inclusion means that individuals can access useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs. In March 2024 we launched Wagestream, a platform to improve workers’ financial well-being by giving them access to fair financial services based on flexible pay.
This platform lets people track their earnings in real-time to understand how much they will get paid, helping them plan and budget better. They can access up to 40% of their earned wages to pay themselves flexibly. The platform also makes it easy for our people to put money into a Build savings pot, earning a 5% monthly boost on their balance.
The Wagestream toolkit includes Financial Coaching, Discounts, and access to debt advice.
Since being rolled out in March 2024, 1,777 people have enrolled on Wagestream, 32% of UK colleagues. 52% of the enrolled people have already set up a savings pot.
“This year, providing our colleagues with financial tools, support, and education has been at the heart of our wellbeing strategy. As the rise of basic living costs has continued, inevitably, this has the potential to create financial distress and, in turn, can greatly impact an individual’s mental health. By providing tools such as Wagestream, we aim to help colleagues improve their financial resilience by encouraging them to save more and educating them on how to be savvier with their money.“
Joanne Foster
Head of Rewards and Wellbeing
