The program will support employee mental and physical health with subsidized counseling, wellness days off, and healthy food
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This week, to demonstrate our appreciation for the Vero team, we announced a new program designed to confront the mental and physical health challenges of the agency lifestyle.
The program will provide financial support to Vero team members for counseling and therapy, guarantee “Wellness Days” off, and offer free healthy meals and snacks at least twice a week.
The inspiration for this program was the milestone of hiring our 100th team member, but the real reason we are doing this is because we understand the stress of the fast-paced agency world.
It is an increasingly common topic in international PR media: PRCA, the world’s largest and most influential PR body, launched a Mental Health Toolkit in 2017 that has been regularly updated since, and their 2019 UK study with Opinium found that “89% of PR professionals have struggled with mental wellbeing in the past 12 months,” with major causes including workload, impending deadlines, and demanding clients.
For many, the Covid-19 crisis has made these issues more acute by adding isolation and anxiety to them.
The primary mental health measure of the Vero wellness program will be to connect our people to professional counselors who can provide personalized support. Crucially, use of these resources will be kept confidential, known only to the individual employee and Vero’s human resources department.
Vero will also strongly encourage employees to take quarterly paid holidays separate from annual leave to relax and “de-stress.”
Finally, with the idea that a healthy body is essential to a healthy mind, each Vero office will begin providing at least two nutritious snacks or meals per week. For those working from home, the offices will arrange for these meals to be delivered. The idea behind this is to discourage people from filling up on junk food and empty calories by offering something wholesome in their place.
The new Vero wellness program will officially commence on October 1, 2020.
Now that we have reached 100 team members in Southeast Asia, we feel more responsibility than ever to do the best we can to support those who got us here and continue to drive our success. We also want people to know that we see self-care as something to be proud of, not ashamed, and that we are on the side of anyone who is trying to be their best self.