Two initiatives boosting staff morale in Theatres
Our Theatres team have been boosting staff morale with a couple of new initiatives. Bella Knaapen, Theatres Complex Governance and Risk Management Facilitator is leading on both of these projects.
“We’re not hiding away from the fact that it’s been a very hard couple of years for our colleagues. We wanted to come up with some ideas on how we can try and return a bit of normality to the way we work. We want our staff to feel listened to and heard,” said Bella.
Bella and her team thought of two ideas to offer staff a way to thank one another anonymously.
The first is the Positivitree, a physical cardboard tree that offers staff the opportunity to write on laminated leaves placed on the tree with a message of thanks or appreciation to another member of staff.
“The Positivitree is a simple act of kindness that staff can show to one another. We thought of the idea when I spoke to Di Bernadinho in DPU (Day Procedure Unit) who said they have a ‘Wins board’ where they post positive comments, staff nights out, upcoming wellbeing days and such. We took this idea and tried to do something slightly different. Hence the Positivitree – which is actually the Positivi-Christmas-Tree at the moment.”
The second initiative is the GEM (Going the Extra Mile) awards – an award thought up by Michelle Hak, Unit Secretary in Main Theatres. The GEM award is presented to a colleague each week to recognise their hard work.
“The GEM awards are nominated for by staff anonymously. This gives the winner a real feeling of being appreciated by their fellow colleagues. Also, the chocolate, gifts and plaque they receive as part of the award is a nice boost for them. It’s been received really positively and we’ve had staff get quite emotional about being nominated,” added Bella.
“Both of these ideas came out of our shared decision making council where we invite staff to promote ideas and initiatives.”