If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need to make sure we’re taking care of our health and well-being, and at Orchard Custom Beauty, we’re making our team members’ wellness a true priority.

It started with conversations. After more than 80 one-on-one meetings, we learned that working from home had led to anxiety and impacted connections between team members and with the company. We also heard that people were interested in activities to support a healthy lifestyle.

So we set out to create an employee wellness program that offers exceptional support for work and life. In honour of World Mental Health Month, we launched Orchard’s Work Well, a comprehensive program featuring lifestyle enhancements, additional personal time off and a robust employee assistance program.

Lifestyle Enhancements

We know that being active, eating well and getting good sleep are cornerstones of health and wellness, so we’re offering programming in each of these areas to support the well-being of our team members.

To make movement doable within busy schedules, we’ve launched an employee-led walk/run club (a top request from our team members) and are offering on-site yoga sessions. Orchard employees can also take advantage of a discounted GoodLife gym membership if they want to up their activity level even further.

We’re also offering monthly expert-led wellness sessions on topics such as mindfulness meditation and nutrition, to support healthy minds and bodies. We kicked off the series with a Mental Health Month-themed power hour focusing on mental health in the workplace, including strategies to manage stress, anxiety and more.

Enhanced Personal Time Off

We all need a break on occasion — a day to just check out from work and focus on you and your needs. So Orchard is now providing every team member with two mental health days that can be used at any time.

Whether you’re overwhelmed, dealing with a difficult personal matter or need a day to manage mental health symptoms, we want our team members to be able to take the time without dipping into their paid vacation or sick days. It’s about making sure you have the time to take a breather.

Employee Assistance Program

When we went looking for an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider, we were thoroughly impressed with LifeWorks. In addition to offering great counselling services, their online platform and app make it easy for our team members to get the advice and help they need, when they need it.

Through LifeWorks, Orchard team members can access short-term counselling in whatever format they prefer — phone, chat, video, web browser or mobile app — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Immediate family members also have access to EAP support.) Experienced counsellors and advisors are available to provide confidential support and guidance for all sorts of issues: grief, anxiety or depression, financial planning, a personal work situation, a family situation and more.

This add-on to our benefits program helps employees access help quickly while also maximizing their health benefits dollars: They can work with a LifeWorks counsellor on a short-term basis before going to see a therapist.

Another big plus with LifeWorks is their superior technology. The LifeWorks app feeds content to each user based on their individual in-app assessment (spanning emotional, physical, financial and social well-being) and interaction with content, so it’s a very personalized experience. Users can search the full library of 1,800+ articles to get clinically verified advice.

We’re also big fans of the app’s company news feed, which allows Orchard to send out messages, including recognizing team members who are doing great things and a directory to make it easy for people to connect. 

Perks are important too. LifeWorks offers our employees savings at more than 1,000 retailers, and this is just the start. Toward the end of the year, we’ll also be launching an employee recognition program through LifeWorks that allows our team members to redeem points for things like a bonus day off.

While Work Well has just recently launched, we’re already hearing very positive feedback from our team members — a win for the program, but more importantly, for our people.