AWARDS FINALIST: Powerco – wellness because of our work

Powerco says it is committed to creating an environment where employees feel valued and supported and can have “great physical and mental wellness because of their place of work, not despite it.”

It recognised that employee wellbeing underpins engagement and performance, and identified workforce exhaustion as one of the top people risks to meeting customer outcomes.

As a result, Powerco set out to create a workplace where people feel safe and encouraged to bring their whole selves to the workplace.

That has seen multiple initiatives implemented across diversity, equity, belonging and wellness.

In FY22 the distributor achieved the Gender Tick but wanted to push further and set ambitious targets.

They included Rainbow Tick accreditation in 2023, achieving 10 per cent Māori participation by 2025, and getting 95 per cent of its people to feel cared for as a person by their manager or colleagues.

Offerings

Over the past two years, Powerco has put multiple offerings, initiatives and ways of working in place to improve wellbeing across the company.

The distributor has invested in Langley accreditation for multiple members of its People and Culture team in Strength Assessment Coaching and MSCEIT assessments of emotional intelligence. It now offer Strengths, MSCEIT assessments and coaching as part of diagnostic-based development planning for all employees.

Te Puāwai o Powerco – Powerco’s te ao Māori interest group – has developed sessions for people to learn about te ao Māori. There are weekly waiata sessions and ‘kōrero karakia’ sessions to learn more about te reo and practise karakia.

It has built and embedded its Kaiāwhina network of mental health first aiders and deployed a new employee assistance programme to provide a mobile based broader range of offerings and easier access to counselling.

Powerco offers universal paid parental leave to all new parents and a culture of flexible working enables their people to meet family responsibility.

Mothers and fathers receive six weeks paid leave at 100 per cent salary, regardless of their primary or secondary carer status so both parents can be at home to care for their new baby. The company also provides staggered return to work plans to enable returning parents to have an easier transition back into the workplace.

Success

In 2023, Powerco achieved the Rainbow tick. It launched a new wellbeing provider, is running monthly wellbeing learning sessions, offers bespoke strengths-based development, embedded its Kaiāwhina network, set up weekly cultural competency learning and introduced wellness ways of working.

Strengths Assessment and coaching has been provided to over a third of the workforce and has helped dozens of employees find new career pathways. Powerco has also been ranked within LinkedIn’s Top 25 Companies in New Zealand to grow a career.

At the time of entry, current Pulse Check results show 95 per cent of staff agree their manager or someone at work cares about them as a person, 88 per cent feel their opinion counts at work, 92 per cent are in a role they are good at and enjoy, and Māori participation has moved from 3 per cent to 7 per cent.

The Well-being Award category is sponsored by nib