The average person will spend 80,000 hours of their life at work. That’s 3,333 days or a little under 10 years in total. So, it’s hardly surprising that our working environments have a huge impact on our wellbeing. As a workplace and facilities services partner, with thousands of staff, this is something Portfolio by Churchill understands innately. The health and happiness of our people and our customers is directly related to their successes.
Ana Nikolova, transformation manager, is the driving force behind Portfolio’s wellbeing approach. Ana recently expanded her role to include wellbeing after completing an Introduction to the WELL Building Standard. She has been working in the FM sector since 2005, with roles focused on delivering transformational value, which wellbeing is a critical part of in today’s workplaces.
Ana has brought her experience as an innovative and effective leader in transformation to Portfolio. In her role, she works closely with clients to influence the adoption of principles at every stage of the transformation process. Combining expertise in process with her ability to engage those involved is key to creating a transformation process that works.
Ana is leading Portfolio’s adoption of the WELL building strategy, which aligns best practices in design and construction with evidence-based health and wellness interventions. WELL certification aims to create a built environment which supports improved nutrition, fitness, mood, sleep, comfort, and performance of occupants. Strategies, programs, and technologies are implemented to encourage healthier lifestyles and environments.
With so many chronic diseases being avoidable through lifestyle changes, Churchill considers it a duty of care to create a physical and social environment of care for all staff.
Current projects being implemented through this concept are focused around directly improving personal physical health. Churchill’s use of PUREX chemical-free cleaning solution has removed five chemicals of 11 from general use. VOCs are in many common cleaning products used in buildings across the country; reducing the prevalence of certain chemicals in the cleaning industry will have a big impact not only on staff in that building, but on the wider environment.
Single use plastic has reduced drastically through choosing sustainable plastic-free packaging that doesn’t damage the environment. Microfibre cloths, which release microbeads into the environment, have been replaced by plant fibre cloths. Each of these initiatives helps create a healthier natural environment and prevents plastics from polluting the systems we rely on.
Employee wellbeing creates an environment of trust and productivity as staff are aware that their employers have their best interest at heart. We pride ourselves in our ability to provide environments that staff want to work in every day. From office yoga, simple acts of kindness, Wellness Wednesday, and our office dining table we bring our people together; we make sure we recognise and reward our people, we listen via feedback systems and our quarterly ‘come for cuppa’ sessions all to create a happy workplace.
Ana is an expert in creating transformation through engaging and inspiring people. By expanding her role, Churchill hopes to build on this to produce an environment which best fosters personal growth and productivity, environmental responsibility, and employee wellness.
