The CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the work of public relations practitioners who have implemented effective communication strategies and led successful campaigns. This year there was understandably a heavy focus on crisis responses with communications and PR professionals around the world playing an important role in navigating the pandemic.
Ascenti entered the category ‘Best COVID Response’ for our employee health and wellness strategy that we re-established once the first lockdown had been lifted and our clinics and offices had reopened. This strategy was delivered by our Communications and People Teams and involved utilising our internal communication channels including staff e-newsletter and intranet to deliver health and wellbeing content to staff. This included a 12 days of wellness campaign, virtual advent calendar competition and health and wellness survey that all staff were encouraged to complete.
Our Mental Health Service Lead, Jeremy Christey, delivered a series of online wellbeing talks covering sleep, anxiety and depression. We provided specialist mental health training to managers and offered ‘self-care’ days off, and organised a virtual Christmas party and internal awards ceremony to celebrate and reward our staff.
Chief People and Communications Officer at Ascenti, Sophie Harper, commented: “We are delighted to have been recognised by the CIPR and to be finalists alongside such prestigious organisations. Over the last year our staff have gone above and beyond to see our business through the pandemic, ensuring our patients continued to receive outstanding care throughout.
“Our people are the most important part of Ascenti and supporting them with their health and wellbeing during the pandemic was a top priority for us from day one. We knew that people would never forget how they were treated during these strange times, so the team went the extra mile to over communicate, support people and come up with some truly innovative initiatives and engagement campaigns.”
With over 30 categories, the CIPR Excellence Award winners will be announced on Thursday 17 June during an online awards ceremony hosted by broadcaster Jason Mohammad. Members of Ascenti’s People and Communications Teams will be attending the virtual event.
You can view a full list of finalists here: https://ciprawards.co.uk/excellence/2021-shortlisted-entries/
