Mind over matter: the gambling firms putting employee mental and physical wellbeing first

With Mental Health Awareness Week just a few months ago, the theme of kindness is especially apt at a time when many people have been isolated at home during the lockdown period. The coronavirus pandemic has put extreme pressure on people’s mental health and wellbeing as people feel cut off from friends, family and colleagues as well as for those facing financial struggles in the economic downturn.

Concerns over mental health have also been highlighted during the UK government’s daily press conferences. According to a recent study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the coronavirus pandemic has worsened mental health “substantially” with women and young people hit the hardest. The proportion of people reporting at least one mental health problem “much more than usual” has doubled, with 24% of respondents aged over 16 feeling this way in April. This compares to one in 10 people who they predict would have reported the same, had the pandemic not occurred, based on pre-existing trends.

While most gambling companies have already been proactive in looking after their staff’s mental health and wellbeing for many years now, some have extended that support or introduced new initiatives to provide further assistance during the tough lockdown measures.

Year-round support

For egaming platform supplier Pronet Gaming, mental health has always been something it has kept an eye on and CEO Alex Leese is keen to stress that it’s not just something you do for lockdown. “I think it’s something you have to do all year round and for all staff,” he says.

When Leese made the decision to close its London office, every other company shared the same concerns about how it would work. From an IT perspective, Pronet Gaming was all set up and it had always encouraged flexible working so it was already halfway there in terms of preparedness for remote working. “Even I actually was quite astonished by how productive we’ve been. In the aftermath of ICE, that’s when we were actually hoping to close all of our deals after having done such a good job on the stand there. Everyone has just been excellent and been on it,” he says.
Much of this he attributes to the recruitment policy of the company and bringing staff in with the right can-do attitude and mindset.

When it comes to looking after the wellbeing of his staff, Leese finds having a degree of empathy and personal communication is far more effective than sending out an email about downloading a meditation app. On a weekly or fortnightly basis, Leese makes a personal call to all his staff just to see how they are doing. “It makes a massive difference because it makes the staff feel cared for and it makes them feel safe,” he remarks.

During some of the recent hot weather in the UK, Leese sent out an email to his staff encouraging them to get out in the garden for some vitamin D and to work flexibly. “I think that counts a lot more towards wellbeing than maybe something a bit more impersonal in my mind anyway,” he says.

Referring to LinkedIn posts where companies are posting about what they’re doing for their staff such as taking out 10 minutes every day to sit and reflect, Leese feels like this is simply papering over the cracks. “If you think about it, it’s never caused by the work itself, I don’t believe. There’s always going to be pressure on the work but I don’t believe mental health issues come from the actual work. I think it’s always caused by people in the workplace.

“When I took over the reins at Pronet Gaming, I always wanted to work for a company where people felt safe and confident in being able to work flexibly without being called out for it either formally or informally. And I think sometimes informally is actually the part which is more dangerous. People feel afraid because of perception, etc., as opposed to a true meritocracy of the work shining through.”

In terms of keeping staff fit and active, Pronet Gaming’s CEO has found that online exercise classes don’t really fit the profile of his staff so he’d much rather urge them to get outside and spend time with their families when they can. The company does already have a health care plan in place for all staff with Vitality, which also provides additional benefits and resources, alongside the firm’s gym membership option.

To keep staff engaged and motivated during lockdown, employees have a weekly Friday call and weekly virtual drinks get-together where everyone avoids work talk and just chats about how they’ve all been doing. During the weekly work call, Leese provides an update on how the business is performing and any new deals that have been signed, which provides much-needed reassurance on job security in such an uncertain economic climate.

Top tools

For GVC, mental health and wellbeing has always been a high priority but, as a result of the pandemic, the London-listed operator has added more tools and benefits to its staff to expand on the support it already offers.

Launching digital platform Unmind was always in its plans to be rolled out around September but was instead brought forward. Unmind aims to support colleagues’ mental health by providing access to scientifically backed tools. It also includes learning and development programmes as well as a library of podcasts, videos and interactive exercises to help improve mental fitness.

Over 3,200 GVC employees have signed up to Unmind since it launched on 15 April. The most popular features have been the ‘beat procrastination’ series and yoga activities. Many employees have already shared their personal experience of using the digital platform, including Joanne Moran, retail operations director, UK, who said: “This is a great tool, the yoga is amazing and really helps me. I checked in today and it gave me some time to reflect on how I am feeling. Also, the praise messages I have received mean a lot. We could all spend some time sharing our praise, everyone likes to receive a kind message and it made me feel connected too.”

According to GVC’s health and wellness manager Stella Gavinho, the activities available through Unmind are designed to fit busy schedules. “You have things like breathing exercises that you can do in one minute, so you can fit them during work time if you want to or after work.”

Over the last 18 months, GVC has trained about 50 staff members as mental health first aiders and during lockdown two refresher webinar sessions have been held to ensure they have the skills and confidence to support colleagues that may be struggling with mental health problems. On how the mental health first aiders can assist colleagues, Gavinho explains: “When colleagues post any particular struggles, they could help them by giving them signposts to the resources that we have in place, share kind words, etc.”

GVC has revamped and improved the Well-me space on Huddle (GVC’s intranet) to make it easier for staff to find the tools and information they need to support them and their families during lockdown. The Well-me programme consists of Think-well, which provides support on mental and emotional health, and Live-well which focuses on physical wellbeing.

The latter, the Live-well space, was launched during lockdown to provide advice on managing physical fitness, nutrition, hydration and sleep. It includes the Health e-hub, an online platform with lots of tools to help employees look after their health and wellbeing, from monthly webinars to health programmes, including quitting smoking, losing weight and a mini-health assessment. It also includes daily workout videos created especially for GVC employees.

“There are about 10 different GVC-branded classes that are designed for those with limited space at home and using just body weight with no equipment necessary,” says Gavinho.

GVC’s learning and development team has also provided a number of webinars for their staff split by Learning@GVC and Managing@GVC. Some of the topics covered include resilience-building on how to improve work-life balance, health and wellbeing weekly training on topics such as healthy eating, mindfulness and sleep, and mental health webinars on how to have a good conversation about mental health and help someone who may be struggling (for managers).

Through the Managing@GVC training, there is also a toolkit available for organising social events on a departmental basis. Across the GVC group, there have been quizzes and discos arranged on a virtual basis to keep teams connected and socialising.

A personal touch

Malta-headquartered Casumo has focused on making sure its workforce feels connected at all times during the pandemic, says CEO Shelly Suter-Hadad. “We recognised early on that in these times of stress and uncertainty we could provide our employees with comfort in knowing that they’re part of a community, beyond family and friends, that is there for them and cares about them,” she remarks.

One of the ways in which Casumo has achieved this is by switching healthy lunches cooked by its in-house chefs from the physical office canteen set-up to a remote process. The online casino and sportsbook operator partnered with maltamenu.com.mt early on so employees could place lunch orders to be delivered to their homes twice a week.

“Through these meals, prepared with extra care by our chefs, we’re able to keep the magic and community of an in-office experience alive. In addition to delivering over 1,500 lunches to employees, we have also cooked up over 500 meals for healthcare workers and those in need within our local community,” adds Suter-Hadad.

To accompany the meal deliveries, Casumo has also maintained a regular, physical connection with its workforce by including notes and gifts such as masks, gloves, hand sanitisers and holiday pastries. “I really wanted to have that physical connection and that you have another community to be a part of as Casumo is not just an employer.”

Care packages for Casumo employees

When staff started working from home in March, many did not have a home office so Casumo worked with its organisational health and safety partners to publish tips for optimising at-home workspaces as well as delivering office chairs, laptop stands, extra monitors and other accessories to make their spaces more ergonomic.

Suter-Hadad tells EGR Intel that keeping her staff fully informed throughout the crisis has also helped to keep everyone connected. Every week, Casumo executives have been giving presentations on achievements and the next focus of the business. “Adjusting our communication cadences and routines upfront has helped to ensure a good flow of updates and has kept everyone feeling well connected, motivated and informed throughout. This has included daily team stand-ups, video updates from leadership, asynchronous blog posts and streamed company-wide presentations.”

On the social side, Casumo had an office tradition of a Friday drink catch up, known as fika in Swedish, but it hadn’t happened for a few months. “With the food delivery, we sent staff a small Prosecco to keep chilled until the next fika.”

As the lockdown restrictions have now eased in Malta, Casumo’s CEO says it is important to keep staff engaged and to keep productivity high at the same levels it was at during lockdown. “There’s more distractions now with places opening up so it’s our job to make sure the productivity levels stay high and that people feel engaged and like they belong.”

A staff survey on people’s views on returning to the office revealed that people want to but are not ready yet to go back. Suter-Hadad says Casumo is planning on a hybrid model for the office return while candidate interviews, staff training and brainstorming sessions are already based back in the office where possible.

Team spirit

Supplier Push Gaming has been keeping team spirit high while giving back to local communities by organising a range of events. The company has organised a variety of keep-fit activities such as HIIT and strength classes and a games night during the week for team members to sign up to. For every person who joins or participates, Push Gaming in turn continues to donate a fixed amount.

The first £1,000 was immediately donated in cash in April to St. Barts’ Charity, which allocates funds directly to NHS staff who are working on the frontline, providing them with accommodation, hot meals, free pop-up supermarkets and various other methods of support.

With a target goal of raising £10,000, all funds raised so far have been donated in either cash to support groups, or in care packages to local medical teams.

A 5K running challenge was organised across the three locations where its teams are based in Malta, London and Lviv. “As well as raising £3,500, it proved a great way to beat the Covid calories as a team as well as the added incentive to ‘compete’ on the best time,” says Donna Kelly, HR director at Push Gaming.

While the wellbeing of their staff has always been important, Push Gaming realised a brand new approach was needed during the crisis. “I think internal support networks have been essential for companies and we’ve certainly been able to develop ours during the lockdown. We’ve placed emphasis on reaching out often to everyone to see how they are coping and feeling, and we do everything we can to offer support,” she explains.

“Frequent group and one-to-one meetings have worked well, as well as the online activities that we have on tap for our staff, and we’ve had good feedback from our teams. We’ve learned a lot during this process and will look to be applying that experience moving forward,” Kelly adds.

Twice a week, Push Gaming organises voluntary meditation sessions using the Headspace app. Once the session is complete, each member of the team takes a few minutes to discuss how they felt before, during and after the session, as well as discussing the benefits they felt after the previous session.

To keep staff socialising, each month there’s a drink and draw after-hours creative session where the team can catch up while showing off their artistic skills through drawing, animation or sculpting. In addition, to keep learning and development going, regular training sessions have also been provided to focus on topics such as anti-money laundering and IT safety.

Live and learn

Over in Italy, which was particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, sports betting and gaming operator SKS365 had almost 500 workers across Italy, Austria, Serbia and Malta working remotely during the crisis. Amid the uncertainty, the company continued to invest in its workforce’s learning activity by providing access to more than 4,000 training courses on demand through the Udemy for Business platform.

Courses range from leadership and management to yoga, data science, guitar lessons, photography and how to pilot a drone. “Staff can access Udemy through their work or personal devices and this is definitely something that we have factored into the working routines,” explains Brian Dean, chief people officer at SKS365. “Our motto is that every day is a learning day. And to support this we have kicked off a piece of work to rearrange our offices to allocate space that is conducive to learning.”

Brian Dean, chief people officer, SKS365

The Udemy courses are very flexible, ranging from 10 minutes to one-hour lessons with some leading to a certification upon completion, and can be easily integrated into busy work and personal schedules.

Two months after its launch, 90% of staff have joined the platform and 75% have enrolled on courses, with the total time spent learning on the platform exceeding 2,000 hours.

While SKS365 had previously organised regular activities before the pandemic such as weekly five-a-side football matches and yoga, there are still plenty of options to keep fit and healthy via Udemy such as breathing and meditation, martial arts, fitness and running classes.

The Italian bookmaker has also found that its investment in communication platforms like Bluejeans and Zoom has helped to keep teams in touch. “Seeing colleagues all being on screen had a huge impact and people were prepared to share the insides of their house and learned a lot more about colleagues,” says Dean.

“Our working-from-home guidelines and weekly updates provided tips on keeping the body and mind healthy – everything from regular breaks, exercise, hydration and nutrition. Then there were the virtual social events – that always went on longer than planned – like quizzes, parties, yoga as well as poker tournaments.”

The SKS365 management team paid particular attention to clear and visible communications to help support their staff during the crisis. Dean explains: “Whether it was video calls with large groups or individual sessions, it allowed us to get a read on how people were coping and to reinforce the message that during these unprecedented times we were all in this together… one SKS!”

The Italian operator is making sure staff are kept engaged and motivated through open and transparent communication, delivered by virtual town halls and weekly business video updates.

It was also important to reassure employees on the financial health of the company through regular business performance updates. “The intention was to remove any fears or reduce stress they may be feeling about their roles, the company and general future security. Equally, it was important to ensure that the localised support networks were in place – somewhere for individuals to turn to if they just needed to speak to someone,” says Dean.

While restrictions are gradually easing around the world, the mental and physical effects of coronavirus could be long term and it’s crucial that employers continue to provide ongoing support moving forward. As SKS365’s Dean concludes: “It is imperative that we continue with such actions and initiatives for some time, as the impact of the lockdown experience is unknown and could last for many months to come.” One thing we have all learnt during these challenging times is that kindness and looking after one another can certainly go a long way.