RC4VETS: Employee’s wellness
Executive Summary
The following report is a result of the collaborative efforts within the Erasmus+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP PROJECT NUMBER 2020–1-ES01-KA202–082630, titled “Real Challenges for VET Students” (RC4VETs). The primary goal of this project is to create challenges rooted in real-life scenarios, aimed at preparing and facilitating students’ transition into the job market.
In November 2022, one of these challenges was executed by the Greek partner, DIEK Glyfadas’, in partnership with the multinational insurance company, Fenchurch Faris Ltd. These challenges were strategically designed to address the specific needs of the company and were tackled by students from various departments, including Commerce, Business, Administration, Digital Marketing, Culinary, and Tourism, spanning ISCED levels 3, 4, and 5. Participants came from six Vocational Education and Training Institutes across different partner countries, namely Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.
“Real Challenges for VET Students” — DIEK Glyfadas’
DIEK Glyfadas expressed its interest in incorporating RC4VETS challenges that encompass fundamental marketing principles, human resources management, IT fundamentals, and culinary knowledge, all aligned with the corporate culture and demands.
A meeting was scheduled for November 17, 2022, between DIEK Glyfadas’ leadership, including the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer of Fenchurch Faris, to discuss the project integration and define the scope of the three challenges.
During the transnational teachers’ meeting held in Izola, Slovenia, from October 20 to 21, DIEK Glyfadas’ coordinators presented the three challenges to partner institutions. They also outlined the expected task division among all participants and the anticipated outcomes of the project.”
On November 21st 2022, an online meeting was scheduled with the Chief Executive Officer of Fenchurch Faris and all partners in order to officially headstart the challenge and provide further information on the company’s history, core values, culture and services while presenting the tasks.
Brief company presentation
Fenchurch Faris Ltd. is a registered Lloyd’s Broker with 40 years under its belt providing insurance and reinsurance risk management services across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The Company was launched as a joint venture between Basim R. Faris, who is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute in the U.K., and Fenchurch PLC, an English insurance brokerage.
The Company consists of 11 regional offices in 8 cities across the region and their clients include insurance companies, corporate entities, small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals.
- 1984: First branch office in Athens, Greece
- 1985: First associate office in Kuwait City, Kuwait
- 2006: Branch office in Abu Dhabi, UAE
- 2007: Faris Insurance Services in Amman, Jordan & Fenchurch Faris Hellas in Athens, Greece
- 2010: Fenchurch Faris (Saudi Arabia) Ltd. in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 2014: Representative office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in Business Bay, Dubai, UAE
- 2015: Fenchurch Faris Insurance Services in Muscat, Oman
- 2016: Fenchurch Faris (Saudi Arabia) Ltd branch office in Al Khobar
Main company needs identified
The company is growing day by day, gradually increasing its clientele and requirements. Finding competent people for Fenchurch Faris’ staff is considered crucial, while selecting the right person to meet the specific requirements is characterized as the most difficult process. The continuous company growth in recent years, as well as the desire to approach new markets, demand the need to create a carefully considered marketing plan.
More and more employees nowadays are aiming to improve their work-life balance as well as their wellness. Our company aims to actively promote individual health, growth and productivity by taking care of the employees’ physical health and creating a wellness program.
Main goal
Factors such as COVID-19, have forced employees to search for the ideal work-life balance and improve both their physical and mental wellness. One step towards enhancing employee wellness would be to provide a healthy dietary menu including any employee dietary restrictions.
Activities to develop
Create a dietary menu taking into consideration any dietary restrictions such as but not limited to lactose intolerance, coeliac disease, Halal meals (suitable for Muslims to consume), vegetarian/ vegan meals and multiculturalism to promote the diversity of the cultures in the company and get to know one another through their meals.
Expected results
- Create Menus that introduce foods and snacks from all countries.
- Monitoring activity and task progression on the challenge.
- Formative and non-formative community engagement.
- Promote multicultural exchange through food.
- Brainstorm on menu items keeping in mind the dietary restrictions.
- Provide trainees with personal skills important to the labor market.
Criteria for participants’ selection
Our main goals set the following criteria for our challenges:
- Number of participants — 2 or 3 per partner
- Academic qualifications — trainees from professional courses in the field of Culinary, IT, Business, International Trade, Economics, E-Marketing, and Healthcare (level 3/4/5 EQF)
- Gender of participants — different for each entity
- English level — participants should be able to carry a dialogue in English; basic knowledge of English — concepts, and grammar
The participants should be motivated and inspired to work and collaborate with different fields of study to complete their tasks.
Selected participants
The employees’ wellness challenge group consists of participants from Portugal organization Proandi and from Slovenian organization PCO, and coordinators from DIEK Glyfadas’. As shown in the chart below (figure 08.1), the participants’ gender statistics were balanced with a percentage of 47.8% men and 52.2% women and ages ranging from 16 to 50 years old with higher participants rates between 18 and 20 years old followed by 21–24 years old.
The fields of study of all participants vary between Healthcare, Culinary, Nutrition & Well-being, Digital Marketing, Commerce, Public Relations, Finance/ Economics, and IT (figure 08.2).
The balance between the fields of study was crucial for the conduct of the challenge and the diversity each field brings to the brainstorming sessions to achieve the optimal result in drafting and promoting the employees’ wellbeing.
Satisfactory indicators
The evaluation of the challenge by the participants and the teachers/ instructors regarding the satisfactory indicators is presented in the charts below.
The questionnaire consists of 12 main points regarding the quality of the project and the satisfaction of the participants, students, and teachers/ instructors including 4 demographic questions, (country, age, gender, and field of study) and 8 units regarding teamwork, employment and entrepreneurship, cultural insight, social inclusion, language barrier, etc.
Over 90% of the overall feedback received by the questionnaire had a positive answer regarding the Employees Wellness challenge both by student participants and teachers/ instructors.
- Period to implement the activities
The challenge duration is 3 months, from the first meeting on November 21st, 2022 until February 21st, 2023.
- Performed tasks
A healthy and balanced diet plan was created by the Portuguese and Slovenian teams lead respectively by Anna Carvalho and Sergeja Brglez taking into consideration any and all dietary restrictions due to age, health issues, and cultural appropriation (halal, vegetarian and/or vegan).
The Italian, Bulgarian, Spanish and Greek teams were called to promote the employees’ wellness through social media and display the company’s philosophy with their posts.
Contributions from partners
Through the dissemination of previous LTTA meetings, we prioritized the challenge objectives and identified practices that promote collaboration between participants from different countries, allowing more time for networking and working sessions to exchange new practices.
Recognition of this challenge
All the participants received a Europass Mobility document. In addition, the Greek team received extra credit on their mid-term exams and the Spanish team was exempted from exams on a relative subject.
The Slovenian and Portuguese team presented their work in their schools’ relative subjects.
No specific recognition was provided for the Italian team.
Used tools/resources
The communication was done using the following digital tools:
- Zoom
- Google drive and docs
- Constitutional Email
For the creation of the requested material, the following tools were used:
- Microsoft Office Suite (PowerPoint, Word)
- Canva or Similar
Difficulties experienced in the course of this challenge
There were no difficulties with the implementation of the challenges.
Main conclusions
The 4th LTTA in Athens for RC4VETS was successfully carried out by DIEK Glyfadas’ under the supervision of Mrs. Victoria Apostolou the deputy director of the VET institute and the facilitating staff who ensured the smooth flow of the program.
The participants were given the unique opportunity to work on different challenges for a worldwide company with more than 500 employees, in 11 regional offices, for a week and present their work to Fenchurch Faris CEO and the HR manager.
The collaboration between the participants was excellent and managed to circulate among the teams to communicate their ideas, innovative practices an provide feedback to one another to improve their work.
Team coordinators were placed for every challenge to allow the teachers/ instructors to network and exchange information regarding their organizations, current work and Erasmus projects.
Moreover, both the participants and the teachers/ instructors unlocked the feeling of Greece through their accommodation by the Aegean Sea, the cultural visits downtown Athens with a guided tour by the facilitators of DIEK Glyfadas’ in the historic center and a complimentary day trip to Nafplion accompanied by traditional food and local delicacies.
In addition, Fenchurch Faris Ltd. offered the participants and teachers/ instructors Middle eastern finger food to present their own culture.
