Arm’s-length body looks to offer program to about one in seven employees

Credit: Pxfuel

The Environment Agency is to invest £28,000 in offering its staff the use of a mindfulness app.

The organisation wants to acquire licences that would enable up to 1,500 employees to use the software over the course of a 12-month period, beginning in April 2020. The investment in technology comes on the back of a year-long programme in which the agency has enabled its staff to undertake a cumulative total of 31,000 “mindfulness sessions”.

“These sessions have had a direct benefit of improving general wellbeing, reducing the feeling of stress and anxiety at home and work for those colleagues,” it said. 

The agency, which is an arm’s-length body of the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, is seeking an app that will offer content related to productivity, as well as a range of physical and mental health issues, including anxiety, stress, and sleep. The app must also allow for user accounts to be switched and recycled.

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The chosen supplier will be expected to provide weekly usage and engagement reports with “actionable metrics”. The company should also deliver online or in-person presentations to staff to promote usage of the app.

Up to 1,500 workers – which equates to about one in seven of the workforce – are expected to use the technology.

The Environment Agency said: “We believe brilliant things happen with calm minds. Our aim is to support our colleagues by providing access to a mindfulness app that provides us with business information on its use and engagement. By making mindfulness apps available to those that would benefit from using it most, we aim to improve our workplace through increased productivity, improved focus, greater collaboration between colleagues, reduce absenteeism and improve people’s personal resilience and wellbeing.”

Suppliers wishing to bid for the contract have until 28 February to submit a quote.