The Smart Motorways Alliance brings together Fluor, WSP, Jacobs Engineering, Costain, Balfour Beatty, and Bam Nuttall/Morgan Sindall Joint Venture to design and deliver a smart motorway programme over a 10 year period.

The goal was to create a collaborative and supportive wellbeing environment in an Alliance model with the aim to create an equitable wellbeing environment for all colleagues and a place to collaborate and share best practice across partners to enhance wellbeing opportunities for all.

“Journey to Wellbeing” programme aims to create a consistent wellbeing brand across the Alliance which includes equitable wellbeing materials for all colleagues working in the Alliance, such as The Journey to Wellbeing Toolkit.

The Alliance recognised that smaller supplier partners did not have access to mental health support such as an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and set up engagement groups for collaboration and co-creation.

The Alliance set up a level steering group made up of a representative of the seven partner organisations and three representatives from different supplier partners; a working group made of representatives across each of the main schemes in the Alliance; and a supplier working group made up of suppliers who were keen to support the wellbeing across the Alliance.

The group co-created a wellbeing matrix and assurance to foster a consistent approach to wellbeing across all schemes. The Alliance partnered with Maximus who provide Access to Mental Health support to ensure there was an equitable mental health support pathway; particularly for the smaller businesses who may not have access to an EAP.

The wellbeing collaboration across the Alliance increased; schemes shared best practice with one another on how to engage their local workforce; supplier partners shared their practices and policies to support others on topics such as menopause; and the micro businesses and small supplier partners who previously had no access to an EAP started promoting Maximus to their colleagues.

In the recent Alliance engagement survey, 92% of colleagues believed the Alliance prioritised their health and wellbeing, 89% praised the Alliance’s health and wellbeing communication and 88% were at ease discussing mental or physical health concerns.