The University of Westminster is based in the heart of London, UK, and was founded in 1838.

Over the past few years, the University of Westminster had been through three periods of significant change; a major restructure, the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor and President, and the development of a new Organisational and People Strategy, “Being Me, Being Westminster”.

The Strategy, which involved engagement with all stakeholders across the University from senior leaders and trade unions to colleagues from across their functions, was developed to instil three core values into the organisation’s culture: to be progressive, compassionate, and responsible.

Two key areas of focus for the employee proposition were the University’s work in wellbeing and inclusion, for which would be underpinned by Juice.

We soft launched Juice at the University’s annual Garden Party in August 2019. Leading up to the event we worked together to draft and implement a comms strategy, starting slow and ramping up closer to the day, and as part of the strategy, circulated a number of very large branded colouring sheets. These sheets were accompanied by colouring pens, held all key Garden Party information, and once completed were entered into a competition.

The Garden Party had circa 400 guests join us at the Chiswick Campus, of which circa 280 signed up to Juice on the day. During the Party, guests were able to take part in team games, various activities, a sports day, and a BBQ. We all had an incredible day!

The following Monday Juice was launched across the University to circa 2,500 colleagues. The University started their Juice journey with a small number of activities that were already in operation but seldom used, but engagement started to increase once Juice brought everything into one place.

Shortly after launch and following the huge spike in engagement, the University has brought equality, diversity, and inclusion under the Juice banner. Juice at the University is no longer solely a wellbeing intervention, it is now the go-to place for colleagues to interact with the wider community.

Covid-19

During even more recent times, like all of us, the University has been navigating the challenges of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Rather than following other organisations and downsizing their wellbeing interventions to focus on the pandemic, the University accelerated their investment.

Community was at the forefront of their minds, and Juice enabled people to remain in touch with each other away from scheduled meetings. They brought all their activity provision online using Microsoft Teams but instead of sharing pre-recorded content, they continued to run these activities and events in real time so the community engagement before, during, and after was not lost.

Juice engagement continues to build month-on-month, and has become a key part of the University’s employee experience.