The RSPCA was founded in 1824 and is the oldest and largest animal protection organisation in the world. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the charity has also taken major strides to protect its human employees.
A trauma risk management process (TRiM) has been established to help staff deal with distressing images and incidents, and protect their long-term wellbeing at a time when many team members are already dealing with the stress of isolation and new ways of working.
Here Jeremy Gautrey-Jones, the RSPCA’s assistant director of employee experience, talks us through the programme and the role it will play in the charity’s long-term wellbeing strategy.
For employees of the RSPCA, shock and grief are all too common. The charity’s personnel regularly witness scenes of extreme cruelty, both when they’re out in the field responding to calls and back in the office, processing images from distressed members of the public.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began 18 months ago, this emotional burden has only increased. The RSPCA’s Horsham headquarters has always provided a fulcrum of support and empathy, but now many staff are working remotely and having to process trauma on their own.
Addressing the issue
However, there is now a service that reaches out to every single team member, no matter where they are based and what they have witnessed. The RSPCA has established a Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) process, based on a combination of peer-to-peer support and dedicated professional support. The early results are hugely encouraging.
“Our people can come across horrific things,” explains Jeremy Gautrey-Jones. “They may find animals in horrendous circumstances and there may not be much they can do to bring the animal back, so the animal may have to be put down.
“Those events can be very difficult, especially if you love animals. Even people in our press team that see some of these horrendous photos can be quite affected by them.
“But we’ve provided that intervention, and found that it’s been really welcomed by staff. And the early numbers are good, too.”
The TRiM programme is just one of the policies the RSPCA has established to protect its staff. As the world’s most recognisable animal charity, it has earned global acclaim for its efforts to protect cats, dogs and other species from mistreatment. Now, more than ever, it is having to consider the welfare of its people, too.
Jeremy, who joined the RSPCA only a few days before the pandemic broke, explains that the organisation was “quite old-fashioned” before Covid. The head office housed over 400 people, all locked together in a presencial, 9-5 environment.
However, the new world of remote working is now firmly established. Most people have been working from home for the last 18 months, and according to a survey carried out last November, which received a response rate of over 90% from office-based staff, over eight in 10 said they wanted to continue telecommuting.
Devising a solution
Acting on this response, Jeremy and his colleagues have mapped out a strategy labelled ‘Hello Hybrid’. Beyond the core stretch from 10am to 3pm, staff are free to decide when and where they work. While the people leads recommend a minimum of one day in the office per month, there are now firm directives on location. A desk-sharing trial is underway, using a booking form created especially for the purpose.
This new approach has provided a catalyst for opportunity. The main Horsham office has been reconfigured; new collaborative spaces and shared neighbourhoods, based on job function, have been introduced to break down silo working. Dedicated dog spaces have been created for staff, so they can bring their companion animals into the office (“having dogs in the office increases many people’s wellbeing”), Jeremy explains.
At the same time the RSPCA is about to open a new flagship office in London. This new base will capitalise on the new, distributed working possibilities afforded by hybrid working, widening the charity’s catchment area and attracting a more diverse workforce.
But there are challenges, too. And no challenge is bigger than the mental health of individual team members.
“Our biggest concern was the wellbeing of staff,” Jeremy says. “It wasn’t just the working from home, it was the isolation, the screen time, the boundaries between work and home life, and how those boundaries have been blurred.
“There’s the feeling of isolation that some people had, but also the need to adapt to working on a kitchen table. Some people have missed human contact.”