Havas

In 2016, global communications and advertising group Havas launched Havas Equalise, a health and wellbeing programme built around four key pillars: mental health, financial wellbeing, physical health and social connection. Nearly a decade on, the programme is well established but, rather than resting on their laurels, the way the organisation has “maintained momentum” and “kept upping the ante from what they already had” highly impressed the PMAs judges. 

Havas recognised “that the landscape continuously changes” and that “what was once a pioneering programme is now becoming the baseline for responsible employers”. As such, the organisation worked to identify areas for improvement, and found that workload pressure and stretched resources were consistent pain points. 

Furthermore, conversations with ERGs helped uncover barriers and gaps in representation, while line managers reported feeling unsure of how to have conversations about mental health, suggesting a need for better managerial support. While the company tracked a wealth of data, it found it lacked demographic depth on wellbeing and, despite offering a range of wellbeing sessions, there was a drop-off between sign-ups and actual attendance. This was followed up with employees, and the conversations revealed many didn’t feel they had permission to prioritise wellbeing. 

Havas used what it found to enhance Havas Equalise. Wellbeing has been integrated into the organisation’s core values through a company-wide workshop that led to the creation of ‘being human at heart’, a value promoting empathy and compassion that now spans the people experience, from recruitment to onboarding and development. It also created the Havas Manager Academy, which features modules on wellbeing and inclusivity; in 2024, more than 85 per cent of managers completed the training. The manager data dashboard was also developed further, to now track EDI data points to assess wellbeing engagement across demographic groups, and leadership accountability was strengthened by appointing CEO executive sponsors to Havas’s mental health committee, reinforcing mental health as a top-level priority. 

The results are exemplary: voluntary turnover has reduced by 87 per cent among employees who interacted with Havas Equalise at least once during the year; in 2024, more than 80 per cent of employees engaged with Equalise, participating in more than 335 hours of wellbeing activities; in its most recent engagement survey, work life and wellbeing scores increased by more than 10 per cent in comparison to 2023; and 93 per cent agreed that ‘my agency culture supports employees’ wellbeing’.