Bupa business stories
Real stories from small businesses
Watch our case studies to discover how Bupa health insurance is helping small businesses unlock their growth ambitions
Hear about Nu Coton’s Bupa experience
Watch this business story, where Rachel Bews, Co-Founder of Nu Coton, tells us about how Bupa has helped her micro business.
Running a business alongside raising a young family can be a tough balancing act, but for Rachel and her partner, having Bupa health and wellbeing support in place keeps them and their small team feeling at their best, both at work and home.
Hear how Nu Coton makes wellbeing a core part of their business and how health insurance will be vital for the company as it grows.
Raising a young family and also running a business is no joke and no one prepares you for how hard that is truly going to be in practice.
We want that safety net, you need that peace of mind and Bupa has really provided that for us.
I'm Rachel Bews, I'm one of the founders and directors of nu coton and we are a responsible marketing studio.
We all work remotely but my co-director and I, we work in a beautiful office space in the Scottish Highlands.
Plenty of greenery around us.
As our team continues to grow, our private health insurance will be, you know, a core part of that journey.
The thing I value about health insurance most is that peace of mind.
And honestly, for me, you just can't put a value on that.
Wellbeing and productivity are absolutely connected, we see that day-to-day in our business.
Staying resilient can be really challenging, especially in an industry like marketing where things feel like they're changing all the time and possibly at the fastest pace they've ever changed.
Walking meetings for us are a really great way to get outdoors, get some fresh air, some sunlight and then on a Wednesday the focus of our team call is purely about our wellbeing and how we're feeling that week physically, mentally, emotionally and well-being support, like the type provided by Bupa is so crucial to maintain our health and wellbeing of our workforce, to keep our team happy, healthy, motivated inside the business.
I'm lucky that personally I always grew up with Bupa Private Health Cover through my Dad's work and there was multiple times in my life growing up that we used that cover and really felt its benefit.
My youngest son Matthew, he's almost three and he's definitely been the biggest user of Bupa services so far in our family.
When he was born he was diagnosed with glue ear, which means he has no hearing in one ear and reduced hearing in the other.
We very quickly looked to Bupa to help us navigate this journey and I don't know how we would have done it without them.
From the minute that we first stepped through the doors it's made what could have been a really scary, stressful experience much more navigable, much more simple and having Bupa by us through this journey has been invaluable.
As our team grows and we expand our private medical insurance to our growing team we'll definitely make use of the diverse offerings that Bupa has in terms of cover and making sure that it's a fully comprehensive offering to support the diverse health and wellbeing needs of our team.
Some of the unexpected benefits we've had from Bupa have been regularly receiving email communications full of lots of really helpful content specifically the mental health content has been really helpful for our team and just having access to that expertise you know literally at the click of a button.
The other main service we've benefited from is the digital GP service which as a busy parent and business owner has given us flexible access to GP appointments at very short notice.
Our ambitions for nu coton are definitely to continue pioneering in the responsible marketing space and doing so in a way that is really responsible and conscious of our team and their wellbeings.
Investing in private medical insurance for Bupa really helps us to achieve our growth ambitions by investing in our team and their wellbeing and I think it really demonstrates to them how committed we are to support them and create a workplace where they can thrive both at work and beyond work as well.
Follow Nexteq on their Bupa journey
Join us as we speak to Mandy Halsey, Group HR Director from Nexteq plc.
Mandy highlights the importance of creating a workplace environment focused on wellbeing, where employees are both productive and happy in their roles.
For Mandy, prioritising health and wellbeing is essential for a successful business. If we have healthy minds and healthy bodies, then we have a healthier workforce and that’s good for business.
When I joined the organisation, I was very impressed with how collective and committed the team were as a whole at Nexteq.
It was actually very heartwarming to see a group of individuals that actually got on really well together and were super driven and motivated.
And I do strongly believe the reason for that is because they are very well looked after from an organisational perspective, which includes measures such as looking out for their wellbeing and healthcare.
If you are able to put those measures in place, you can attract the right sort of talent.
It's also the starting point, the story that you have to give them about what you offer as an organisation.
And what Nexteq actually offer is a very supportive, dynamic and collaborative organisation that takes care of its employees and actually listens to its employees.
And that, for me, was an absolutely brilliant and lovely thing to witness and see when I first joined.
Hi, I’m Mandy Halsey Group HR Director at Nexteq plc.
We are an IPC technology company that specialises in hardware and software solutions for a number of industries.
I think for me, health and wellbeing is absolutely critical.
I really do not understand any organisation that doesn't spend a level of time thinking about its employees and their health and their wellbeing, because for me, ultimately that is the bedrock of ensuring that employees are productive and feel happy in their roles.
And I won't compromise by working for an organisation that doesn't care for employee wellbeing and engagement.
We have given all of our employees access to a private medical cover as well as the other offerings.
And it's there for a number of reasons, but one of the most important reasons is it’s there to look out for employees’ health.
Because if we have healthy minds and healthy bodies, we have healthy employees that are able to produce and to deliver and to work to the best of their abilities.
So it's a no brainer for us, really.
As an HR Director in the technology arena, I think is really important to understand what else is going on around us in terms of what other organisations are doing and what they're offering.
I think the really important part here is to create our own niche and really focus on what we have to offer as an organisation and to ensure that we communicate that with our employees.
And we let them know at the start of the hiring process all of the initiatives that we are invested in so that they can understand how seriously we take the employee piece.
And it's not just lip service when we're actually here to look out for our staff and we take that very seriously.
I think for me, the two key concepts around attracting and retaining talent.
Number one is to provide a warm, supportive, friendly and collaborative environment for employees to feel safe, to come into work, for them to be their authentic selves.
But also, the other really fundamental part of that is to provide support in terms of their wellbeing, whether that's through healthcare initiatives or those such items.
But for me, those two are absolutely important because ultimately those are the key drivers to employee performance.
It's very important for us to ensure that we've got a diverse health and wellbeing plan that helps to reflect the varying and wide ranging demographic of our staff.
And we've got staff from a number of different demographic backgrounds, age, sex, plus other diversity.
So it's really important for us to make sure that we've got a plan in place that caters for almost as many people as we can.
To that effect, we've actually recently just switched over to a private medical cover that covers pre-existing medical conditions.
And that is because we firmly believe that we would like to cater to as many of our staff as we possibly can that've got a range of diverse backgrounds.
Here at Nexteq the idea of a work-life balance is quite interesting because we almost go beyond other organisations in that we provide a balance at work to look after our employees to make sure they've got the right forum, that they feel like it's a dynamic and collaborative environment.
So we are not just colleagues who support each other.
It extends beyond that.
And I think part of that is actually very important because having a good health and wellbeing programmes in place, these are the sort of concepts that help to boost those relationships, to go beyond just a working relationship, which I think in turn helps to increase and boost productivity and to improve performance ultimately in the workplace.
That's why it's so important to have aspects like a good health and wellbeing programme in place, because you're providing employees with that care.
They feel like they're part of a collaborative team effort.
The more they feel supported and loved and cared for, that to me is the bedrock of boosting productivity.
Mintra
In this business story, we hear from Amy Reid, Global People and Culture Director from Mintra.
Amy explains how supporting people’s diverse health and wellbeing needs is key to the company’s growth.
Focusing on how team members use Bupa to get faster healthcare, support and advice, Amy highlights the value of health insurance and how this is helping Mintra grow a thriving team that can deliver for their customers.
People are key to our growth.
Without our people, we couldn’t deliver to our customers, we wouldn't have the same inspiration or ideas or energy within the organisation to really drive forward towards our goals.
We want to look after our employees and health insurance is one of the ways that we can do that.
I'm Amy Reid.
I'm the Global People and Culture Director at Mintra.
Mintra's a software provider in the safety critical industries.
We have software engineers, developers, a huge team of people that develop our products for the customers.
We also have a content team that actually develop the digital learning that we deliver to our customers.
We want to be the number one provider of e-learning and human capital management systems in the safety critical industries.
One of our big challenges is attracting talent to Mintra and standing out as an employer of choice that people want to come and work for.
And when you're competing with some quite big names in the tech arena, you really need to have benefits that stand out.
We want people to have an environment where they can thrive, where they can really come to work, they can be present, they can do their job to the best of their ability.
It can be really rewarding when you have somebody coming in and saying, "You really do look after us. You really do care about us."
One of our big challenges is how remote and global we are.
Working from home, what we saw was that our productivity was increasing.
We were doing much more than what we'd expected to, but people were not disengaging, they weren't switching off and we were worried people were really going to get quite burned out.
So I think it can be a sector wide challenge, especially when you look at the technology sector and the pressure that sometimes people are under.
Having the benefits that people need to utilise when it's important to them to utilise and knowing how to access them, that's a big challenge as well.
When we speak about having a global and remote workforce, we have to signpost people to know that the resources are there, that the benefits are there, that as and when they need to throughout their journey with us, they can access these.
When we look at the employees we have, we actually have quite a neurodiverse workforce.
We need to be able to offer wellbeing support and flexibility.
So we've really had to try and adapt and have an offering that supports our workforce.
By making sure that our employees are taken care of, it helps us as an organisation to achieve our goals.
For me, in my role, it means that we're not doing as much absence management.
People generally tend to turn up to work and they're here and they do their job and they do their job well.
So that's been a big benefit of having the health insurance.
Being able to have early intervention or not have long referal times.
They can speak to somebody and get that reassurance that actually what they're going through is completely okay.
And I think that helps then with people being able to have that balance between work and home and what's going on in their personal life, what's going on at work.
Support from Bupa, it helped where they’ve maybe had some symptoms that they were worried were going to be something quite serious, Bupa were able to get them an appointment pretty much within a couple of weeks.
We've had an employee who couldn’t access the medication that they needed as quickly as they wanted it.
So they were able to call up the digital GP service through Bupa and they referred them the same day consultant and they were seen within a couple of weeks and got a new treatment plan, which has had a huge impact on their life.
With the experiences we've had recently with Bupa, it's really helped our employees to feel valued and get a good level service and in turn, that's made them maybe feel like the company valued them as well.
So we have always had health insurance at Mintra for our employees.
It's something that's important to us.
We want to look after our employees and health insurance is one of the ways that we can do that.
Growing your business with Bupa
Use our resources to help you create a workplace environment that thrives.
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Supporting neurodiversity in the workplace
In this guide, we take a closer look at neurodiversity, its value in the workplace, and how you can support neurodivergent employees at work.
Disability inclusion in the workplace
Creating an accessible and inclusive workplace can help employees thrive at work. Our guide provides advice on supporting disabled colleagues at work.
Setting healthy workplace goals
The workplace is a key environment to develop and maintain healthy goals. Having healthy employees leads to a healthy business with less sickness absence, staff turnover and increased productivity.
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