Kuutch is a play on the Welsh word ‘cwtch’; a feeling of joy, warmth and happiness that makes a person feel nurtured, as if they belong.
For a long time now, we have seen a surge in interest in wellbeing, and how it can contribute to positive outcomes at work, but for us there has been something missing.
We set up Kuutch because we want to see wellness at the heart of work. We know this can be transformational. And yet while wellbeing ‘programmes’ have proiliferated, there has been no marked increase in engagement from employees. In fact, if anything, the opposite is true.
Treating wellbeing as ‘transactional’, a bolt-on, without addressing every part of culture at work, and understanding the needs of the human beings within a business, has led to people feeling unheard and misunderstood.
Influenced by a new generation of values-led employees, people increasingly expect more from their work than a transactional relationship. They want and need to be their whole selves at work, and unless organisations learn to embrace the ‘whole person’, and tap into the immense energy that is at the core of everyone, they will simply not be able to produce results.
Wellness goes beyond a fixed, outdated idea of health as an absence of illness. It emcompasses physical and emotional health, intellectual and spiritual fulfilment, social wellbeing and feeling a sense of belonging.
This is why we take an ‘all embracing’ approach to wellness. As we see it, a cwtch, that feeling of being seen, understood and wrapped up safe in a place where you belong, is exactly the solid foundation that today’s employees need in order to do well.
Many of you will be familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and yet in so many of today’s workplaces, the most basic of human needs –for safety, connection and physical and emotional health – are not being met.
It is only when these needs are met that people, and businesses can move on and upwards into the growth that is needed to thrive in today’s world.