North East business Weir Insurance is joining forces with London-based pioneers AstralMandala on a bold new model to track how investing in employee wellbeing affects business performance.
The North East is fast becoming the UK’s proving ground for next-gen employee wellbeing – and now, it has a lead pilot. Karen Weir, MD of Weir Insurance, has officially partnered with AstralMandala to launch the first business pilot of its revolutionary system that combines human nurture, business ROI and a real time roadmap for wellbeing efficacy, for people and profit.
Weir Insurance’s decision to lead the pilot means they’re not just improving employee health outcomes – they’re helping redefine what ‘profit drivers’ will look like in the years ahead. The pilot will track return on investment through real-time metrics such as emotional capacity measures, absenteeism data and business performance, all while embedding a cultural reset programme called Mandala42 at the heart of their workforce.
AstralMandala, co-founded by North East native Anni Hood and Julian Ranger, has sought to answer a single question; How to make pro-active health and illness prevention matter enough to become embedded into the national economy?
It challenges the status quo of employee support by proving what many have suspected but few could measure so transparently; that tailored investment in people doesn’t just feel right, it pays off.
“This isn’t just about ‘doing wellbeing’ anymore,” says Hood. “It’s about business leaders stepping up to model what modern responsibility looks like – and realising that nurture and performance are not opposites, they’re allies.”
In a move that reflects the North East’s deeply held culture of community, AstralMandala will donate a space on its Mandala42 programme to a charity, NHS or third sector organisation for every commercial space booked from September.
“I saw immediately that AstralMandala’s mission wasn’t fluff – it’s solid, measurable and necessary,” says Weir. “We’re proud to be first in.”
The collaboration emerged from a Northern Leaders event just weeks ago. Another stand out advocate is Alison Dunn, CEO of Gateshead CAB and The Society Matters Group, known for her own radical rethinking of how we support human potential in and beyond work.
As momentum builds, AstralMandala’s team believes the North East can show the rest of the country what’s possible when businesses put human health at the centre of performance instead of the sidelines.
Last month, AstralMandala hosted a private leaders’ dinner in Newcastle designed to do what words cannot: offering regional changemakers a different kind of space; one where pressures become presence and the takeaways are felt, not heard.
