"It's simply the best benefit we offer": How Savills made wellbeing mean something
Savills is one of the world's leading real estate companies, a business where performance, reputation, and people are central to everything. Getting wellbeing right wasn't a box to tick. It was a decision about what kind of organisation they wanted to be.
MYNDUP’s CEO Kathryn sat down with Noel to talk about what prompted the partnership with MYNDUP, what's changed since, and what he'd say to any organisation still weighing up whether to invest properly in mental health support.
Putting money where your mouth is
For Noel, the shift started with a straightforward question: what does it actually mean to care about your people's wellbeing? Not in a policy document. In practice.
"I think it shows that you care about your people," he told us. "You care about wellbeing beyond saying it's important. You're actually demonstrating that you're putting your money where your mouth is. You're investing in their wellbeing and being proactive about it."
The word “proactive” comes up a lot in conversations about mental health support. The difference between responding to problems and preventing them. Between providing access to something and providing access to something that actually works.
What employees said
Two months into the partnership, Noel describes something that's difficult to put a number on: a quiet shift in how employees talk about the support available to them.
At Savills, MYNDUP users in real estate have seen a 91% increase in job satisfaction. But the stat that stays with Noel isn't on a dashboard.
It's what he hears when he asks employees what they think of their benefits.
"I don't know how you beat the phrase that most people use, which is: it's simply the best benefit we offer."
That's not a marketing line. It's what employees volunteer when they talk about it. And it's the kind of feedback that tends to land differently in a board conversation than any ROI calculation.
What the decision itself communicates
Perhaps the most useful framing Noel offered wasn't about features or outcomes. It was about what the decision signals.
Choosing to invest properly in mental health support - not just to provide access to a service, but to make that service genuinely usable and genuinely good - tells your people something. It tells them that the language around wellbeing in your organisation isn't just language.
"I think it shows that you care about your people," Noel said. "You care about wellbeing beyond saying it's important."
That's the difference between a policy and a culture.
What he'd say to someone on the fence
When we asked Noel what he'd tell an organisation still deciding whether to invest properly in mental health support, he didn't hesitate.
"Just do it. You won't regret it."
Simple. And, based on everything Savills has seen since partnering with MYNDUP, entirely accurate.