Rothbury joins Clearhead to foster a proactive approach to wellbeing.

Rothbury is a majority New Zealand‑owned insurance brokerage that provides advice, policy placement, and claims support. They have around 500 employees across more than 25 offices around New Zealand. With a company of Rothbury’s scale and the nature of the work they do, supporting their people’s wellbeing is essential. When Clearhead met with Rothbury’s HR leader, Christie, she shared that their previous EAP was largely unused and sat in the background.

By examining their employee feedback, Rothbury decided it was time for change. In March 2023, Rothbury partnered with Clearhead, hoping to see greater health and wellbeing benefits for their people.

“Our previous EAP was more of an ambulance at the bottom of the hill. Engagement with the previous EAP was very, very low. We were getting monthly invoices that sometimes had nothing on them."

Rachel McKay, GM People and Culture

Rothbury wanted to do things differently by shifting from a reactive EAP model to a proactive, preventative wellbeing partnership. Clearhead was chosen because of its services beyond therapy including mood journals, digital tools, resources, and family access, and its ability to partner closely with the People & Culture team.

“We're talking to our people and notice mental health challenges becoming destigmatised...People are talking about their therapy session that week or about their experience with Clearhead and the mood journals. We sit there and hear it and go, wow this would have never happened 12 months ago.” 

Christie, HR Leader.

With 1 in 2 employees having utilised Clearhead’s support, Clearhead is clearly a well-loved and well-adopted service that positively impacts staff morale and one Rothbury is confident is supporting the people who need that help.

The normalisation of conversations around mental health also contributed to a cultural shift in the workplace. At Rothbury, wellbeing began to be viewed as proactive, normal, and part of “how we do things here.” Clearhead regularly appears in employee engagement survey comments as a unique and valued part of working at Rothbury.

“Clearhead is deeply embedded and highly adopted in our culture. It is a core part of our employee value proposition and a strategic lever for performance, risk management, and culture, ensuring our people can bring their best selves to work.”

Nicole, Head of People Analytics.

A key factor in Rothbury’s decision to partner with Clearhead was confidence in the quality and range of clinical support available to their people. Over 40% of Clearhead’s therapists are psychologists, alongside a broader network of mental health professionals who offer nationwide access to both in‑person and online therapy.

Clearhead measures impact through wellbeing outcomes, with average WHO‑5 wellbeing scores for Rothbury increasing from 41 out of 100 before sessions to 59 after, a meaningful shift from poor to average wellbeing, showing that people felt better following therapy or even after engaging with self‑help tools.

“My therapist helped me put things in perspective and gave me lots of tools to support my goals. Therapy enabled me to resolve the issues I was facing and approach stress differently at work and at home.”

Rothbury Employee

For many employees, the hardest step can be getting started. Rothbury had previously experienced long delays with their former provider, sometimes waiting weeks to secure an appointment. In contrast, Clearhead’s intuitive booking platform removed these barriers by allowing users to view therapist profiles, filter by specialisation, location, and language, and book sessions immediately.

“I’ve used other EAP programmes in the past, but this is by far the easiest. I had a crisis moment, logged on, and had support organised in less than 10 minutes. It made a huge difference knowing help was there straight away.”

Rothbury Employee