Supporting mental health

Openness about mental health is helping to erode the age‑old stigma that clings to non-physical illness. We set out to raise awareness of the issues, encourage people to discuss their problems, and signpost them to the support we and others can provide.

Our company’s first step was to introduce a First Aid for Mental Health Awareness course. Our human resources team began rolling out this half-day course towards the end of 2019. With the onset of COVID-19, the need to bolster the wellbeing of our people – from key workers to those on furlough, working at home or sheltering – was never greater. We quickly reconfigured the course for delivery online, adding an extra section on emotional resilience. The move online also allowed us to accelerate the roll-out of the training and a wider programme of wellbeing support.

Supporting mental health is now at the heart of a holistic approach to employee wellbeing. Our ongoing Wellness for All webinars – which ran weekly through 2020 – tackle a wide range of topics. Many are closely entwined with mental wellness, such as anxiety, exercise, sleep, meditation and yoga.

 

We also enhanced our WeCare employee health and wellbeing support service, which includes 24/7 advice and counselling, and developed a bank of literature and guidance on wellbeing.

In 2021, we appointed a dedicated Wellbeing and Inclusion Manager. The supportive culture we are nurturing embraces minorities – ethnic, LGBTQIA+, disabled or neurologically divergent.

 

Frontline staff can be harder to reach. The Certified Professional Competence (CPC) course for drivers, which we developed with our training partner, is the first to cover wellbeing and mental health. Wellbeing is also addressed in ‘toolbox talks’, and we recruited volunteer regional ambassadors for wellbeing and inclusion.

• By the end of 2021, the First Aid for Mental Health Awareness course had been completed by over 500 of our people.
• More than 80% of employees in a company-wide survey felt that the wellbeing support programme had been beneficial to them.
• Wellness for All webinars continue to be well attended, and they can be watched on demand by employees and family members.

 

Wellbeing roadshows at sites across the country are the next stage as we embed mental alongside physical health in policy and practice, with the help of our re-named health, safety and wellbeing reps.