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Support your people's wellbeing
Businesses know that there is more to health than physical. Find out how your business can go further to support the mental and financial wellbeing of your people.
Use these resources pages to progress your business’ health and wellbeing offer across each of the CBI’s Work Health Index chapters; Work, Live, Move & Thrive. Discover case studies, additional resources and actions you can take.
Supporting the mental and financial wellbeing of employees has increasingly come into focus for businesses. In part due to the pandemic and now with the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis. Employees across the nation are facing mental health challenges and looking to their employers for support to help them stay well in work. The Seize the Moment report also identified mental health as one of the top three risks to individual health risks. Businesses taking preventative action has the potential to reduce the disease burden in the UK working population by 10-20%, with 25% of that reduction relating to mental health. The business case for supporting mental health in particular is clear – for every £1 spent you get £5 on returns due to reduced presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover.
Discover the stories from other firms on their workforce health journey, explore targeted actions to take the next steps, and make use of readily available resources to support your business take a proactive approach to mental health, and embed the importance of financial wellbeing as well as wider wellbeing activities.
1. Be proactive on mental health
On average, for every £1 spent on supporting their people’s mental health, employers get £5 back on their investment in reduced presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover.
Actions you can take
- Access Mental Health at Work, curated by Mind, and supported by the Mental Health At Work Leadership Council, for tools, resources, and stories which helps proactively ensure work design and organisational culture drive positive mental health outcomes
- Conduct regular employee surveys to gauge the wellbeing of employees, address concerns and act on results
- Provide employees with resources to support mental and physical wellbeing.
Case study: Barnett Waddingham
Barnett Waddingham is an independent professional services consultancy at the forefront of risk, pensions, investment and insurance with over 1,300 employees across eight offices in the UK.
Following a series of employee pulse surveys over an eight-week period that asked questions around mental, physical and financial wellbeing to understand the level of support employees felt was being provided to them, and how they found the quality and level of communication, Barnett Waddingham identified employee concerns around mental health and the impact of COVID-19 on employees’ families.
Case study: Dentons
Dentons is the world's largest law firm, with over 12,000 lawyers and professionals in more than 200 locations worldwide. Ending the stigma around mental health issues is hugely important to Dentons' workplace culture of openness, listening to their people and making wellbeing a priority. This was the case before the pandemic hit, and when it did, Dentons responded by further increasing the support available to their employees. Dentons created a Wellbeing Hub with resources to support mental and physical wellbeing, including mindfulness taster sessions. And most recently, Dentons has partnered with industry experts MYNDUP to offer free and confidential 1:1 live video sessions on wellbeing topics including therapy, life coaching and meditation.
Dentons' mental health and wellbeing programme, My Healthy Balance, focuses on early identification of mental health challenges, which can be managed before people reach crisis point. The firm has an in-house counsellor and 18 fully trained Mental Health First Aiders across UK offices, readily accessible to all employees. During the pandemic it was important for Dentons to have open conversations and to be there for people who might be struggling so they delivered drop-in sessions led by Mental Health First Aiders. Dentons participate in panel and speaker events on relevant topics that coincide with key dates in the year, such as Time to Talk Day, with a partner speaking about their own mental health challenges, reinforcing the message that "it's ok not to be ok". Dentons launched a wellbeing survey to help the firm understand what was and wasn’t working well. Following the results, Dentons is working with teams to discuss key themes and practical steps to move the wellbeing agenda forward. And positively, Dentons has seen a marked increase in open conversations taking place on mental health subjects throughout the firm.
Case study: Panasonic
Panasonic's senior management team selects colleagues at random for a weekly wellbeing call to support mental health.
Panasonic is a global company that provides consumer, automotive, industrial and lifestyle solutions and products. When the firm closed its offices for the first national lockdown, they decided to continue with a holistic approach to support its employees’ mental health and wellbeing. This included physical, mental, financial wellbeing and responding to working from home challenges. It was important for the business to create a feeling of openness and honesty and a culture of approachability. A decision was taken by the senior management team to call a number of colleagues each week at random to discuss how they were feeling. The feedback from staff was that this action sent out a positive and caring message. Furthermore, an action that was most appreciated by Panasonic’s employees was the creation of an in-house magazine that was emailed out on a regular basis. It contained wellness tips and fun competitions for employees to take part in, but also good news stories from around the business and the press to counter the challenging news of the pandemic that people found difficult to take in. For the magazine, the firm asked employees to share their personal stories and images as to how they were supporting their mental health. The business has also continued to provide webinars to help people with personal finances such as pensions and budgeting.
Case study: Portakabin
Portakabin introduces wellbeing app to enable employees to take control of their individual mental health and wellbeing needs.
Portakabin is the UK’s market leader in the manufacture and construction of modular buildings. Before the pandemic the company focused on equipping colleagues with knowledge, skills and support on how to manage their own mental health and wellbeing – a topic that Portakabin had not tackled head on before. The goal was to make people feel supported and encourage them to have open and honest wellbeing discussions with their colleagues and managers.
In 2019 Portakabin signed the Time to Change Employer Pledge. This action also saw increased internal communications and engagement to raise awareness and provide information on mental health and wellbeing such as courses, videos and online resources. Topics covered included remote working and wellbeing, the importance of looking after your own mental health and how to seek help. The company also introduced Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs) to the business, training 50 to date. Due to the importance of the role and its impact, Portakabin is now recruiting additional MHFAs and has launched refresher training with existing MHFAs.
Portakabin has also signed up to wellbeing app, Everymind at Work, to provide information and support on a range of wellbeing related topics to its colleagues in the UK and Ireland. Everymind at Work enables users to customise the content and tools they see on the topic of mental health and wellbeing – by asking questions once signed up. Access to resources is anonymous, removing the fear of stigma. Portakabin has also run cancer awareness and other awareness raising campaigns, such as Mental Health Awareness Week and Time to Talk Day, which have been positively received.
In its latest employee engagement survey run during the pandemic, over two thirds of employees agreed they had been able to access support to maintain their health and wellbeing and over three quarters agreed their manager cared about their wellbeing.
Case study: Channel 4
On World Menopause Day 2019, Channel 4 launched its first ever dedicated menopause policy – the first known among UK media companies.
Studies show that menopause can affect women’s confidence, ambition and progression – but these issues are seldom talked about. Channel 4 wanted to end the stigma around menopause by:
- Encouraging greater understanding among employees
- Facilitating a more open working environment through conversations that normalised the subject and made it more visible.
In doing so, the broadcaster’s ambition was to prompt the wider media industry to consider how it could better support women in their workplaces – and Channel 4 has delivered on this.
The change
Channel 4’s menopause policy is designed to support employees experiencing menopausal symptoms, whilst providing guidance to colleagues and line managers on how they can assist colleagues transitioning through it.
The policy includes:
- Access to flexible working arrangements
- Paid leave if unwell due to menopause symptoms
- A private, cool and quiet space
- A working environment assessment to ensure their physical workspace is not making their symptoms worse
- An array of support and guidance resources.
As well as introducing menopause awareness briefings for its leadership teams, Channel 4:
- Created a dedicated ‘Menopause Champion’ within HR
- Its Employee Resource Group, 4Womxn, created a WhatsApp group for menopausal women to share experiences and come together to support one another
- To prompt a conversation, 4Womxn also created an internal film with a range of staff from all levels that illustrated the lack of awareness on the subject
- Hosted a panel discussion, ‘The M-Word’, which aimed to demystify the menopause, debunk misconceptions and explore what organisations like Channel 4 can do to better support menopausal women.
The impact
To widen the policy’s impact, Channel 4 made it freely available on its website – and, to date, it has been downloaded by over 3,400 people around the world. 4Womxn worked with the communications team to promote its work and learnings via talks, podcasts and through extensive global media coverage. As a result, they have advised countless companies from a wide range of sectors on supporting menopausal women in their workplaces.
One of the biggest achievements was to make the word ‘menopause’ one that you hear at work. Previously, women often just said said they were sick or simply unavailable if they felt that they couldn’t work. This policy has given women at Channel 4 the confidence to talk openly with their managers about menopause, discussing their side effects and agreeing suitable workplace adjustments. The awareness sessions also enabled some staff to understand the impact of menopause on partners, helping them to better address challenges at home and improve their overall wellbeing.
What next?
Channel 4 has continued to build on this work and the learnings it provided, including through a new dedicated pregnancy loss policy. This policy supports employees through all forms of pregnancy loss including, but not limited to, miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion. The policy supports both women and men who have been affected: whether it happens directly to them, their partner or their baby’s surrogate mother, regardless of the nature of their loss, and whatever their length of service.
Case study: Belzona Polymerics Ltd
Belzona Polymerics is a manufacturing SME of 150 employees, we are based in North Yorkshire, and have historically provided health-related benefits to all employees. This included private health cover, permanent health insurance, life assurance, Occupational Health Physician, Cycle to Work scheme, MHFA on site, to name a few.
The challenge
In autumn 2019, our HR Department noted they were spending considerable time advising employees, on both health and other matters and so we decided to introduce an Employee Assistance Programme.
The solution
Belzona wanted a provider that was an EAP specialist, with a website that offered programmes and blogs, and ideally a wellbeing app. We also wanted to make sure that any time an employee used the service, their calls would be answered by trained counsellors, not a call centre.
Once a partner was selected, the scheme was launched internally by email, and through permanent posters in communal areas, digital signage, contact cards and in new starter packs.
The results
First management statistics for the period October 2019 – June 2020 showed a usage of five calls and fifteen online hits. The full year report, for the period July 2020 to June 2021, showed that usage had more than doubled from 4.19% to 13.10%in 2020 (full year comparison for 2019/20 would have been 5.58%). In 2020/21 there were a total of nineteen calls and seventy-five online hits. This increased usage could have been a result of COVID-19. For Belzona the EAP has always been seen as an investment in employee wellbeing. The return on the investment was the utilisation of the service.
The service is also available to employees’ partners and children between the ages of 16-24. Though the service is anonymous, our HR team has received direct feedback from users who were particularly impressed that they could talk directly to a counsellor even at the weekend. First the counsellor took some initial details of the assistance required, then the employee was matched with a counsellor who made contact within five working days by text or phone – unless they could provide an instant answer (i.e., for a simple legal enquiry). Each employee could then have up to eight counselling sessions, either virtual or face-to-face.
Conclusion
Overall, at Belzona we feel this initiative has been a great success, giving employees a 24/7 365 days a year helpline. Our HR team frequently reiterates to employees that they are never alone, there is always someone they can talk to, particularly outside working hours.
2. Don’t forget about financial wellbeing
Lack of knowledge and understanding around personal financial management has been identified as a factor impacting health and wellbeing.
In 2018, the CIPD’s Good Work Index found that almost half of UK workers (47%) experienced financial difficulties to some degree, and one in six (16%) were constantly struggling or even falling behind with bills.
Financial literacy, as it is referred to here, speaks to an ability to understand and use various financial skills, including:
- Personal financial management
- Budgeting
- Investing.
Financial literacy has also been linked to a wider range of wellbeing outcomes, particularly those associated with financial wellness and retirement preparedness. Low levels of financial literacy may be associated with poor health-related financial behaviour. Research also shows that financial worries impacts health outcomes particularly mental health. It can even impact the production of hormones like cortisol which is linked to dealing with stress. Financial distress can also influence performance, productivity and absenteeism.
Actions you can take
- Host financial wellbeing webinars
- Facilitate conversations with employees on financial wellbeing
- Provide resources and benefits to help employees address financial wellbeing.
Case study: Close Brothers
Close Brothers provides financial education, advice and investment services to UK organisations to help improve their employees’ financial wellbeing. They work with employers to design and deliver financial education programmes such as seminars, webinars and online education, together with access to financial advice and investments to support employees with planning and improving their finances. Never has the importance of good financial education been illustrated as clearly as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even for employees who kept their jobs, 2020 was a stressful and uncertain period due to money worries affecting their physical and mental health. Research conducted by Close Brothers backs this up, showing that two in five workers (40%) have experienced increased financial anxiety in the wake of the pandemic, rising to 43% amongst women, clearly making the case for financial wellbeing in the workplace a clear win/win.
Launching financial wellbeing during a global pandemic
In recognition of their ambition to strengthen their financial wellbeing pillar to better support and improve their overall wellbeing strategy, a large FTSE 100 company wanted to educate their 2,500 UK employees to support their financial health. But due to lockdown, the programme had to launch entirely virtually.
Working with Close Brothers, the FTSE created a bespoke digital communications toolkit to raise awareness. This included an online financial wellbeing hub that hosted a suite of information and tools on financial topics such as:
- Protection against financial abuse
- Budgeting and debt
- Pensions
- Retirement, tax and savings.
Employees could also access an annual calendar of virtual events, view a variety of informative videos and contact a dedicated helpline for further 1-2-1 guidance.
The results
Within the first week of launch, 59% of their workforce had visited the wellbeing hub, and 55% had booked onto financial wellbeing events. And 3 months after the launch 73% of people felt more confident to act to improve their financial health – up from 57% prior.
Case study: Hays
The challenge
Financial wellbeing has been slowly creeping up the list of priorities within employee wellbeing. Hays wanted to make sure that, in addition to showcasing financial benefits, there was also a plan to help relieve any stress caused by financial worries regardless of a person’s financial situation.
The journey
Hays started by making sure that all financial benefits were in one place, clearly laid out and easily accessible on the company intranet. An icon was embedded on the desktops of all staff, taking them straight to this support centre. Despite making these changes, Hays realised that actually the gap it had was more in basic financial education. To address this challenge, the business launch a series of live financial wellbeing webinars with an external expert FinWELL.
The outcome
The engagement and feedback from staff on the financial wellbeing webinars conducted by FinWELL was positive.
In addition to these webinars, Hays also began a pilot offering one-to-one financial wellbeing coaching. At the outset of a one-to-one session, employees completed a simple self-rating set of questions giving them a financial wellbeing score. Employees were then able to attend a financial wellbeing one-to-one. These one-to-ones offered staff the opportunity to speak confidentially to an external financial wellbeing coach (also through FinWELL).
Following a one-to-one session, employees were then offered a tailored action plan. This meant that regardless of individual financial situations, all employees could take very personalised steps to improve their financial wellbeing. These tailored action plans included accessing existing Hays benefits, professional financial advice, or external signposting to trusted resources.
Upon completion of this pilot Hays received anonymised aggregated data demonstrating a tangible improvement in employees financial wellbeing scores.
The learnings
Aside from the feedback data which demonstrated a tangible improvement in financial wellbeing, the anecdotal feedback from employees was extremely positive. Employees especially liked the opportunity to talk about their unique situation with a very approachable, empathetic expert in a confidential setting.
As a result of this pilot, Hays has not only seen an improvement in financial wellbeing but it has also seen stress reduction and raised employee confidence in maintaining financial wellbeing moving forward. Hays plans to extend the pilot and continue to build on its partnership with FinWELL.
Case study: pirkx
pirkx creates a platform to provide affordable health and wellbeing benefits to all workers.
pirkx is a platform designed to deliver affordable health and wellbeing benefits to the contingent workforce - contractors, the gig economy - and employees of SME businesses. Historically only employees in large companies had access to affordable health and wellbeing benefits. Everything that existed in the market (core physical and mental health services) was either expensive, hard to access or couldn’t be used for a team of self-employed people. Driven by the experience of its founders, pirkx set out to find a solution.
The platform pirkx created has no complex onboarding processes. When people are on the platform or app, they have access to the full range of benefits, which currently include a 24/7 online GP, 24/7 dedicated counselling and mental health advice, access to an interactive app to improve mental health resilience, virtual gym classes, discounted gym memberships, discounted health insurances, money advice, credit score advice and debt help. Self-employed people can sign up and pay for themselves, business owners can sign up and invite their team for an affordable price. pirkx also offers complete flexibility, so people can pay monthly, quarterly or annually and cancel at any time in line with the chosen subscription period.
COVID-19 has highlighted the need for all elements of the UK workforce to be supported from a physical and mental health perspective. And it is particularly important that in an evolving world of work businesses keep up with these changes and provide relevant support to their teams.
3. Support the commnunity
Employees can be encouraged to engage with the local community and support community activities through specified days in contracts allocated for time spent volunteering. This is just one of the ways that companies can support their employees, at all levels, to undertake charitable or purpose-driven work that help to combat the social causes of ill-health and health inequalities.
Research has found that participation in voluntary services can be a predicter of better mental and physical health, life satisfaction, self-esteem and happiness.
Actions you can take
- Develop employee-led networks
- Create volunteer roles in your organisation such as ‘wellbeing ambassador’
- Offer volunteering leave days to employees.
Case study: Thirteen
Thirteen works with its mental health advocates to reach every employee in the business for a wellbeing call.
Thirteen is a social housing landlord and housing developer, managing 34,000 properties from Northumberland to North Yorkshire. From the beginning of the pandemic the organisation wanted to make sure that all employees were supported with the new challenges they faced – from home schooling to social isolation. They also wanted to ensure that people had the opportunity to talk to someone other than their line manager and raise any concerns they had.
Before COVID-19, Thirteen had a well-developed network of trained mental health advocates who were raising awareness about mental health and signposting colleagues to support. During the pandemic, several advocates pledged to make a wellbeing call to all 1,500 colleagues to see how they were doing. The wellbeing call was repeated a second time, targeted to a smaller number of ‘identified in need’ colleagues. Many employees were very grateful; it showed that people cared about each other and reached out to someone they didn’t really know, giving advice where needed.
Line managers, already trained on mental health questions, were using wellness action plans and the mental health continuum, a tool produced by Our Mind’s Work and works like a traffic light system, to facilitate conversations about mental health and to spot warning signs. Senior leadership has continuously worked with line managers to ensure that they encourage their teams to work flexibly, where they can, take more frequent breaks, get out to exercise and look after their own wellbeing.
Thirteen’s most recent employee engagement survey had some encouraging results. When asked if colleagues were feeling mentally well and maintaining a healthy work life balance, the score was seven out of 10. When asked if colleagues knew about actions to take to help them stay mentally well and asked if they are having meaningful check ins with their manager, the scores were eight point two.
Case study: Hays
The challenge
Prior to 2019 the focus at Hays on employee wellbeing had been inconsistent and sporadic. Whilst important awareness days were regularly celebrated, outside of that the employee wellbeing experience significantly. Hays recognised the need to find a way to keep employee wellbeing at the forefront of everyone’s mind every day and ensure a minimum level of emphasis on wellbeing across each region.
The journey
To meet this need, Hays set up a ‘wellbeing ambassador’ network to keep wellbeing firmly on the agenda. Each geographical region had a self-nominated lead and set about ‘recruiting’ a team of ambassadors who were passionate about wellbeing. In total a team of 150 ambassadors across the UK and Ireland was built.
The outcome
Hays ran monthly national ambassador meetings with a loose agenda to:
- Share any challenges being faced on employee wellbeing, and
- Share ideas and suggestions on how employee wellbeing could be kept on the agenda. And the business agreed a wellbeing calendar, aligned to national awareness days, that also looked at broader themes relating to wellbeing, this led to the creation of a monthly newsletter.
The newsletter incorporated some education on chosen topics, and effective signposting to relavent resources on that topic. This included both internal Hays resources (online learning, relevant content on the Employee Assistance Programme etc.) and external content (TED talks, podcasts, websites). Where possible a live webinar was also delivered by a subject matter expert.
The national ambassador meetings, wellbeing calender and newsletter now form the baseline of what each region can expect in order to keep wellbeing on the agenda. Hays has also recognised that personalisation is another key consideration. So, each region can adapt their newsletter and plan for that month to ensure that it is most relevant to respective teams.
The learnings
Initially enthusiasm was high, ambassadors were super keen and the response from employees was really positive. Over time engagement levels fluctuated and sustaining enthusiasm for the cause of keeping wellbeing on the agenda has proved challenging. This is in part because everyone who volunteered was doing this in addition to their day job.
As a result:
- Hays has relaunched the network and ambassadors are now known as HUMAN champions (Healthier, Unique, Motivated, Mentally Aware and Nurtured)
- A clear vision for the network and job specifications have been produced to ensure expectations are outlined
- Approval is sought from line managers to ensure HUMAN champions have permission to spend time supporting the goals of the network. This includes managers reviewing, as part annual appraisals, wellbeing related achievements
- Opportunities for HUMAN champions to upskill themselves in relation to wellbeing (by a range of methods) is now included.
Hays knows that sustaining positive wellbeing is unique to each and every one of us and it’s unrealistic to expect consistently high levels of engagement in every webinar, initiative or intervention we roll out. But the one thing the business can be sure of is the HUMAN champion network absolutely keeps wellbeing on the agenda every single day, week, and month.
Case study: HSBC
Mindfulness at HSBC began in 2011 as an employee-led network providing access to safe, high quality & sustainable mindfulness resources to all interested staff, regardless of work area, grade, background etc. To meet ongoing demand, the network became an Executive sponsored programme in 2017 formalising three main categories of Mindfulness Based Offerings (MBO’s):
Mindfulness awareness based sessions
These are led by the mindfulness ‘Champions’ in the business to offer help to employees and teams to understand mindfulness and how it can help nurture their brains and help them to achieve their full potential.
This includes:
- Introductory tasters
- Workshops
- Townhalls
- Diversity & Inclusion events.
Mindfulness practice-based sessions
This includes:
- Live, guided sessions
- Recordings in six different languages
- Apps for personal self-practise
- Community-based sessions
- Mentoring and buddying for our champions to rehearse.
Education courses and resources on mindfulness
This includes:
- Foundation courses – a six module course that introduces core concepts of the science of mindfulness in workplace and experiential learning to practice techniques
- Mindfulness at Work Champion (M@WC) training
- Bespoke business programmes e.g. a sprint based programme aimed at senior leaders addressing specific development habits
- Mindful Bites
The impact so far
To date the mensurable Impact from the approach has been impressive. Headline figures since 2018 are:
- Over 2,500 courses, awareness and practise sessions delivered to more than 25,000 colleagues
- 1000’s of positive testimonials and feedback for the Mindfulness Based Offerings
- Global sponsorship has enabled expansion to 33 markets and six languages
- Around 45% cost savings and ability to scale responsively with high quality
- Colleagues who complete the programmes courses report a consistent c.30% increase in stress resilience and increases in flourishing, growth mindset and engagement.
Grass-roots and champion-led
To help foster a practising community that can scale sustainably across HSBC, a ‘champion-led’ model was first piloted in 2017.
The Mindfulness at Work Champions model (M@WC) has three training levels, under-pinned by a six-week Mindfulness Foundations course.
The training levels are:
- Facilitator – to guide mindfulness sessions and deliver talks and intros by request
- Leader – to deliver the Foundations course to colleagues as well as mentoring new Champions
- Principal – to deliver all levels of Champions training and serve as a mentor, and consultants for innovations.
Change through community practice
The creation and management of Inclusive, Collaborative and Connected communities is the central success of the HSBC approach. Specifically, this community draws on the insight that lasting change only ever occurs with repeated and supported practice.
Feedback from members of the Mindfulness Community drives the approach. Different parts of the business, for example, have distinct internal working environments and needs, and so the content and delivery style of HSBC’s mindfulness programmes may need to be adapted and new approaches tested.
Authentic, agile and cost-effective
The community model also ensures quality and depth in the way mindfulness is shared and taught in order to avoid dilution. All employees can participate in the mindfulness programme at the level they choose, alongside their full-time job, supported by a small central function that provides co-ordination, Champion support and consultancy.
Innovate; test, learn, adapt
To avoid risks surrounding Mindfulness in the workplace, Ethics and Value underpin the programme strategy and new Mindfulness Based Offerings are tested via an ‘Innovation’ pillar, which assesses against the following criteria to hold the programme accountable to its core principles:
- Impact driven: Evidence-informed, outcome focussed
- Sustainable: scalable, cost effective, durable, quality assured
- Inclusive: Scalable, secular, adaptable
- Coherent: consistent, logical, embedded solutions
- Safe: Empowering, recognised, safeguarded, assured.
Best Practice and Trusted Advisor
HSBC focusses on assuring its approach to mindfulness models, and informs Industry Best practices, and has been given an award for its Innovative approaches from the UK Parliament’s Mindfulness All Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG).
It is the first organisation to have its Champion training accredited by BAMBA (British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches) and is often sought out as a trusted advisor to other companies seeking to explore mindfulness options for the workplace.
Case study: Pladis
pladis builds its mental health and wellbeing strategy from the grass root project Positive Minds and expands it across the business.
pladis is one of the world’s leading snacking companies and home to brands including McVitie’s, Ulker and Godiva.
The focus on Mental Health at pladis was a consequence of a tragic suicide of one of their colleagues in the UK due to depression. The fact that the colleagues working closely with this individual, day in and day out, were not aware of his depression was a huge awakening. A group of colleagues in pladis’ UK & Ireland business started a grass roots project Positive Minds to raise awareness for mental health and wellbeing, with the mission to create an environment for all colleagues to be open with mental health challenges and thrive. The ambassador group soon grew to a network of over 120 ambassadors, all of which had mental health first aid training to sign post those who were suffering from mental ill health. The business also signed the Time to Change pledge and committed that all line-managers would go through Mental Health training by the end of that year.
pladis took the work of the Positive Minds ambassadors forward by developing a holistic approach to mental health including physical, social and financial wellbeing. pladis’ workforce is made up of colleagues who are working remotely and a large population that are factory-based and have continued through the pandemic. Their response had to be mindful of both: for factory-based colleagues, anxiety levels were high, especially towards the beginning of the pandemic. So, the firm stressed the importance of the 24/7 Employee Assistance line, as well as Mind’s ‘Frontline Toolkit’, which has provided guidance and resources for this group.
For remote colleagues, they have provided a guide on effective remote working and advice on how to look after their mental wellbeing, by maintaining a routine, exercising regularly and keeping in regular contact with teams. They also sent out boxes of their pladis biscuits and snacks to colleagues to help them feel connected, even though they’re working remotely.
Given the widespread financial impact of the pandemic, the CEO, Salman Amin, made a Global Relief Fund available to provide financial support to any colleague worldwide that needs it which would be confidential and available to all.
Muckle LLP
The health and wellbeing of our people has been an integral part of our culture for many years and is supported from the top down. In fact, CARE, is one of our core values and influences how we look after our people, our clients and our communities. We understand that if our people have positive health and wellbeing, this impacts upon the level of engagement they have in their work and is essential if we are to deliver on our success measures of; engaged people; engaged clients; profit and growth.
Our health and wellbeing initiatives have been developed by the HR team, from a combination of sources i.e. specific feedback from surveys and campaign evaluations, direct feedback from our people as well as from HR’s general understanding of issues and priorities across the business.
We also encourage our people to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing through wellbeing awareness initiatives, our Healthy Living Week which takes place in June, employee support and joint working with employees and their line managers when needed.
A firm-wide wellbeing strategy was developed in July 2019 in order to have a more joined-up approach to wellbeing between the HR Team (Better Health at Work Advocates), BEAM and Mental Wellbeing Teams. This strategy allows us to understand what each team is doing and how we can complement each other.
As part of this strategy we agreed what we meant by optimum wellbeing and how we can support our people in all aspects of wellbeing. Our strategic goal is “to support our people to thrive both inside and outside of work by supporting the achievement of optimum wellbeing for all”:
- Mental Wellbeing – coping effectively with life’s ups and downs
- Physical Wellbeing – recognising the need for physical activity, healthy foods and sleep
- Professional Wellbeing – creating personal satisfaction and commitment from one’s work
- Financial Wellbeing – feeling satisfied with current and future financial situations
- Social Wellbeing – developing a sense of connection, belonging and a well-developed support system
We have a number of teams focussing on different areas of wellbeing across the business. We know that they do overlap and activities carried out in one area will impact positively on other areas of wellbeing. For example how physical wellbeing can also support the mental wellbeing of individuals. Our colleagues have told us that the investment we make in our wellbeing strategy is something that has attracted them to Muckle and makes them want to stay. Our wellbeing support also extends to our clients and we recently held a wellbeing café, connecting our clients to wellbeing experts in each area of our wellbeing strategy.
We continue to review our wellbeing activities and take feedback to support future activities.
Additional Resources
- Read thriving at work from the government
- Explore this index from the Health and Safety Executive on stress and mental health at work
- Find out more about Mental Health at Work from Mind, supported by the Mental Health At Work Leadership Council
- According to Deloitte poor mental health costs UK employers up to £45bn a year, see how they got there
- Check out these resources on employee financial wellbeing from the CIPD
- Use the Money & Pensions service’s support on financial wellbeing in the workplace
- Read this from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute on Money and Mental Health
- Find out how you can support the financial wellbeing of your employees and how debt can affect your people from StepChange.