GUEST BLOG - IMPROVING WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE
At 300 North we always aim to be mindful about mental health and wellbeing for our team and the wider community that we interact with. This is our second guest blog from Mindful Employer who we work with to ensure we are implementing best practice and staying up to date with advice.
Thank you to Martha Clowes, Mindful Employer Coordinator at WorkPlace Leeds for sharing the New Guide for Employers: Mindwell at Work. This shows the work that is being done in the Leeds region and may help others in different regions to identify how they can also provide support.
Mindful Employer Leeds has been thrilled to work with MindWell, the mental health website for people in Leeds, to create a new online guide which will support employers to improve staff wellbeing in the workplace.
MIndWell is funded by the NHS in Leeds and co-produced by staff based at MHabitat and Forum Central. It brings together information from the NHS in Leeds, Leeds City Council and the third sector into one single 'go-to' place, offering up-to-date information about support and services and a wealth of self-help information for common problems like stress and anxiety.
MindWell’s new guide is an open online resource for all employers, people managers and HR professionals in Leeds that addresses the worries we know local employers are experiencing about supporting colleagues experiencing mental health difficulties.
Mindful Employer Leeds works with local employers to provide guidance on creating mentally healthy workplaces. We engage with our local network of 400 employers through one-to-ones, workshops and network events to share good practice about how to support colleagues. These conversations have raised some of the key concerns employers are experiencing such as how to provide the right training for managers, having appropriate conversations with staff they are concerned about and putting adequate support in place. It’s hard to know what your exact responsibilities are as an employer and this new resource will act as a crucial guide. It is fulfilling a real need and will give employers the confidence to make positive changes in their organisation.
MindWell and Mindful Employer Leeds worked with and consulted local employers when developing this resource to ensure it addresses real concerns that employers are experiencing. The research with employers created the framework of the guide which focuses on the following topics:
• Improving staff wellbeing in our workplaces
• Identifying training needs within your organisation
• What your responsibilities are as an employer
• Mental health and the Equality Act
• How to support a team member you are concerned about
• Appropriate support for a colleague experiencing a mental health crisis
• How to support someone to return to work
The information in this guide will allow employers to begin to work proactively to support staff, rather than relying on a reactive approach. It will also widen and increase understanding that the impact of life events such as bereavement and divorce have on an individual’s mental health, and how as an organisation you can support people experiencing these events.
Recent reports on mental health in the workplace show that three out of five employees have experienced mental health issues due to work or where work was a related factor (BITC Mental Health at Work Report, 2018) and that poor mental health costs employers in the UK between £33 billion and £42 billion a year (Thriving at Work Report, 2017). Therefore, it has never been more important for employers in Leeds to work to create healthy, happy and well supported workforces.
The new online guide for employers is a great resource which will give organisations the confidence to make sustainable and positive changes in their workplace to support staff mental health and wellbeing.
This resource was launched in Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 (13th-19th May) and can be accessed here.
