Just as confining celebrations around the benefits of diversity to Pride or Black History months would be a nonsense, supporting and promoting mental good health should be at the forefront of any organisation’s agenda beyond May’s Mental Health Month.
In fact, Sequel’s recent 2022 Trends Report has highlighted that hybrid working – and indeed not being able to adopt hybrid working practices at all – have had a significant impact on employee mental and physical wellbeing, making it a significant challenge for 2022.
In our work with clients, we’ve found that many have great health and wellbeing resources available for employees if they go looking for them, but rarely are those resources or the intent to support colleagues communicated effectively, providing IC teams with a great opportunity elevate the message that ‘we care’.
When global law firm Clifford Chance recognised a need to let employees know ‘it’s OK not to be OK’, we helped them create a powerful and emotive video to support a feature in its internal magazine about mental wellbeing in the workplace. In the sensitively filmed video, and in the feature, a Senior Partner shared his own experience of mental health issues to encourage others in the Firm to ask for help or support if they need it. Needless to say, the response was extremely positive, with higher reader engagement with the mental health and wellbeing feature and video than any other story.
We’ve also worked with other clients, including healthcare provider Bupa, to develop campaigns and resources to inspire employee wellbeing. We supported them with posters, office decals, emailers and intranet banners as well as a wellbeing intranet hub, collateral for an employee wellbeing and resilience programme, and a Little Book of Energy offering advice and tips on identifying life’s stressors and making positive changes to maintain personal wellbeing.