Workplace mental health initiatives

Costs for care and loss of productivity caused by mental health illnesses are now believed to be over £100bn. We have listed some of these initiatives, which are a great starting point if you are looking to invest in and improve mental health at your business.

Mental health materials and messages

Posters, flyers, brochures and online resources can all help to share the message about how to improve mental health and could provide a talking point to open dialogue.

Materials about mental health, mental illnesses, trauma, suicide prevention and healthy living can all be useful to your team and are easy to distribute in social areas, noticeboards and emails.

Confidential communications

Allowing people at your business to feel comfortable talking about mental health is vital in helping to break the stigma of talking about mental health.

Offer confidential mental health discussions and signpost telephone helplines so that your team has the option to talk to people about any mental health concerns that they may have.

Mental health training

Even though the stigma behind mental health is being broken down, many people still don’t understand mental health illnesses and how they can affect people. This is why it is so important to provide training to help people understand mental health.

Health professionals can come to your business to offer presentations on mental health with topics such as:

• The different types of mental health illnesses
• Prevention, treatment and recovery
• Stress reduction
• Managing a mental health illness in the workplace
• Helping others with their mental health.

You should also provide training for leaders around your business to recognise the signs of mental health illness and how it can affect performance in your team.

Flexible scheduling

Yoga, meditation, self-help groups and exercise are all important when it comes to looking after mental health, but can be something that is difficult for people to fit into their work-life balance.

By allowing time before and after work for your team to take part in sessions like this, you will be helping their mental wellbeing. If scheduling allows, you could allow members of your team to take part in these activities during work time. This may be something your local leisure centre/gym could help with.

Implement mental health policies in your business

Your workplace should be a supportive environment for people who may be struggling with mental illnesses. Support your team in every step of their journey, from diagnoses and treatment to recovery and reintegration into work.

Create policies and practices for your business to show that you are taking mental health seriously and that guide team leaders and managers on how to deal with mental health when it comes to performance.

You should also take this opportunity to review confidentiality policies to update sections on confidentiality, return to work and up to date UK regulations to be reflective of good mental health practices.

If necessary, review your whole company environment to ensure that workloads aren’t causing stress, issues are dealt with sensitively and performance reviews can help your team know what is expected of them.

Work with mental health charities

Most mental health charities will be happy to give you the resources that you need to make your business better equipped to manage mental health illnesses.

You could also develop a relationship with a mental health charity by beginning a charity partnership, to support them for a period of time.

Premierline’s parent company, Allianz UK, started a charity partnership with mental health charity, Mind, in February 2019. All of the businesses under Allianz UK, Including Premierline, LV and PetPlan, have the target of raising £1 million for Mind.

As of October 2020, the businesses in Allianz UK have raised over £570,000 for Mind.