Category: Workplace Mental Health

This week, we called for more awareness and understanding from employers about severe mental illness.

My role was introduced three years ago at Virgin Trains to help create a productive, efficient, and happy workforce, with a focus on sickness prevention. It was clear that many of our people were experiencing mental health issues that affected both their work and home lives. In response to this my health and wellbeing programmes moved to a more hands on approach.

ITN has been involved in mental health awareness for two years now and in that relatively short period of time we believe we have achieved a great deal. With support from the very top, from our CEO and CFO, we managed to secure a budget to implement a number of initiatives.

In October 2017 we launched our five-year mental health strategy ‘Because Healthy Minds Matter’ which further strengthens our support for the mental health of our employees. The strategy has four aims – increase the awareness of mental health conditions, decrease the stigma, signpost to tools and support and to ensure our people know where to go in a crisis.

Creating a positive working culture sounds easy doesn’t it? Have some nice furniture, good breakout areas, free tea and coffee, lots of natural light and plenty of colleagues to interact with. Simple. If only it was that simple…..it goes a lot deeper than that.

At Johnson & Johnson (J&J), we aspire to change the trajectory of health for humanity and as the world’s largest diversified healthcare company, we are committed to helping people live healthier and happier lives. This includes our employees, and our ambition is to have the healthiest workforce in the world by 2020.

Starting a new job can be daunting. Lots of new people to meet and new information to try and absorb. Kenza from the Mental Health UK corporate partnerships team gives about tips for protecting your mental health when starting a new job.

The publication of ‘Thriving at Work’ could be the start of a much-needed culture change in the workplace. We spend a lot of our time at work, and unsurprisingly our job can have a huge impact on our wellbeing and mental health.

Keeping yourself well in the workplace – using a Wellbeing Workplan