How Dune London are making mental health a priority in their workplace

 

“Several years ago, when we decided to look for a new charity partner, we asked our teams which charity cause they would most like us to support and we received a resounding response that they wanted to work with a charity that supports mental health. We decided to work with Mental Health UK because they are the only mental health charity to work across al four nations – Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all places where we have customers, stores, and teams. 

Since forming this partnership, we’ve placed mental health as a top priority. In 2021 we launched the Wellbeing Allies programme.  These are a team of allies who have been trained by our wellbeing provider, Retail Trust.  Our ‘Allies’ are available to act as an impartial and confidential source of support, to listen to other team members and support them with anything that’s troubling them. They are equipped to help them build confidence in reaching out for help, and signposting them to professional and unbiased support.  Although Wellbeing Allies are not counsellors, nor tell team members ‘what they should do’, they are there to offer a safe space to talk through whatever they are facing, and help team members identify what support will be most useful for them, then seek it themselves.

This year, Dune London, in partnership with Retail Trust, also rolled out mental health awareness workshops for our line managers across January and February.  We recognise how important it is for our managers to have effective conversations around mental health with their teams, and the purpose of the course ‘Taking Stock of Wellbeing’ was to increase manager confidence when it comes to supporting colleagues facing specific difficulties.  The course was mandatory for all those with line manager responsibilities across all populations, Head Office, Retail and our Distribution Centre.  The workshop covered topics including ‘current themes in wellbeing in the retail sector’, ‘stress versus pressure’ and ‘how to map out a great wellbeing conversation in the workplace’. Our managers loved learning more about the area, and are finding they now have more tools to use practically on a daily basis when it comes to supporting other people. 

This year, we have also engaged our staff by encouraging organisation-wide fundraising activities, to raise awareness about poor mental health and also funds for Mental Health UK. We organised a multi-site skydive where 16 of our team members took part across 3 locations.  In September, our customer service team also climbed Mount Snowdon for the Charity, raising additional funds to support the charity. We’ve now submitted over 500 donations since the start of our partnership, and hope that continuing to raise the profile of our partnership with Mental Health UK internally to colleagues will empower them to learn more about mental health and feel they are supported in the workplace by the organisation. We’re excited to continue partnership which such a fantastic charity and look forward to what more there is to learn, helping and empowering our staff to grow their knowledge and support base surrounding mental health.”