Integrating diversity, equity, inclusion and mental health into our core values at work
Leading performance marketing agency, Merkle, is partnering with Mental Health UK this December, to bring to the fore the importance of inclusivity and support for people affected by a mental health problem. You can get insight from them below where they share their best practices for creating a mentally healthy work environment.
Merkle and our Mental Health Pillar team are so proud and excited to be partnering with and supporting Mental Health UK as the gold sponsor for the Christmas advent calendar this year.
At Merkle, our Mental Health Pillar is just one of our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) pillars, which are core to our culture, values, and ways of working.
Like Mental Health UK, we believe it should be a priority for every organisation to give people the support, tools, and resources they need to look after their own mental health and wellbeing, as well as to support and care for others.
The last 18 months have really highlighted how far kindness and empathy can go, especially in the workplace. It’s important not to assume what colleagues are going through as you never know what else they might be juggling on top of their workload.
So, in addition to training up our Mental Health First Aiders and introducing Mental Health Awareness & Skills training for our people managers, our Mental Health Pillar has been focusing recently on raising awareness across the organisation and encouraging everyone to talk about mental health – to help dismantle the shame or stigma. We have shared blogs of volunteers’ personal stories of living with depression, anxiety and alcoholism; and we have been running our Conversations About Mental Health live events, to get people talking and to challenge the cultural norm around mental health and wellbeing.
The festive season can be a time of year that often puts extra pressure on us and can affect our mental health in lots of different ways, for lots of different reasons. So, like Mental Health UK, we know that supporting people with their mental wellbeing can be especially important at this time of year. This is why our Mental Health Pillar partnered with Mental Health UK to develop resources and guidance to help people practise self-care and look after their nearest and dearest in the run-up to and during the festive period – from videos and tips to running mindfulness sessions and signposting to support resources, including our own Mental Health First Aiders and Employee Assistance Programme provider.
Whether you’re an employee, employer or an individual who wants to improve mental health support in the UK, we hope you can take inspiration from some of the initiatives we’ve been running at Merkle and follow suit.
We all have mental health. Better mental health is good for everyone and recognising this and encouraging this mindset is good for society, at all times – but especially during a global pandemic.
