About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Guides and advice, Opinion, PR in the press

Mental Health Awareness Week: how small changes can make a big difference in the workplace

This week (13th-19th May) is Mental Health Awareness Week, hosted by the Mental Health Foundation. Every year, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem, and while we’re becoming better at talking about it as a society, knowing how to cope, where to turn, or how to help somebody who is struggling isn’t always common knowledge.

We spend a lot of our time at work, so mental health conditions and struggles will naturally come into the workplace environment. In the PR and communications industry alone, 60% of practitioners have suffered from mental ill health, according to the PRCA and PRWeek Mental Health Survey 2019. Employers have a duty of care to their employees, and mental and health and wellbeing plays a huge role in this. Not only is it in employers’ best interests to maintain corporate-social responsibility but introducing measures to improve employee wellbeing can improve staff retention, reduce sickness absence and presenteeism, and boost staff morale, engagement and performance.

There are lots of incredible initiatives and inspiring ideas being shared between businesses this week, but you don’t necessarily need a big budget to make a big difference to your workplace. Here are just a few ideas;

  1. Offer flexibility

Offering flexible working hours and allowing employees to work from home can make a big difference. We know all too well that life isn’t always straight-forward and can throw unexpected curveballs at us! Being understanding and offering this flexibility can help your employees to juggle their work and personal lives and manage these curveballs a little easier.

  1. Healthy body, healthy mind

There’s a strong and well-proven link between physical and mental health and many employers find that encouraging exercise helps improve team performance. Some organisations offer on-site yoga or mindfulness sessions for staff to help focus and reduce stress levels, while others have been known to subsidise employee gym memberships or classes. However, encouraging your employees to get active doesn’t necessarily require a large budget or many resources. You could consider introducing a ‘no desk lunch’ policy to make sure staff take time away from their work and screens during their break. Instead you could suggest they get the team together to go out for a walk or perhaps even do a walking meeting or brainstorm. You might be surprised how the different approach and environment can spark creativity!

However, an active lifestyle should be complimented with a healthy diet. Make sure your employees have access to healthy food. At Skout we have a water cooler, fruit bowl and grazing table, which all go down well! You could even try introducing a regular healthy ‘potluck lunch’, where everyone makes or brings in something healthy to share. Not only is this a great way to encourage a healthy diet, but it also provides another opportunity for the team to interact and bond.

  1. Take Two policy

Some businesses operate with a Take Two policy, where everyone is encouraged to take two hours a week away from their desks to do something fun or relaxing. In the grand scheme of things, two hours isn’t detrimental to work targets and can make a big difference to staff morale and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

  1. Learning and development

As human beings, it’s in our nature to want to learn and to continue building on our knowledge, which is why this makes up one of the ‘Five ways to mental wellbeing’. Make sure you ask your employees at appraisals and regular line management meetings if there’s any skills they’d like to be able to learn that the business could support them with. Not only are you giving the opportunity to develop themselves, but also to introduce new skills and specialisms to the business.

  1. Provide the right support and information

Make sure your employees know where to turn and who they can talk to if they’re struggling or are worried about a colleague, whether it be your HR function or another colleague who has been trained as a mental health first aider. If those resources don’t exist within your organisation, make sure your team know how to access external support. It’s important to also bear in mind that employees may not always feel like they can talk to somebody at work, so signposting to external resources is always a good step to take.

How is your organisation marketing Mental Health Awareness Week 2019? We’d love to hear about your ideas and initiatives in the comments below!

 

Links to further information and resources:

About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Guides and advice, Opinion, PR in the press

B2B thought leadership PR – everything you need to know

Meet Skout’s new owners!

Browse more blog posts

Posted on
byRob Skinner
In B2B PR, thought leadership is one of those concepts that gets spoken about all the time. But do you actually know what thought leadership is? And do you have the right tools and skills in place to make it work effectively for you? In this post we aim to clarify what B2B thought leadership can do and help you gain greater benefit from it.
Posted on
bySkout team
If you haven’t heard by now, Skout is under new ownership! No, we haven’t been bought out – in fact it’s quite the opposite. As of last week, Skout officially became an employee-owned business. This was achieved by the founding shareholders, Rob and Claire, signing 100% ownership over to a newly established Employee Ownership Trust acting on behalf of the...
Posted on
byClaire Lamb
A few weeks ago, the entire Skout team visited the beautiful and historic city of Palma, Majorca for our annual kick off event. It’s been a long time in the planning (pre-pandemic to be precise) and the first time we’ve been abroad for a kick off to the new financial year. We’ve always found kick off meetings a great way...
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
TikTok is increasingly being used as a platform for B2B companies to implement their marketing strategy, aiding in brand exposure, lead generation and profile building. But, where does paid TikTok advertising come into play? Is it an effective tool to engage with B2B audiences, or is the ROI just not worth it?  If you’re the least bit social media savvy,...
Posted on
byClaire James
In May I was fortunate to be able to attend the recent UK Construction Week at Excel in London and see the strides forward an industry, that has become recognised as one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, is making in tackling the thorny issue of achieving Net Zero. In his keynote on day one, Lord Callanan, Under Secretary...
Posted on
byJames Weaver
In the world of B2B marketing, it is essential that you have a solid B2B marketing strategy in place to effectively connect with your target audience.
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
Why was PR your chosen career?  PR is all about storytelling, with so much opportunity for creativity and content creation. Since I’ve always loved writing and always had a big imagination, I thought that PR would be the ideal career to channel my creativity. I’m all about communication, and PR really allows you to foster meaningful relationships. I’m already learning...
Posted on
byJack Doyle
As a smaller business, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to sustainability. Sure, we all do our best to use the right recycling bin at home, and bring our re-usable coffee cups to work. But with serious pressures now mounting from the government – which pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 –...
Posted on
byLee Simpson
Another week, another round of mass layoffs in the tech sector. With Amazon (AWS) and Meta cutting thousands of jobs, and further layoffs at Salesforce and of course Twitter, it has felt a bit like the tech world has been imploding of late. This is of course concerning for us working in B2B tech PR, but more importantly for the...
Posted on
byJack Doyle
2023 is off to a strong start here at Skout.  Our business has continued to grow with the addition of some exciting new clients. With new clients, has come new hires, who we’ve also been excited to welcome on board the team. And if our recent win for Best Marketing and PR Consultancy at the PR Brilliance Awards is anything...

Send us a message

Download The B2B business relationship report

The B2B relationship renaissance – did digital kill it? The importance of relationships throughout the customer buying journey. Please complete the form below and receive a download link via email.