Boost your mental health through movement

By Sarah Green

Sarah Green is Zenergi’s HR Director. An experienced HR professional, Sarah brings a wealth of People experience from a wide range of sectors.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 will take place from 13 to 19 May, on the theme of “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”.

One of the most important things you can do to help protect your mental health is regular movement. Moving more can increase your energy, reduce stress and anxiety, and boost your self-esteem.

Many of us struggle to move enough, myself included, so I always make time to take my dog out for a walk. I’m fortunate enough to live close to some beautiful countryside which helps me to clear my mind and focus instead on the nature around me. As the photos show, Frankie, the naughty English Pointer cross, is also very adept at movement despite his advanced years. Especially when he is meant to be posing like a good dog for a photo!

This Mental Health Awareness Week, Zenergi will be actively promoting various mental health initiatives to help our colleagues deal with the stresses of modern-day living.

For us though, the criticality of all our wellbeing is not lost throughout the rest of the year.

We offer all of our teams access to an intranet hosting a range of useful resources. Our common intranet provides everyone with a sense of purpose, clear communication and direction as well as a working environment that enables autonomy and ownership.

We work in close conjunction with the Mind charity and are proud to have a Workplace Wellbeing Index accreditation which includes wellbeing surveys, the results of which we act upon. As part of this, we offer training to line managers to ensure they are equipped to support their teams in the best way.

We have a wellness hub for all, offering everything from guided breathing exercises to physical exercise classes and additional resources.

We offer an Employee Assistance Programme which provides access to funded counselling where appropriate and have nominated Wellness Buddies across the business to offer an alternative route for seeking support and guidance.

Everyone has access to our benefits platform which has a host of cost of living retail discounts alongside the opportunity to join our electric vehicle and ride to work schemes which reflect our values and help our wallets.

We publicly celebrate one another’s successes and, on a personal level, offer everyone an additional day off for their birthday.

This list isn’t exhaustive and we are always looking to enhance our employee experience because we are all passionate, unwavering, informed and positive.

Watch this space to see how our teams focused on movement and wellbeing during Mental Health Awareness Week 2024.