This week, we’re recognising and supporting the importance of the mental health and wellbeing of our people at Zenergi as part of mental health awareness week.

As an employer, we’re obligated and required to provide a safe, healthy and nurturing working environment to all of our employees. Phrases like ‘duty of care’ and ‘risk assessments’ will be familiar to those of you in leadership and HR roles but here at Zenergi we understand that this isn’t just a box ticking exercise; nor is it just a case of us meeting our legal obligations under health and safety regulations. We are all human beings that deserve understanding, compassion and dignity – especially when it comes to dealing with mental health.

We’ve worked hard to foster a culture of mental wellness and support for our team by adapting the way we do things and launching initiatives that ultimately raise awareness of mental health issues, provide access to practical support for our people and tackle the stigma associated with mental health in and out of the workplace.

If you’re an employer, a leader in your business or just looking for ideas to suggest how to support mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, here are some of the practices we’ve adopted. We hope you find them useful and informative.

Training and appointing wellness buddies and mental health first aiders

We’re delighted to have had so many members of the team express an interest in learning new skills and knowledge around mental health in order to support their colleagues during times of need. Everyone faces their own challenges and difficulties in life which will naturally have an effect on us in our place of work. Having access to compassionate, empathetic and supportive people at work who can listen, provide some basic information about resources available and signpost to extra help is invaluable and we’re proud to have such a genuinely caring team at Zenergi.

Providing access to an employee assistance programme (EAP)

Each and every person who struggles with their mental health will be unique in how they feel and how they wish to address their situation. Not everybody will feel comfortable talking to work colleagues, their manager or their HR team about the troubles they’re facing and will prefer speaking to someone totally independent and removed from the situation, and that’s okay. Through working at Zenergi, every member of our team has access to an employee assistance programme (EAP) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by phone or mobile app. The EAP is staffed by qualified mental health professionals who can offer support and counselling by phone, access to legal information, resources about physical wellness and managing personal finances for our employees and their immediate family. Our people can even benefit from a number of face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy sessions with a trained professional through this hugely helpful service.

Training leaders and managers in mental health in the workplace

The role of being a leader or manager in the workplace has and will continue to evolve as the world of work continues to change in line with social, environmental, political and economic factors. One aspect of this evolution is the growing responsibility on leaders to provide a more holistic level of support to those they are responsible for. Through our partnership with the charity MIND, we were able to ensure that almost every leader in Zenergi receives specific training for managers and leaders around supporting team members who have additional needs at any given time.

Including mental health and wellness in our performance review process

To successfully motivate, inspire and inform our teams, we use performance reviews at Zenergi to set expectations, monitor performance and provide a two-way channel for communication on a regular basis. We recognise how important performance reviews are to our people, so we also have included a section within them on mental health and wellness, to promote open and honest discussions about how we are feeling, establish any support requirements and, where required, complete a Wellness Action Plan to better understand how we can help our team members who have challenges with their mental health.

These are just a few ideas of practices you could adopt in your workplace but, it’s important to realise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, so gaining an understanding of the challenges you and your team are having around mental health is vital to ensuring any mental health and wellbeing strategy you develop is fit for purpose and right for your people.

While tackling mental health challenges in the workplace might seem like a daunting task, the good news is that there’s a huge range of organisations and resources to support you in your task. We’ve listed some of these below and encourage you to take a look at the fantastic information and services they can provide.

Speaking from personal experience, dealing with mental health difficulties can be terrifying and leave you feeling lost, alone and frightened and nobody should have to face these trials alone. If you are struggling then please reach out to a loved one, your line manager, a healthcare professional or support organisation to get the assistance you need. There is absolutely no shame in asking for help and it is the first step in a journey to getting well again. Everyone deserves the opportunity to lead a happy, healthy and fulfilled life and we can all be more supportive and compassionate with others to aid them in finding their way out of troubling times.

Nicholas Gribben

Head of People Business Partnering