During 2015, MWH in the UK rolled out a series of campaigns to promote health and wellbeing amongst its employees. The be mindful campaign is the third of three initiatives following on from the successful be active and be healthy campaigns launched earlier this year.
Tracey Gee, MWH Executive Action Officer said; “Here at MWH we take mental health seriously which is why during the month of November this year we set about encouraging all our staff to think about their own mental health, as well as the health of those around them. It is estimated that 1 in 4 of the UK population will suffer from a mental health problem this year alone and many won’t speak about or share that problem with their employer.”
Around 9 out of 10 people with mental health problems will experience some sort of stigma and discrimination, often leading them to disguise their issues or not discuss them with those who could help and this is what we wanted to address as a part of the MWH be mindful campaign.
be mindful was a two week campaign to launch a renewed focus on mental health within MWH. During the first week they looked at raising awareness of the importance of looking after your own mental health, encouraging employees to talk to the support network within the company about their issues and concerns, highlighting the causes and ways to manage stress and high pressure situations, where employees can find support if they want to learn more. Within the second week they focussed on emotional resilience and how using a host of techniques like yoga or tai chi and meditation can all help.
Cath Schefer, Managing Director, MWH in the UK, said; “We want to ensure that we have an open, trusting environment and support network for everyone that works at MWH. We want people to come and speak to us if they are suffering from a short or long term issue so we can help them in the best way possible and we want to start the conversations.”
So what did we do?
To kick off the be mindful campaign, MWH in the UK’s Leadership Team signed the ‘Time to Change Pledge for Employers’. This pledge was a promise to all MWH employees that MWH will actively tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in the workplace and, as a part of this, MWH developed an action plan spelling out exactly how they will achieve this goal. A number of activities and services were established and rolled out to all UK staff over an initial two week period, some of these are listed below:
- Who can you talk to? – reminders were communicated out to employees of the support network available throughout MWH.
- Stress Busting Workshops were ran by our Employee Assistance Programme Provider.
- be mindful resource stands were placed in each office which displayed information and guidance from organisations, including Validium, Time to Change, NHS and others.
- Yoga and Meditation subsidised classes focussing on yoga, mindful meditation and tai chi were made available to all employees. Local be mindful office representatives could also tell staff about any space in their local offices for quiet relaxation during the two week campaign.
- The be mindful company intranet page provided a wealth of information about mental health and mindfulness, including a daily meditation and relaxation podcast to introduce staff to the practise.
- The be mindful internal social media group was made available for staff to share their stories, advice and keep up to date with what was going on during the campaign.
- MWH organised events in support of the charity Mind which took place across the offices in the UK to celebrate and mark the end of the successful two week campaign.
The be mindful campaign is just the beginning of MWH’s commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of every employee.
