More than 850 organisations have already made the pledge to change the way they think and act about mental health in the workplace, including the University of Chester, Norfolk Fire and Rescue and Vivid Homes.
Before signing the pledge, Southwark Council submitted an action plan that details how the local authority will work to improve mental health support for employees.
Key elements of the action plan include launching a new Employee Health and Wellbeing Strategy, with support from key strategic directors.
Health and Wellbeing Champions
It also plans to recruit and support Health and Wellbeing Champions throughout the council to support the implementation of the strategy and introduce a complementary range of training courses relating to mental health, including stress awareness, training for managers on providing support to staff and a course based on enhancing resilience and positive mental wellbeing.
“I am incredibly proud that Southwark Council has signed up to the Time to Change employer pledge,” said cabinet member for community safety and public health, Cllr Evelyn Akoto.
“It is absolutely the right thing to do for our employees and as an organisation.
“Our staff are our greatest strength and they do fantastic things on a daily basis,” added Cllr Akoto.
“We want them to feel confident and supported at work and have the tools to support their mental wellbeing and resilience. As a local authority we also realise that if staff are feeling under pressure, they need to be able to raise issues of stress or mental ill-health without feeling stigmatised or judged.
“We want to create an environment where all issues are openly discussed and tackled. We see the Time to Change Employer Pledge as a highly visible and powerful demonstration of our commitment to employee health and wellbeing.”
Last month, a further 42 organisations signed the pledge to mark World Mental Health Day.
“Thankfully, more employers are becoming attuned to the topic of mental health, and recognising the value in taking action and looking after the wellbeing of their workforce – making a strategic commitment to the mental wellbeing not only benefits their staff but also their bottom-line, improving productivity and staff retention,” said Time to Change Director, Jo Loughran.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
