In Mental Health Awareness Week, we think it’s worth highlighting the work we’re doing at AluK to try and create a workplace where all our teams feel safe, empowered and supported so that they can thrive.
For instance, we are holding a dedicated session this week for all our People Managers to give them a better understanding of the issues around mental health, help them learn how to have better conversations about it and start to break down barriers.
In the next few months, we will also have 5% of our workforce accredited as Mental Health First Aiders so that they can give on the spot help, signpost to more specialist support and raise further awareness.
And, over and above that, we have redesigned our employee benefits package this year so that mental health and wellbeing are given a higher priority. That includes introducing both the Help@Hand Employee Assistance Programme so that everyone here can access counselling, financial and legal advice to help with issues which might be impacting their mental health and the Medicash app, which gives them a health plan with access to complementary and wellbeing therapies, physio and a digital GP.
And we obviously recognise the importance of time away from work as well, so we now offer additional days holidays linked to length of service to provide what is hopefully a better work/life balance.
We recognise, of course, that we still have work to do. But, given that the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘community’, we’re dedicated to creating a firm foundation of understanding and awareness at AluK, which builds on the supportive, community spirit that already exists here.
