This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK – a time to raise awareness, understanding and support of mental health. As one of the UK’s largest employers, we’re using this week to reflect how we can do more to continue to drive forwards embedding an open, welcoming and psychologically safe culture around mental health. Not just for one week of the year, but every day.
Our holistic approach to wellbeing focuses on four aspects of employee health; mental, physical, emotional wellbeing and a sense of purpose. We believe that these are interlinked, and you cannot effectively look after one without looking after a person’s entire wellbeing. We also appreciate that some of the issues employees face do not stop the moment they log on, or step into an office, so we provide our employees with 24/7 access to help and support.
Unilever UK & Ireland is committed to supporting our people so they can bring their whole selves to work and thrive outside of work. In 2022, we signed the Mental Health at Work Commitment, recognising the importance of promoting and showing our commitment to supporting mental health in the workplace.
During Mental Health Awareness Week, and going forward, we are asking our UKI teams to:
- Encourage 25 or 50-minute meetings to give employees time to have a break and recharge throughout the day
- Begin all team meetings and 1-2-1s with a wellbeing check-in
- Consider when a walking 1-2-1 may be possible, even when working from home – dial into a call as you walk
- Share our fantastic policies, resources and support to raise awareness
- Block out time in diaries for personal wellbeing, such as runs, walks or dog walks, and be open about doing this with colleagues
To read more on our work towards having a welcoming and psychologically safe culture around mental health, visit our health and wellbeing page on our website.