Telford charity investing in staff to support their mental health
Managers should value the wellbeing of staff just as highly as any health and safety legislation, according to the boss of a Telford-based charity.
Meeting Point House, in Southwater, has teamed up with Colleen Mullarkey, of Nourish Holistic Wellbeing, to support staff with their mental health and wellbeing.
Wayne Jenson, chief executive of Meeting Point Trust, said the input had been greatly appreciated by staff.
He said: “Some people don’t realise that every employer legally needs to have a stress risk assessment in place as part of the duty of care towards the health, safety and general wellbeing of their staff.
“I believe that the mental health of your staff should be just as important, if not more so, than any of your workplace health and safety policies.
“I recently attended Colleen’s Workplace Mental Health and Holistic Wellbeing for Leaders and Senior Leaders workshop, which was really interesting.
“That led to us arranging for Colleen to come into Meeting Point House to deliver the Workplace Wellbeing Toolkit workshop to our team.
“The session really brought the team together and made us all think about how we can help ourselves and each other to be healthier and happier at work.
“I would highly recommend every employer to spend some time thinking about the wellbeing of their staff, as we all know a happy workplace is more productive and just a generally much more pleasant place to be.”
Colleen said the session looked at the five basic holistic essentials for optimising wellbeing and reducing stress: Emotional health and self-regulation; mental health, mindset and creating new habits; healthy nutrition; moving the body; collective wellbeing and helping each other.
She added: “We discussed how the tools relate to their personal working day given their different roles, the environments they work in, and also the specific nuances particular to Meeting Point House.
“We covered how they can integrate the tools to support their own health and wellbeing at work, and each employee completed their own wellbeing plan.
“Following up with the team whenever I've dropped into Meeting Point House since the workshop, they still tell me what they are doing as a direct result of the workshop which is so nice! It's great to be able to help and see how much they value the tools.”
Wayne said the wellbeing plans created during the workshop were now being integrated into the staff appraisal process, ensuring they would be considered and updated on a regular basis.
He added: “We have really valued Colleen’s input and our staff feel more empowered to look after themselves better - they are healthier and happier in themselves, which ultimately benefits the whole team and the customers they come into contact with.
“As chief executive, the process has given me more insight into the team as individuals, and along with the existing procedures we already have in place, is helping our staff become the very best version of themselves.”
