Increase profit, success and productivity at work

Now that got your attention!

You’ll notice that I didn’t use the term Mental Health or Well-being in the title of this article. This was a conscious decision some may not agree with but unfortunately there is still a stigma attached to the issues of mental health, and many people feel uncomforatble talking about it. The word well-being has negative connotations of its own, including those who associate this term with a somewhat ‘fluffy’ or ‘soft’ approach, even conjuring up images of yoga, meditation and old-fashioned teambuilding exercises. Hopefully, this article will give you more information to demystify these troublesome and awkward terms and empower you to be able to deal with MH issues, and seek support when necessary.

Recently I attended an event organised by Cambridgeshire Work & Wellbeing Network. If this is not a group you are familiar with then you’ll be pleased to discover that “The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Wellbeing at Work Network can help your business by increasing awareness of mental health at work and providing support to businesses in the recruitment and retention of staff”.

CWAWN it is made up of The Richmond Fellowship, NHS Cambridge & Peterborough, Mind Cambridgeshire, Mind Peterborough & Fenland, Keeping HR Simple and Peterborough United FC.

Why should you, as a business owner, manager, line manager, supervisor or employee care about an initiative such as this?

• In the UK 70 million sick days are taken owing to mental health illness.
• The total cost of mental illness in the UK for businesses each year is £25.9 billion.
• £15.1 billion of this total cost is caused by reduced productivity of people who continue to work when they are unwell.

Therefore, I am sure you’ll agree that anything we can do as business owners to increase and maintain the productivity of our staff is an integral consideration which will have a major impact on our business and, perhaps more importantly, the success and profits of our companies.

Who are the Work & Wellbeing network and how can they help you, your business and your employees?

Aim

To promote positive attitudes to mental health in the workplace.

Objectives

• To improve the mental well-being of your greatest asset, your staff.
• Raise awareness of of the resources available to you which includes for local, public and private sectors.
• Organise quarterly events where we can come together to share experiences and good practice with others, this can be really helpful.

Everyone can contribute to well-being in the workplace with the right support and tools in place.

If you are interested to find out more about how YOU can further understand mental health issues, contribute to well-being in your workplace and discover what resources are available to you to help your business then please contact your local Mind branch for information on training and events.