Mindful Employers
The Mindful Employer Initiative
Even with the best of intentions, sometimes, work can be a stressful place. Especially for those who are dealing with mental health issues. It is now estimated that 1 in 4 of us will suffer from a mental health condition at some point in our lives, so at Design Box, we felt it was our duty to become knowledgeable in how to help support our employees.
Mental Health Matters
What is the Mindful Employer Initiative?
Back in 2004, when digital agencies were few and far between and some of our more ambitious development projects were a mere twinkle in the eye of our founders, an NHS trust began an ambitious initiative to provide employers with the training and resources to increase the positive mental wellbeing of their staff.
This certification is available to any company that meets the high standards of the Mindful Employer programme. However, only around 2,000 organisations have ever made the cut, and we are pretty proud of our small business for making the grade.
What does a Mindful Employer certification mean?
It means that we are willing to go above and beyond to protect our workforce. We are trained, informed and given exceptional resources to understand what processes can be put in place to help those on our team.
Our responsibilities rest on 3 main objectives that aim to create a healthy working environment for all our employees:
Engage
It’s no secret that a mentally healthy workplace is a more productive workplace, but that’s not why we achieved Mindful Employer status. We want to ensure we don’t add to the stresses of people’s everyday lives and look after the amazing team who come and work for us because it’s the right thing to do; we’re all about corporate social responsibility.
We’re a totally transparent agency. That goes for our clients and our workforce, meaning that we have open and honest conversations about mental health and what effect that may have on our ability to do our best work.
Educate
This is all about actively trying to reduce the stigma attached to mental health in the workplace and provide a safe setting for every one of our staff to be open about any issues they may be going through, at any point in their employment with us.
Our employees come to work at Design Box because they love what they do, but mental health can often have a devastating impact on the things we once loved. Providing clarity on duties and job roles can build skills in our employees, enabling them to recognise and approach the correct individual, should they have a concern.
Embed
Mindful Employers like us, are equipped with the ability to implement a solid approach to prevent exclusion and discrimination within our team and embed sustainable approaches to supporting all of our colleagues with their mental wellbeing.
We monitor our team to make sure their workload and working hours are manageable, giving them opportunities to work flexibly to suit their needs. We support our employees with any mental health difficulties, diagnosed, or not, and support them to either stay at work or return safely.
Above all else, we believe that we have the skills and processes in place in order to promote equality and diversity at Design Box. We are able to help those in vulnerable positions get the care they need and provide a safe, supportive workplace for those with mental health worries, or conditions.
We know that looking after our employee’s mental wellbeing is simply just good business. Find out more about the Mindful Employer initiative here.
