Wellbeing@Work - Looking after your staff

Walking, Mental Health, Connecting


Team Meeting

Wellbeing@Work 1st Business Breakfast

25 June - The White Building 8.30 - 10.30am

 

Please join us for - 

  • A delicious, light, colourful summery breakfast
  • Launching the Wellbeing@Work Health & Wellbeing Pledge  
  • Round-table discussions on aspects of supporting staff health and wellbeing
  • Hearing from Scott Giles from Saints FC about their workplace wellbeing activities
  • Collaborating with a local artist to create downloadable Health & Wellbeing Noticeboard
  • Networking with each other and partner services to help you support your staff health and wellbeing
  • Looking around the White Building 

Book your place now


Mental health - lifebelt in head

Mental Health

Business in the Community (BITC) research last year found that 61% of employees were found to have experienced mental health issues due to work, or where work was a relating factor.

The British Safety Council have put together a comprehensive Resilience Toolkit aimed at growing knowledge and skills and to support Mental Health Awareness Week they are offering organisations the opportunity of trialling the resources for free.

Poor mental health affects most people either directly or indirectly.  Employers have a key role in supporting their staff through difficult times.

A key aspect of support is creating an environment where people feel comfortable enough to be open about how they're feeling.  The charity Mind have some useful guidance called the Wellness Action Plan (WAP) that supports managers and their staff to integrate conversations about health & wellbeing into their 1:1s.  There's a link to that and other mental health resources on the Wellbeing@Work pages.

Last week (3 - 19 May) was Mental Health Awareness Week.  If you missed it and want to use national resources to support an internal campaign there are still posters and other downloadable information on their website.  The next national focus is World Mental Health Day on Thursday October 10th.


Wellbeing

5 Ways to Mental Wellbeing

Connect…

Connect with the people around you.  With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.  At home, work, school or in your local community.  Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them.  Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Good communication helps people feel connected to their colleagues and employer. This contributes to greater engagement and a sense of wellbeing.  As an employer you can -

  • Build in times when people can eat, talk, relax and exercise together (as well as work!).  As a business bonus, people stay longer in their jobs when they have friends at work
  • Talk with your staff, ask how they are, show interest in their lives and work - they will reward you with loyalty and commitment
  • Encourage teams to mix together - more creative work flows from people meeting, getting to know each other and working together
  • Plan how to keep people connected and involved, if you have flexible/home/shift/distance working

There is information on the other 4 of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing along with other free tools and resources on the Wellbeing@Work webpages


Events: My Journey walking

May is National Walking Month

Plenty of resources for the month on the Living Streets website

We all know that regular physical activity has a positive impact on our health and wellbeing, and can help us to feel refreshed, happier, more productive, and less stressed. Growing from the Daily Mile project in schools, the aim of The Daily Mile/Fit for Life is to make activity a daily habit by incorporate 15 minutes of self-paced physical activity (walking, jogging or running) into daily life.  The scheme could be useful to integrate more physical activity into the working day for individuals or as inter-team challenges.

The British Heart Foundation offers suggestions for different places to walk that might give you ideas to share with your staff.

Guidance from the Chief Medical Officer is that to stay fit and healthy, adults (seeking medical advice as necessary) should be doing the following every week -

  • 150 minutes of moderately intense activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more
  • + 2 sessions of strength training

Ideally this is built into the infrastructure of the week so that it becomes a 'natural habit'.  Cycling or walking to and from work can help and My Journey can help you think about how to encourage and resource this active travel.


Making Southampton a city of opportunity where everyone thrives

Civic Agreement Conference: 18 June

As a signatory of the pledge to develop a Civic Agreement, Solent University is organising a conference on 18 June on how it can find new ways to help Southampton establish itself as ‘a city of opportunity where everyone thrives’.
Click here to register for this free event


integrated mental and physical health

Meaningful May and Joyful June

The  Meaningful May and Joyful June calendars from Action for Happiness offer a focus for each day that will grow confidence, energy and relationships.  The calendars are also available in an App

Health & Wellbeing 'Print & Pin' Ques

  • How do you look after your mental and physical health?
  • How are you? It's ok to talk about feelings 
  • What could you do differently to give you more peace of mind?

You'll find more 'Print + Pin' resources for your Health & Wellbeing Noticeboard under the Free Resources for Organisations on the Wellbeing@Work web pages.

Let me know what else you'd like to include on your Health & Wellbeing Noticeboards...


Please share this Newsletter with other managers and businesses  – Visit our webpages for more about how and why to invest in employee health & wellbeing.

Please share information and resources freely with your staff

Want to find out how we can help you and your business? please email wellbeingatwork@southampton.gov.uk