Making Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing a Priority

Our award-winning Health and Safety Manager, Amanda Casey, has led our Mental Health Strategy. We believe that workforce health is at the heart of everything we do.

In any business, the health of employees is so important.

In a busy wholesale operation like Filshill, it is easy to see Health and Safety priorities as things like the safe operation of equipment or manual handling. But wellbeing is so much deeper than that. It’s about collective and individual wellbeing.

A healthy and happy workforce will likely be more engaged, motivated, and productive. When employees feel well-supported, they are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs, improving overall wellbeing.

Wellbeing initiatives can help the business, too, and lead to increased productivity. When physically and mentally healthy, employees are better equipped to focus on their tasks, make sound decisions, and contribute effectively to an organisation’s goals.

Healthy and well-supported employees are less likely to suffer from illness or burnout, and employees who feel supported will likely have a more positive work-life balance. They can also be more creative and innovative in their thinking.

A positive work environment encourages individuals to think outside the box and contribute new ideas without fear of excessive stress or pressure.

So far in our business, Amanda has overseen over 200 support interventions, supporting colleagues, customers, and suppliers. We continue to increase our number of thoroughly trained Mental Health First Aiders; we now have thirty, and six Cancer Ambassadors.

We introduced the concept of a wellbeing check-in at the start of all meetings, where employees can indicate their feelings on a scale of one to 10 if they feel comfortable doing so. This helps reduce mental health stigma over time because managers and leaders are encouraged to share their scores too and explain why – signalling to colleagues that it is okay not to have a higher score.

As a responsible employer, we need to do this for our employees and their families because of its positive impact on our business and our customers.

It’s an initiative that has been recognised as the most successful one in the history of the business in terms of bringing our employees together. In the past year, under Amanda’s stewardship, we have dedicated more resources towards improving the mental health and wellbeing of our employees than ever before.