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JQBID partnered with Birmingham Mind to bring a Workplace Wellbeing Taster Session to our levy payers on Wednesday 6th March. This hour long workshop with Mike Jeffries was an introduction to why it’s more important than ever for employers to consider the wellbeing of their employees, and laid out some of the options for further training. It was really wonderful to see levy payers from different industries come together to learn about supporting their teams.

Birmingham Mind have their office right here in the Jewellery Quarter, so it was wonderful to work with such local experts- with over 60 years experience of being a Mental Health charity. Birmingham Mind help 25,000 people every year with their mental health through schemes such as their helpline and wellbeing hub, and also provide wellbeing training to over 1,500 people. Their vision is ‘Better Mental Health For All’.

The taster session started by highlighting the economic case for better employee wellbeing – every £1 spent brings £3.50 in benefits through increased productivity and reduced staff turnover.

We looked at some of the risk factors for mental health struggles which we might see in the workplace such as existing conditions, bereavement, discrimination, caring responsibilities and major life changes – which brought home that every workplace will have at least some staff who are at an elevated risk of difficulties with their mental health. We then looked at ways to spot when an employee is struggling – including absenteeism and presenteeism (coming to work when mentally or physically unfit, being disengaged) so we can offer support.

This was followed by a group discussion about why sometimes people don’t disclose mental illness due to fears, uncertainty, embarrassment or denial and ways we can change workplace culture to avoid these. We discussed some simple ways to start a conversation about workplace wellbeing such as taking part in Time to Talk Day or Mental Health Awareness Week

Mike talked about the Mental Health First Aid Training options with Birmingham Mind. They run 11 courses a year at Villa Park, which are really well received and allow you to have trained Mental Health First Aiders in your team. They also have a lot of flexible training options though such as lunch & learn session, and hybrid courses and webinars, so you can find something which works for your team.

There are ways which every workplace can benefit from this training, as demonstrated by the case study from HTM – with construction workers facing high levels of workplace stress. They have trained 10% of their staff as Mental Health First Aiders through Birmingham Mind.

If you want to learn more. Check out the slides from the taster session:

Workplace wellbeing taster session

Or email training@birminghammind.org to discuss training options.

There was also lots of great literature to take away. If you want copies, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Birmingham Mind or the JQBID team and we’ll get them dropped off to you.

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