All In How To Session – Action 7: Supporting the Mental Health of our colleagues

On Wednesday All In held its How-To session on Action 7: Support the Mental Health of our colleagues.

The session gave practical advice on how to normalise conversations in the workplace and how to make people feel more comfortable and confident in opening up about their own mental health. This Action has been developed as a response to the data from the 2021 All In Census, which showed that almost a third (31%) of respondents reported that they were feeling stressed or anxious.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the session:

1. Only 42% said they had made their company aware of their Mental Health condition
2. 39% felt that their company could do more to support them
3. 29% consistently feel anxious in their job
4. 12% feel bullied or undermined

Our brilliant panel of speakers comprised of Sue Todd, CEO of NABS, Zaid Al-Qassab, Chief Marketing Officer at Channel 4 and Sean Betts, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Omnicom Media Group.  They echoed the importance of breaking down the barriers and stigma surrounding mental health conditions by speaking out and asking for help not only for ourselves but also for our colleagues.

The session gave useful advice and tips for managing mental health conditions whilst showing how our industry needs to do more to normalise the topic, allowing people to feel more included and comfortable to speak out and ask for help.

A number of sources of support were referenced alongside ideas for companies to adopt in order to help their employees.

On the +23% demand for NAB’s services and the key issues people have contacted NABS about in the last year or so, Sue Todd said: “Continuous uncertainty and instability surrounding the pandemic and finances has caused a surge to our services with the number one reason for calls being emotional support and wellbeing” and on some key services they offer: “We offer free therapeutic services, with 7-12 therapy sessions with the right type of therapy provider for individuals who have already had an initial consultation with us.”

On his own experiences with mental health and the importance of talking about it, Zaid Al-Qassab said “after a long period of covering up my anxiety and depression I thought it would help me to open up about it at work . . . my experience has been a wonderful thing, firstly I have had no negative feedback at all, it’s been an unfounded fear about being open about these things and secondly, an awful lot of people have disclosed the mental health challenges that they’ve had as a result.”

On the many initiatives Omnicom Media Group have, Sean Betts said “We trained up mental health first aiders across the business as this meant we had people who could spot people who were reaching a state of crisis and help them. We then wanted want to take the conversation further into our everyday lives so we rephrased the conversation to one about mental fitness, just like you would go to the gym or go for a run to work on your physical fitness, we wanted to encourage our employees to think about their mental health this way”.

A big thank you to all the speakers and attendees, you can watch all of our “How To” sessions on demand here or head to our All In Hub for more information.

If anyone is struggling with their mental health and needs support, please contact NABS.