Health and wellbeing at work

Health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our top priorities. Our focus is on a more proactive approach to prevention of sickness absence through promoting wellbeing and improving staff engagement. The ‘wellbeing – How Are You Doing?’ tool has been developed by MIND’s Workplace Wellbeing Team which aims to help all employees manage their mental health and wellbeing at work. We have adapted the plans to encompass health and wellbeing including physical and mental health. We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health and how we feel can vary from good mental and physical wellbeing to difficult feelings and emotions, to severe mental health issues and also for some, managing long term health conditions.

 

What is wellbeing - How are you doing?

The wellbeing - How Are you doing? plan is a personalised, practical tool we can all use – whether we have a health issue or not – to help us identify what keeps us well at work, what causes us to become unwell and how to address a health issue at work should we be experiencing one.

This opens up a dialogue between an employee and their manager, in order for a better understanding of an employee’s needs and experiences and ultimately a better knowledge of how to support an employee’s mental and physical health, which in turn leads to greater productivity, better performance and increased job satisfaction and engagement. It is the conversation between the employee and the manager and how this is conducted which is key and the approach should be a collaborative one.

They are also particularly useful during the return to work process, when someone has been off work due to either a mental or physical health problem, as they provide a structure for conversations around what support will help and what reasonable adjustments might be useful to consider. However, the conversation should not be used to substitute the separate return to work meeting, but used as an aid to support the employee remain at work.

All employees should be encouraged to complete a wellbeing – How Are You Doing? plan and these should be regularly reviewed in supervision or as and when necessary. All new starters should be encouraged to complete a Wellbeing – How Are You Doing? plan in their induction period and share with their manager.

 

Confidentiality

The conversation and the paperwork should be held confidentially between the employee and their manager, with the employee being made fully aware of how the information will be used and therefore only providing information they are willing to share.

 

Guidance for managers and employees

Further guidance documents for managers and employees to support the use of wellbeing – How Are You Doing? plans are available on Connect.

For further information and guidance please also view the Health and wellbeing pages on Connect.