Mental health: How JLP, WHSmith and Co-op are supporting their staff

Almost half (47%) of UK workers have gone into work while experiencing a mental health condition in the past 12 months, according to The Working Well Report, which was published in May and backed by the Centre for Economics and Business Research and YouGov data.

Some 40% of respondents said this had a big impact on their ability to be productive, and 29% believe their employer would not support them if they were unwell due to a mental health condition.

As the UK’s largest private-sector employer with around 2.9 million people working within the industry, retail arguably has a larger care of duty than most.

And with mental health problems the leading cause of sickness absence in the workplace with a staggering 70 million work days lost each year, at an annual cost to employers of £2.4bn, there are some clear commercial incentives to provide better support in this field.

“We now have as many mental health first-aiders as physical first-aiders”

Alison Garbutt, WHSmith

Some retailers are working together to help improve the mental wellbeing of staff. John Lewis Partnership, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asos, the Co-op, Marks & Spencer and Next have joined together to share best practice and create a guide to help retail workers look after their own mental health and support others who may be struggling.

The retailers have worked with the Samaritans to create the Wellbeing in Retail website which features practical information and suggestions, tools such as breathing techniques, a mood barometer, films from mental health experts and case studies.

Collaboration like this is necessary to help the retail industry tackle this huge issue in the most effective way that provides employees with the confidence to speak openly about issues and give co-workers and employers tools and techniques to help.

Retailers must share details of initiatives that are reaping results, which is why Retail Week has picked out some notable examples of businesses taking responsibility for their employees’ mental health.

WHSmith

WHSmith has set the standard in mental health support for its employees.

The retailer has taken a two-pronged approach to create its mental health wellbeing strategy, working with the Time to Change campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues in its business and teaming up with Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) to provide training on how to support mental health in the workplace.

All WHSmith line managers have received training to help support employees experiencing mental health issues.

WHSmith head of strategic projects Alison Garbutt says: “It has been our longstanding ambition to treat mental and physical health with equal importance at WHSmith, and we train our staff to understand how we can best look after ourselves and each other.”

“We now have as many mental health first-aiders as physical first-aiders, and we train all line- and store managers to be mental health aware.”

WHSmith worked closely with MHFA to create a tailored training model to suit the nature of the business and has four qualified MHFA Instructor Members who deliver the training in-house alongside their day jobs.

The retailer has made it acceptable to take a day off sick for mental health illness. Whether it is via lunchtime walking groups, ‘tea-and-talk’ days, partnerships with accredited charities, or wellbeing posters with helpline numbers displayed throughout its premises, WHSmith is supporting mental wellness and awareness in many ways.

The approach is also producing results. Almost three-quarters (74%) of WHSmith employees now say they feel comfortable speaking to their line manager about their mental health if it is impacting their work, compared with just 16% in the retail sector in general.

Meanwhile, 81% of employees say they would know where to go to get support for their mental health at work.

John Lewis Partnership

John Lewis and Waitrose staff have had access to mental health app Unmind for the past 12 months, and close to 10% of the JLP workforce are using it, according to Yulia O’Mahony, head of diversity and inclusion and wellbeing at the partnership.

Modules on the app range from mindfulness to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), covering the spectrum of mental health issues. The app can be used on a personal basis or as a learning tool by managers to improve their knowledge and help staff when required.

“We want to invest in prevention, not just the reactive support,” explains O’Mahony.

“The technological solution was very attractive because we have 83,000 people and we needed a tool that is available for all and something they can put in their pocket.”

The use of the tool is growing, and it is there for JLP’s people to access if and when they need it.

“The impact is not linear – nothing with mental health is, given how complicated the brain is,” says O’Mahony, who wants to create “an ecosystem of mental health interventions and support mechanisms” that overlap and are available to staff.

JLP is also lobbying government to make occupational health initiatives exempt from tax, which O’Mahony says would potentially help smaller businesses find the resources to offer more significant employee support in areas such as CBT and general counselling.

Like the Co-op and others, JLP says it is working to support change and participate in cross-industry coalitions to help the wider workforce.

“Mental healthcare is an issue that is bigger than any of us individually, and it’s in society’s interests for us to solve it,” says O’Mahony.

Co-op

Co-op launched Night Club in October in association with Wellcome Trust to help train night-shift staff about the health dangers sleep deprivation can cause.

Hosted in a mobile shipping container at Co-op depots across the UK, the 40-minute sessions run by sleep experts offer practical advice about improving sleep patterns and underline the risks of poor sleep.

Although not a mental healthcare initiative per se, there are clear links between sleep and mental health. Charity Mind says lack of sleep can lead to depression, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness, while it can also trigger mania, psychosis or paranoia in those with a psychotic or bipolar disorder.

Night workers at Co-op number around 3,000, and Sarah Eglin, head of people partnering for logistics and retail support at Co-op, says Night Club has helped provide training and support to the self-proclaimed “forgotten people” of the organisation.

As a result of the sessions, she says, staff are reducing mobile phone usage before bed and are having two blocks of sleep rather than a longer interrupted period in the day.

Night goggles have been issued to help reduce the impact blue light has on health after dark.

Eglin says the scheme is helping people to open up about their lifestyles.

“If you say to someone how are you feeling today you probably won’t get a lot back, but if you say how did you sleep last night it’s a real opener into a world of challenges such as physical wellbeing issues, mental health, and alcohol dependencies,” Eglin explains.

“We’re starting to open up people to have conversations they would never have had before if we’d badged it as mental health and wellbeing.”

BrandAlley

Discount fashion etailer BrandAlley is also introducing initiatives to support employees, and its smaller scale means that chief executive Rob Feldmann can be alerted to issues and act accordingly.

Feldmann talks of two practical ways in which his organisation has supported staff with anxiety.

Earlier this year he picked up on two members of staff who experienced anxiety in the run-up to and during company presentations, so he introduced quarterly training focused on relaxation and breathing techniques.

“The feedback from staff has been positive – and it’s helping them,” Feldmann says.

He adds that at the company’s old headquarters in London’s Ladbroke Grove, he was made aware of two workers taking extended commutes to avoid the London Underground, where their anxiety around enclosed spaces intensified.

In response, BrandAlley split the cost of a regular Uber from a local train station to the office. “It was a way of saying we know travel can be challenge, we want to make it easier and give you as little anxiety about it as possible,” he says.

“It reinforces loyalty and makes them feel very valued, and they could see we did it because we were concerned about them.”