The Wright Angle - With Lorna Marshall

We held the Embedding Positive Mental Health Culture in the Workplace event in January. It was originally going to be an in-person event but was moved to Zoom due to the COVID situation.

Working Well and the HR Forum had the idea in November, to look at something that would support our local workplaces, with having the confidence to look at and assess what they currently do to support their workplace mental health culture, and whether it is time for a re-fresh/change in practices.

We also wanted to recognise that January can be a difficult month, mixed with the aftermath of the Christmas period, the on-going COVID situation and the pressures of ‘Blue Monday’ – which almost gives people the expectation that they should be feeling ‘low’.

The session had 31 people attend and represented 21 businesses. On the back of the session, we have had a number of attendees enquire about Mental Health First Aid Training and the ISO 45003.

This kind of interest demonstrates that there is a hunger for workplaces to better their mental health strategies. Evolving Mindset CIC can offer guidance and support to workplace strategies, and they also have some free 6 week wellbeing programmes for individuals to tap into. Visit their website to find out more about what they do: Evolving Mindset | Mental Health CIC | Liverpool Merseyside

Phil Noon, of Evolving Mindset shared a fantastic quote with us; ‘If you’re working in a factory and one of your parts have an issue, you invest in it to make it work again better, so if a person in your workplace has an issue, invest your time to support them, and soon your machine will work better again.as every mechanism in the workplace is important’

During the last 2 years there have been increased pressures on workplaces adapting to new ways of working (working from home, different workplace pressures, being COVID-secure, enforcing distancing, increases or decreases in workloads) that have all in some way impacted people. There is also the knock on effect of negative news and negativity on social media that can lead to more demotivation.

This could be the collective effects of 2 years of overload of information and living in some state of fear, either of the pandemic or the effect the pandemic may have on their business. and it is then So now it may be time to taking a step back and looking at what can be done to improve that much needed morale.

As we move into February and celebrate LGBT History Month Working Well continues to grow and develop, by adding a 9th Standard, Inclusion and Diversity. We want to support Knowsley Businesses with their inclusion and diversity strategies and look at how this can be improved.

Ford kindly agreed for us to use the principles of their Listening Workshop initiative to formulate our own version, that can be used by our business members to learn more about this important topic and better understand their employee experience. This has been particularly successful at The Forshaw Group, who won the ‘Investment in People’ award at the first LGBTQ+ Business Awards, you can find out more about the awards here; 2022 North West LGBTQ+ Business Awards.

With so much changing in the workplace, it may be time to sign-up to or re-visit the Working Well programme – for bespoke wellbeing support and signposting for Knowsley businesses.

Looking at a wellbeing calendar or asking the workplace to make suggestions is a great place to start.

There is funding available for:

Covid-19 Workplace Grant – with up to £3,000.00 towards mental health training or wellbeing support, and up to £3,000.00 for COVID provision

Covid-19 Ventilation Grant – for improving the workplace Ventilation up to £14,000.00

Working Well Grant - £500.00 for physical and mental wellbeing funding

To find out more about Working Well, and Grants Email Lorna.Marshall@knowsleychamber.org.uk or call us 0151 477 8602