With a growing number of people reporting symptoms of conditions such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, mental ill health is costing UK employers almost £56b each year, says Deloitte, so employers must better understand its causes and remedies. Here, Daisy Walker, retail operations lead at Neptune, explains why her business has embraced a campaign that prioritises wellbeing within the company’s culture …
My Whole Self is a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England campaign that encourages employers to create workplace cultures in which staff feel able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work – their background, sexuality, religion, gender, health and mental health – to help improve their wellbeing at work.
Hundreds of organisations have adopted the campaign, now in its fifth year. International furniture vertical Neptune, headquartered in Wiltshire, is well known for setting interiors trends – but few are aware of quite how progressive the company’s culture is. With a team that comprises some 560 members of staff, across retail, logistics, warehouse, manufacturing and a support office, the business well understands the value of taking care of its people, and My Whole Self now plays a vital role in these efforts, explains Daisy …
What made Neptune adopt the My Whole Self campaign?
My Whole Self Day – which fell on 12th March this year – is very much a part of our wellbeing calendar, and was our first introduction to wellbeing for our people at Neptune. We began our health and wellbeing initiative back in 2021, and we’ve participated ever since.
MHFA England provides a great range of free resources. We find the selfies (My Whole Selfies, an online sharing tool) an easy way to engage and encourage our people to get involved, as they can share what they feel comfortable with. The stress container tool is used regularly by our mental health first aiders to support with wellbeing conversations, and we ensure the resource is readily available for everyone when they need to use it.
How did it fit within Neptune’s existing approach to staff wellbeing?
One of our company principles is ‘do the right thing’, and we keep this at the core of what we do by remembering to approach everything we do by being a decent human being. Kindness comes first.
What cultural changes do you hope to achieve?
The impact of My Whole Self Day has allowed further inclusivity in a variety of departments, and empowered our mental health first aiders to schedule workshops with our operational teams who do not speak English as their first language, so that they are included and aware of the support available, along with a further focus on the importance of men’s wellbeing. We very much believe in being ‘One Neptune’.
How does Neptune monitor and support staff wellbeing throughout the year?
Our team of MHFA champions and mental health first aiders meet monthly to discuss upcoming events and resource requirements, and to share ideas to develop our wellbeing activities and support.
We have an employee assistance programme (EAP) which our champions and mental health first aiders can utilise when supporting individuals, and, to signpost the 24/7 counselling available for our people, we have conducted awareness training for employees and leaders.
We commit to creating and cascading a monthly newsletter that provides insight into different topics, promotes positive wellbeing, encourages use of our EAP, signposts our mental health first aiders, and gives a heads-up on any upcoming events or key dates in the diary.
Our wellbeing initiative is led and supported by people who are passionate about making a change and helping others. Each person has committed to the initiative in addition to their day-to-day role within the business.
We continue to strive to break the stigma of poor mental health and to ensure every person feels supported and safe around the business. We’ve achieved a great deal, but we have much more that we want to achieve and continue to build upon.
Has the programme aided staff retention and recruitment?
Our talent acquisition team regularly have candidates comment on our presence on LinkedIn, and it prompts conversations at the interview stage. When new employees join, they are inducted into the business and are aware of the importance of wellbeing at Neptune, our mental health first aiders, and how they can get involved or access this support should they need to.
And does this considered approach benefit your customers at all?
We take pride in everything we do, and if we have engaged, empowered and happy team members, our customers will benefit from a wonderful experience at every touchpoint with the brand.
One of the campaign’s aims is to enable staff to “express opinions without fear of criticism or judgement”. Is there a risk that opening this door could cause conflict, rather than alleviate it?
We continue to work on awareness, communication, breaking barriers, and giving individuals the power and strength to have a voice without fear of being judged. Productive conflict can have a positive outcome, if handled in the right way and fairly. It allows people and the business to achieve a better understanding and respect for individuals.
Neptune is a big business – how might smaller companies with fewer staff employ approaches like this?
Approach anything you do with empathy, compassion and kindness. Ensure you have done your research, identify like-minded individuals, and explore employee assistance programmes.
