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Going Beyond: Building a workplace that supports mental health.

Going Beyond: Building a workplace that supports mental health.
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by Laura Coulthart on World Mental Health Day.


In my role as People & Operations Manager at LS Productions, I take a great sense of pride and responsibility in ensuring our team feels fully supported when it comes to their mental health. Everyone at LS goes ‘Beyond’ on a daily basis, and a way for LS to go ‘Beyond’ for our team is to ensure that when it’s needed, they have the tools to get help whether it be personal or work related.

Building a workplace that supports mental health.


At LS Productions, we understand the positive impact that healthy and engaged employees make to the success of the business. As it’s World Mental Health Day, I wanted to focus on one of the brilliant company values we have, which is “People People”. One of the ways in which we underpin this value is by pledging to provide initial and ongoing support and help for employees going through mental health problems. In an industry known for long hours, ever changing hectic schedules, complex problem solving and long periods away from home, burnout can be a real issue if not carefully managed with the right support network. Taking this into consideration, our wish at LS is to create an open and honest workplace where employees can discuss mental health problems and ensure the necessary support is known via signposting and available to employees when needed.


The journey to get it right.


We took our first steps on this road, back in late 2019 when, armed with our existing Employee Assistance Programme, we set about putting pen to paper to create our Supporting Positive Mental Health Policy. Having this policy in place has enshrined our commitment to supporting mental health at LS, which has paved the way for all the benefits that have since followed.


Listening to our people.


Making the voices of our team heard early on in the process has greatly assisted our learning, helping us tailor the right approach. Initially we did this through Culture Club; a collective of cross-departmental LS team members focussed on making LS a brilliant and inspiring place to work, where everyone feels both heard and valued. This instantly led to a number of highly valuable insights and recommendations being made, that were then extensively reviewed and taken forward into the business.

LS Productions People People Branded Mug



What has been achieved so far.


Since 2019, a series a comprehensive package of free mental health and wellbeing benefits have been introduced into LS Productions, as part of our Supporting Positive Mental health Policy, including:

  1. Spill: Implemented at the height of the pandemic, when many people in our industry were struggling with mental health, Spill had an immediate impact. Providing all team members with access to qualified therapists in just a few clicks, team members can book a one off session or up to two courses of therapy in a year as part of their staff benefits package. A leaps-and-bounds improvement on our previous EAP, we consistently receive positive anonymous feedback on Spill from staff who have engaged with therapists.

  2. The Right to Disconnect Policy: Another benefit developed through staff feedback is our commitment to encourage all LS employees to disconnect from work communications outside of our normal working hours whenever possible. This is underpinned by our “Right To Disconnect” Guiding Principles. This came into play in early 2023 after many months of hard work of cross-departmental collaboration to make sure that the wording was applicable company wide. At LS we want to support everyone to set good personal boundaries to try and prevent staff working outside of contracted hours unnecessarily.

  3. Other policies and services: We also provide the team with access to a Financial Wellbeing service as well as a medical cash back service, to help alleviate any unnecessary financial stress. We have also introduced a policy focused on Compassionate Leave and the different iterations this could take.


Where Next?


Whilst we are quite rightly proud of the steps that we’ve made to reinforce our Supporting Positive Mental Health policy, we also recognise the work is far from done. As a business we are committed to continually evolve and develop our offering as part of a continuous conversation with our staff. We firmly believe that growing, developing and nourishing a passionate team, both in and out of work, is an intrinsic part of our LS DNA.

World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year on 10 October. This year’s theme set by the World Federation of Mental Health is workplace mental health. The theme highlights the importance of addressing mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, for the benefit of people, organisations, and communities.


Useful Resources:

Spill

World Mental Health Day