Cardiff-based digital marketing firm, Liberty Marketing, have initiated a number of wellbeing activities as part of their mental health scheme to look after their colleagues’ wellbeing.
These activities started during Mental Health Week 2019 and proved to be so effective that the management team have decided to continue them throughout the year.
According to Mind, at least one in six people experience a common mental health problem in the workplace, such as depression and anxiety, and Liberty have put procedures in place to help keep this stat as low as possible in the workplace.
Employees are invited to attend a wellness walk once a month during working hours to help them destress and boost productivity in the afternoon. A poll was sent around after a few had taken place and all staff members said that escaping the office for an hour a week helps them clear their mind.
Management have all attended training on how they can reach out to a colleague that seems to be distressed, as well as what they can do to help as much as possible. It is important for line managers to appear more approachable, after Mind revealed that 30% of staff in the UK would disagree with the statement, ‘I would feel able to talk openly with my line manager if I was feeling stressed.’
Gareth Morgan, Managing Director of Liberty Marketing, says,
“The health of our team is hugely important and ensuring that they’re happy and well looked after is my number one priority. We are a business that trades off the knowledge, abilities and creativity of a group of marketers and making sure they are happy is vital in order to perform well as an agency.”
“The management team and I believe that mental health should be cared for at all times, and not just when there is an awareness day around the topic. That’s why at Liberty, we wanted to introduce a number of company initiatives to help out with the happiness and morale of all employees.”
The office also now has a ‘favourite moments’ wall in place, where colleagues are advised to print images from their personal life and write about favourite lifetime moment. Colleagues can go back and look at this wall when they’re feeling a little down.
As well as this, Liberty also now have a nutritionist that comes in for a talk every so often to discuss which foods staff members should and shouldn’t be eating in order to help with stress, as well as weekly personal training sessions and a range of free, healthy snacks available to all.
Mari d’Antonio at Liberty says,
“Since we had our first nutritionist talk, I have definitely made some changes to what snacks I eat during the day. I used to have a chocolate bar after lunch from the snacks that work provide, but now I tend to opt for an apple and some cheese. It leaves me feeling less stressed, more productive and also surprisingly full too.”
Much like employee of the month, Liberty celebrate its employees’ successes by sharing success stories from the week, known as ‘Win of the Week’. Colleagues are also advised to write out compliments on a form and post them in the ‘compliment box’ for them to then get dished out once a month to make staff smile a little more.
Other long-term company initiatives include quarterly activity days out such as canoeing, cheese and wine tasting, and treasure hunts, employees being given their birthday off work with pay, as well as gifts on work anniversaries.
