On the right track with support for mental wellbeing

It’s always great to get external recognition for the work that you do, and last week I was taken aback to see that Centrica has achieved the highest possible ranking for its mental health programme by CCLA, an investment management firm for charities, religious organisations and the public sector.

CCLA named Centrica as one of the top three of 100 of the UK’s largest companies, for our approach to workplace mental health. Our score of 87%, means we are ‘leading the way on mental health management and disclosure’, which is an amazing achievement. 

The team and I have been updating and improving our strategy over the past five years and this is a testament to them, our vision and what we have achieved to date. The inaugural CCLA report has reinforced to us that we are on the right path and the areas for improvement highlighted are those we are already on track to achieve.

The past decade has seen a major shift in the awareness of and seriousness of mental wellbeing isin the workplace. The process is ongoing and we know that we have more to do.  We are working with our trade union partners on psychological safety and risk assessments for our field engineering colleagues for example.

Our goal at Centrica is to ensure that all colleagues have the right support, which is easy to access, and enables them to talk about their concerns without stigma or repercussions. We are fortunate to have support from the top of the organisation and a CEO who speaks openly about his own challenges and encourages others to do the same.

We are leaders in this space, but as with all things there is always space to learn and develop. We are inspired to continue to improve through the feedback and stories we receive from colleagues about the positive impact of the support they’ve had when they needed it most. 

Sometimes it’s small and simple actions which make big differences, such as the permanent wellbeing gauge and link to support channels from our intranet homepage. Or our internal engagement campaigns which encourage the use of our mental health resources, which includes a network of more than 100 mental health first aiders.

But also the large steps, such as our market leading healthcare plan, which gives all 16,000 Centrica colleagues and 3,500 dependants access to free individual, bespoke support for physical and mental health challenges.

Creating a culture in which people feel able to be vulnerable, without fear of prejudice has been a huge part of our success and a source of personal, professional pride.

To read the CCLA report, click here: https://www.ccla.co.uk/mental-health