Prioritising mental health

Reynaers Aluminium UK has underlined its commitment to staff wellbeing by appointing a mental health first aider to offer employees free, unbiased mental health support.

It is the latest initiative from Reynaers to support staff wellbeing, reflecting the company’s ‘Caring’ value.

On becoming Reynaers’ first mental health first aider for the UK, Finance and HR Coordinator Pamela Herbert has implemented various initiatives to encourage communication and support improved employee wellbeing.

To qualify as a mental health first aider Pam attended a training course, run by the mental health organisation Birmingham Mind. The two-day course covered multiple scenarios through role play and active listening, as well as providing information about external support that employees could access.

Access to the mental health support available has been clearly signposted across the company and Pam has also ensured that a selection of media, covering a wide variety of information around mental health and physical wellbeing have been made readily available throughout Reynaers’ workspaces.

Pam said: “It’s all about opening lines of communication and breaking down the negative connotations that can still often be associated with seeking mental health support. We all need to work to tackle that and being open is so important.

“We recently held a drop-in session for all Reynaers’ employees, which was well attended. My colleagues were able to openly discuss self-care in an informal setting and I also found that this encouraged colleagues to seek confidential one-to-one support from myself when needed.

“Reynaers continues to go the extra mile in ensuring a supportive work environment for all employees. We are already seeing the benefits of breaking down the barriers when it comes to mental health support and encouraging an open and inclusive workspace.”

Prioritising staff wellbeing is a priority for Reynaers, which was recently voted a good place to work in an employee survey as part of its ‘Together for Better strategy’.

Pam added: “In an effort to encourage socialisation across the departments we now try to periodically align lunch breaks and provide catering to allow staff to unwind and refuel with people they may not usually interact with. The obvious benefit of this is that people are mixing, getting away from their screens and taking a genuine break from work.”

Reynaers’ commitment to providing a supportive work environment extends beyond the role of the workplace mental health first aider; all employees and their immediate family have access to a confidential telephone counselling service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  In addition, there is an employee portal offering health and wellbeing tips and online courses.

Together for better | Reynaers Aluminium