The challenges and successes of 2023 – and looking ahead to the New year

As 2023 draws to a close, it’s an ideal time to look back over the past 12 months and think about your successes, your challenges, and what you want to change to make 2024 better.

Here at Mental Health at Work, we’ve had a lot to celebrate. Our partnership with Simply Business allowed us to reach out to small business owners and the self-employed – a group we know are often left out of mental health conversations. The hub we created, which you can find here, is filled with resources, articles and advice covering all aspects of running your own business and protecting your mental wellbeing.

We’re also proud to report that almost 3000 UK employers have signed the Mental Health at Work Commitment, pledging to work towards the six standards developed to improve the mental wellbeing of employees across the UK. The Commitment, which is free to sign, provides employers of any size with a roadmap towards a healthier, happier workforce – so if you haven’t already joined the nearly 3000 organisations on the list, why not check it out here?

Also in 2023, we also launched our Peer Platform, a space where organisations can help each other to deliver the Commitment’s six standards. Once you’ve signed up, you can meet and learn from other organisations who are also working towards the Commitment standards, and share your own learnings too.

We can already see what a positive impact the Commitment and the peer Platform is having. In our recent survey, 95% of employers who had signed the Commitment agreed their senior leaders understood the case for investment in improving the mental health of their workforce – an increase from 86% in 2021.

It’s clear employers are listening, and real change is happening.

Naturally, we’ve also faced some challenges in 2023. Current events in the news, strike action, political uncertainty and the cost of living crisis have all taken their toll on UK workers’ mental wellbeing, and we’ve tried our best to provide advice and support where we can to help employees manage a little better.

We’re also working hard to make 2024 a better year for everyone’s wellbeing – we’ve been working with political parties and the government to advocate for employees and ensure mental health stays firmly on the agenda.

We hope you too can look back over the past 12 months and see things you can celebrate, and also some things you might like to do to improve your workplace for your people. If you haven’t yet signed the Commitment, that can be a great place to start. Or, you might like to check out Mind’s Wellbeing Index to help you gain a more complete understanding of where your organisation can focus new wellbeing initiatives.

However you choose to celebrate the holidays, we here at Mental Health at Work wish you all the best for the New Year. We hope you can take some time to look after your own wellbeing, and hope you’ll continue to support us as we champion the mental health of UK employees into 2024 and beyond.