How the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot keeps iconsys moving forwards

iconsys is an automation solutions provider based in Telford, Shropshire. With support provided by the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot (MHPP), they’ve worked towards creating a culture of openess and support around mental wellbeing at work.

Here, Graham Cowan, Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental Manager at iconsys, shares their journey and offers advice for other employers on building a supportive, healthy working environment.

iconsys is a forward-thinking and people-focused organisation. We put people at the core of everything we do – this is not just something we say, we mean it. We do appreciate that both physical and mental health and wellbeing hold equal importance.

iconsys has a predominately male workforce, which bring its own challenges when addressing mental health, as men can be less open with their feelings. As a result, we wanted to put programs and policies in place where people felt they had the space to talk​How can you have the right conversation to support an employee at work? PDF As a line manager, it’s important to recognise how to manage the emotional wellbeing of employees at work. This two-page guide from Nuffield Health explores five key steps to help staff move from emotionally barely surviving back to thriving.Free By: Nuffield Health View resourceClose. We have our EAP program​Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) – Supporting good work for UK employers? PDF This report, published by The Work Foundation in association with the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, explains how Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) can be used by employers to seek help on both work and non-work related issues. Free By: The Work Foundation View resourceClose, where people can get access to professional counselling and support, our management open door policy, where our people can speak to us on a confidential basis, but most effective, and more importantly, we have our trained Wellbeing Champions, so that people get access to their own colleagues for support.

When COVID hit, we stepped up our support for mental health as we knew it was a challenging time in general for everyone. This was when we started to look for support from external bodies that could give us further guidance and support. We reached out to Kate Wood at MHPP, which was a smart move for us.

Kate is a great listener and has been a huge support in furthering the development of our health and mental wellbeing strategy. She has assisted us in signing the Mental Health at Work Commitment and working towards the standards. She’s helped us in the delivery of mental health and resilience​Building your resilience PDF Every day, things happen that test our resilience. This factsheet explores what employers and staff can do to help build up their resilience and bounce back from problems they are experiencing.Free By: RBS Group View resourceClose awareness sessions to directors, line managers and other colleagues, which has been well received.

In addition, a key part of our wellbeing offering has been our Wellbeing Hub, which was launched on our company intranet last year. Kate has been helpful in feeding us with further resources to upload and use.

As a result of this increased visibility and openness regarding mental health and wellbeing, there appears to be more conversations going on among our people. The Wellbeing Hub is being regularly visited by our people and reinforces our message and commitment. Our colleagues are keen to share information as well as their stories and details of their hobbies and interests to show how they relax and have fun outside of work.

The iconsys Leadership and Management Team are hugely supportive when it comes to employee health and wellbeing and they give us the space and resource to develop our policies. It’s a great place to work. We are now taking steps to launch our iconsys Wellbeing Charter, and formalise our Wellbeing Policy, which will bring everything together.