Mental Health Week at Phosters

Mental Health Matters…

What is Mental Health Awareness Week?

Mental Health Awareness Week (15th – 21st May) provides opportunities for everyone to embrace the topic of mental health, including tackling stigma, creating conversations and raising awareness. For businesses like ours, it is a chance to reflect on our current practices, listen to employee voice and make any necessary changes we feel will enhance the support already out there for the people of Phosters. Here’s what we got up to:

Importance of Mental Health in the FM Industry

Within the Facilities Management sector, lone working is extremely common, therefore Phosters realise the importance of equipping employees with the necessary tools and knowledge to be able to support one another regardless of location. That’s why we are investing into mental health, by training employees from across all divisions of the business, so all employees have access to support.

With facilities management being a male dominated industry, and statistics out there showing that three times as many men as women die by suicide (Mental Health Foundation), we not only have a real duty of care to all employees, but also in finding ways to empower and engage our male workforce. Again, statistics show that men are less likely to access psychological therapies than women: only 36% of referrals to NHS talking therapies are for men (Mental Health Foundation). This is something we are passionate about changing.

Mental Health is a core value for Phosters, as the people we employ define who we are. Therefore, having a healthy workforce is a key priority for Phosters’ success.