Wright Vigar signs Mental Health at Work Commitment to help create an environment where employees can thrive.

Wright Vigar signed the Mental Health at Work Commitment, demonstrating their ambition to improve and support the mental health of their people. This growing movement of over 1000 organisations includes the likes of Avon Cosmetics, B&Q, Barclays Bank, BT, Bupa UK, Deloitte UK, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Historic England, Marks and Spencer, Pets at Home, Santander UK, Save the Children UK and many more.

Signing the agreement shows Wright Vigar’s intent to achieve better mental health outcomes and a genuine long-term positive impact on their team’s wellbeing. The Mental Health at Work Commitment provides a simple framework for employers who recognise the importance of promoting staff wellbeing. This framework sets out six clear standards based on what best practice has shown is needed to make a difference and create an environment where employees can thrive.

Jo Richardson Associate Director and member of the wellbeing group at Wright Vigar said, “We have signed the commitment as we recognise the importance of mental health, not only inside the workplace but also outside. We want everyone who works here to feel they can be themselves, be open about their mental health and ask for support if they need it. Going forward we will be providing our team with a range of resources and training to support their mental health and promote their wellbeing. We are focusing on creating an open culture, where staff feel able to openly talk about the issues they are facing with their colleagues, knowing they will get the support they need.”

Andrew Berrie, Mental Health at Work National Lead said: “We’re delighted to see Wright Vigar sign the Mental Health at Work Commitment. By embedding our six standards in the way they operate, Wright Vigar are demonstrating a real commitment to supporting the mental health of those in their workplace.”

“We know it can be hard to talk about mental health and seek support, which is why public commitments such as this one are so important. With issues like stress, anxiety and depression common across all employers, regardless of size or sector, we want to see every employer recognise and address any work-related causes of poor mental health among their staff and it’s fantastic to see organisations like Wright Vigar taking the lead.”

In a survey of UK adults conducted by Business in the Community in partnership with Bupa in 2020, only one in two (51%) of employees say they feel comfortable talking about mental health in the workplace, whilst two in five (39%) report they have experienced a work-related mental health issue in the last year.

The cost of poor mental health to UK employers has been estimated to be between £42 billion and £45 billion, according to the Mental Health and Employers Report published in 2020 by Deloitte and investment in workplace support and interventions remains a key issue.