Wellbeing and Mental Health Awareness Week at 1Spatial #kindnessmatters
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind” (unknown)
At 1Spatial, we have a strong focus on wellbeing and mental health and we run regular events to promote these. Recently, we have run two successful month- long programmes providing employees with the opportunity try something new and take time out.
The current lockdown and work from home restrictions are no exception. This week marks the Mental Health Foundations National Awareness week with the theme of Kindness, and 1Spatial are supporting this. The Mental Health Foundation in the UK states that kindness is good for you and a little bit of kindness can go a long way. It can boost good mental health, reduce stress and can also cheer you up so this the perfect theme during the current climate.
As quoted by Ruby Wax, ‘only if you’re kind to yourself, can you be kind to others’ so to support Mental Health Awareness week at 1Spatial, we launched a ‘Be Kind to yourself – Happy Half Hour’ initiative where employees can use 30 minutes once a week during their working day to take time out and do something for themselves.
This has been a great success and so far, employees, including our Senior Managers and CEO have taken time out to do something which makes them happy. As stated by Kody Keplinger ‘You can’t control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen.’ As a result, our employees have been using this time to do activities that allow them to be kind to themselves, relax and enrich their own wellbeing. These include photography, running, cycling, baking, walking, gardening, making furniture and reading a book.
During this period, we have also organised virtual coffee mornings with our Australian and US colleagues and are now looking forward to the intra-office quiz today involving our Australian, UK and US offices. Our first coffee morning was very well attended and our Australian colleagues took the opportunity to inform the UK about the well-known ‘Drop-Bear’! For those who have not heard of the Drop-Bear, this is an imaginary animal within Australia that lives in treetops and designed to scare tourists, but do not worry it’s a hoax and not real!
To support employees during the lockdown restrictions and working from home, we have been providing support for wellbeing and mental health and have introduced the following:
- Bespoke flexible working arrangements for all employees
- Regular questionnaire to check in with every employee to understand their wellbeing
- Wellbeing updates, including personal financial well-being focusing on living well and avoiding COVID-19 scams, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and a weekly virtual pub quiz
- Virtual forums including weekly photo competitions, parenting support groups and a book/game club
- Monthly catch-up’s with line managers to ensure all employees have the correct IT equipment and to understand mental health and wellbeing
- Participating in Mental Health Awareness Week
We encourage everyone to get involved and be kind, whether you are kind to yourself, or offer a random act of kindness, give it a go!
Written by Jess Sims, HR Manager